Thursday, August 2, 2012

It's Not Free

The long debate about health care insurance is making me crazy.  Insurance is different than care.  The issue at hand is insurance so that the cost of care is, in part, offset for the patient by payment from an insurance pool.  If there is no co-pay required of the patient, the care is free of charge to the patient.  THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE CARE IS FREE!.  All medical services will be paid for.  They will either be paid by the patient, an insurance carrier or the provider.  There is no such thing as free care.  The insurance carrier will spread the cost across all policy holders.  The provider will have to raise rates to cover losses or eventually go out of business.  We do a terrible disservice to ourselves by talking about free medical services.  There is ample evidence that consumers can, and will control medical expenses when they have both good information about costs, and accountability for payment.  Telling them that something can be had for free assures the opposite.

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