'Thankfully, there is a way for Congress to avert [Medicare’s coffers running dry] while upholding its promise to save Medicare. The solution lies buried in a little-used Medicare plan known as Medical Savings Accounts,' Dr. Charles Savage writes.
One of the primary reasons for the monumental cost of healthcare is the patients’ disconnect from the pricing and the belief that the cost does not affect them. It affects us all — it is simply buried within a mountain of taxes, deferred wages, copayments, and premiums. This labyrinthine payment complex hides the inflated price, making high prices possible and confirming that the only way to perpetuate a falsely priced system is to obscure and subsidize it.
The solution to false pricing is transparency combined with knowing what prices are and having the power to do something about them. By putting power in the hands of the patient, MSAs do exactly this, empowering patients to know prices, reject mispriced services, and replace them with better, more cost-efficient service providers.
The ensuing competition will incentivize cutting administrative waste as overly wasteful service providers will not be able to price their services profitably against more efficient, less bureaucratic competitors. Ironically, streamlining is good for doctors and nurses, too, as they will be able to do more of what they love — caring for patients. This is because financially empowered patients would rather pay for quality care instead of wasteful activities that do not contribute to their well-being.
Despite appearances, medical services are designed to satisfy payers and only superficially the patient. MSAs re-establish the patient as the all-important payer instead of simply functioning as the substrate between doctors and insurers through which the financial transaction occurs. MSAs place the patient at the center of healthcare, take decision-making away from administrators and restore it to its most ethical location: between the doctor and patient.
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