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- Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
- Path: sparky!uunet!UB.com!pacbell.com!sgiblab!sono!porky!mayer
- From: mayer@sono.uucp (Ron Mayer)
- Subject: Re: Re; Nat'l Health Plan (Was: Re: Lance
- In-Reply-To: egreen@East.Sun.COM's message of 26 Jan 1993 14: 58:32 GMT
- Message-ID: <MAYER.93Jan26165036@porky.sono.uucp>
- Sender: mayer@acuson.com (Ron Mayer)
- Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
- References: <1k18h1INN5v5@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> <1k3jipINN1n6@seven-up.East.Sun.COM>
- Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:50:36 GMT
- Lines: 59
-
-
- In article <1k3jipINN1n6@seven-up.East.Sun.COM> egreen@East.Sun.COM (Ed Green - Pixel Cruncher) writes:
- >
- >The problem is that today, free market forces do NOT dictate those
- >salaries. Health care consumers do not directly pay for the
- >product/service they are purchasing, and the closed loop control of
- >free market forces goes out the window.
-
- Really? Wouldn't consumers choose cheap insurance premiums; who would
- do the searching for cheep doctors? I wish I knew anything about
- economics, but intuitively it would seem that in a free market,
- consumers would pay whatever they thought their insurance was worth;
- and insurance companies would pay doctor's salaries according to what
- their clients were willing to pay.
-
- How is this different than paying my motorcycle mechanic to buy parts
- when he repairs my bike? Here, the consumer "does not directly pay
- for the product/service [motorcycle part] they are purchacing"; but if
- my dealer only uses expensive (read BMW:-)) parts, those who have a
- problem with this can go find a different mechanic. Similarly, if my
- insurance company pays for heart-lung-transplants for 90 year old 3
- pack a day smokers; and I think they are charging me too much because
- of it; I'll change insurance companies. Even though I am not directly
- paying for the motorcycle parts and lung transplant; I still excercize
- free market power by choosing to pay the motorcycle dealer or
- insurance company.
-
- As long as people are willing to pay insurance companies, and
- insurance companies are willing to pay doctors; I'd say the "free
- market" is at work. If the costs are exhorbitant, the reason could be
- due to a monopoly of either doctors or insurance companies (or
- something preventing informed choices selecting either). There seem
- to be quite a few insurance companies out there for either me or my
- employer to choose from. Also, the years of medical school and other
- requirements are a significant barrier to competition among doctors.
-
- >There is less than no incentive for consumers to shop for
- >cost-effective health care.
-
- There doesn't have to be. If the insurance company is paying, they
- need and have an incentive to look for cost effective solutions. The
- problem is that they don't have the freedom to make these choices.
-
- I don't really need someone with 6 years of medical school to check my
- eyesight, and would hapily pay 10% of the price to have a tech with
- one week of training do my eye exam. Doctors seem to have a pretty
- strong monopoly on health care; and neither insurance companies nor
- patients will be able to find cheaper alternatives if there is little
- competition among doctors.
-
- >Any doctor, engineer, or motorcycle mechanic who can earn a 6 figure
- >income, in a true free market, is absolutely entitled to it.
-
- Agreed. Even if he's payed by an insurance company.
-
- Ron Mayer sun!sono!mayer DoD#556 92R100GS 78GS400
-
- ObMoto: Would the cost of sportbike plastic be affordable if
- insurance companies didn't pay for it?
-