Quote Originally Posted by 02audionoob
The insurance companies have set in advance what they will pay for a given service and it's well below what the doctors, labs, etc. would charge otherwise.
Lower insurance costs compared to the average Joe is a common practice in other idustries that involve insurance. In the auto collision industry the hourly rate and parts mark-up for the person walking in off the street is considerably higher than the rate of someone going through their insurance company. On the mechanical side of it the "warranty" labor rate at a dealership is also lower than the labor rate for the same operation. There are some legitimate reason's why a gap should exist but those reasons do not justify the large gap that does exist.

This discrepancy is another example of why the system is broken and why at least when it comes to something as important as healthcare we should not let the traditional "market" forces determine cost and availability. Unfortunately the current political debate does not address the cost but on availability which is why both sides are retreating to their tried (tired) and true base positions. Republicans= universal healthcare will cover criminals,the lazy and promote a liberal agenda. Democrats=universal healthcare is the right thing for government to do lets pay for everyone and somehow the cost will figure itself out. What does it say about our current system when out of 100 Senators there are only about 7 (and even less in the 350+ member House) who are willing to sit down in a room together and try and solve a problem rather than run around to the talking heads screaming that the sky is falling. I know Obama wanted to avoid the mistakes of the Clinton's on this issue but to basically say to the Congress you work out the details ignores the totally disfunctionally environment that exists. He is a little late to the table about spending some political capital but he is still not addressing cost containment. If the Administration would just start putting some serious cost cutting proposals on the table such as limiting admin fees or excessive medical testing (because the doctors own the majority of the labs conducting the tests-solution prohibit doctors from owning labs...) they might start to make some headway. Without addressing cost we are just arranging chairs on the Titanic.....