The Trump Administration has released new healthcare rules that will benefit consumers. The Washington Examiner reports:
Hospitals will be required to post the prices they charge for surgeries and other medical procedures online under a new Trump administration rule.
The rule, finalized Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is part of the Trump administration’s goal toward “value-based care,” which aims to reduce the costs of healthcare while improving outcomes. Officials hope to be able to drive down costs by showing patients more information about what different medical procedures will cost, and at times encourage them to shop around.
Previously, CMS required that hospitals make the information available to anyone who asks for it. Under the new rule, hospitals will need to update the prices every year beginning Jan. 1, 2019.
“The agency is considering future actions based on the public feedback it received on ways hospitals can display price information that would be most useful to stakeholders and how to create patient-friendly interfaces that allow consumers to more easily access relevant healthcare data and compare providers,” CMS said in a statement.
Progressives will no doubt ignore this very real improvement, focusing instead on their pipe dream of “Medicare for all”.
This is the first I’ve heard of this, but, on first thought, it strikes me that a person with medical insurance who needs elective surgery will have to ask their insurance company to shop around for the best price. This, naturally, would increase the premiums as well a create further delay, and could easily mean that you could not have your requested doctor and must change to a facility which may not be nearby. Has this been really thought through?
How much of a delay are you concerned about – 15 minutes? I’m sure the insurance companies will already have a list, and will be happy to find the best price. It would be to their advantage to do so.
Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under Obama’s Administration forbade Agents & Brokers* (anyone licensed to sign them up, basically) telling people shopping for their Medicare Advantage (MA), prescription drug (PDP), or Medicare Supplement insurance plans about ANY problems, difficulties, or issues with CMS or they would be banned from selling any of those products. In other words they would essentially lose their job for criticizing CMS or providing any negative or even mediocre commentary on the great utopia of government run health care.
*Note: the Commission paid to an agent or broker is the same for all Medicare Advantage plans regardless of the insurance company involved – CMS & the various insurance companies set the rates on a yearly basis.
Also raising minimum wage to $15.00/hr or $30K/yr basically wipes out any Obamacare subsidy a single person might have been receiving, so that most if not all of their “raise to a living wage” gets wiped out in insurance premiums and higher copay’s. So increasing the minimum wage is a boondoggle that (in typical liberal program fashion) screws the people it purports to help.
Wow, finally. I have been wishing for this for years. Any business selling a product should be required to be transparent so that consumers can shop around for value.