https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=254192
So why isn't either party, in either the House or Senate, interested in something like this? Hell, how about just three simple ones to start:
- All prices must be publicly posted and everyone pays the same price no matter how they pay and who they are for the same thing -- drug, procedure, whatever. No exceptions other than a cost-based discount for cash-on-the-table (e.g. 3% discount for cash with service as opposed to a credit card or sending an invoice) and no indirect billing is permitted at all under any circumstance -- you get the bill, not an insurance company, Medicare, Medicaid or whatever. What the insurance company (whether traditional Medicare, Advantage, private party insurance, etc.) pays and on what terms is between you and the insurance company. Differential pricing as a means of restraint of trade or damaging competition (including extortion to buy "insurance") is a 10 year in prison felony under 15 USC Chapter 1. Demand that this crap stop right now or start throwing every single medical provider, drug company executive and hospital administrator in prison until they cut that crap out.
- No forced-tied sales (they're illegal under 15 USC Chapter 1) (you can get your X-ray, MRI or whatever anywhere you want -- yes, including dental.) Again, throw any who refuse in prison immediately for 10 years under that same 100+ year old law.
- All drugs, devices and medical items sold at wholesale must be on a "most-favored nation" basis in the United States. No more forcing US citizens to bear the development costs for drugs that other nations' citizens then get to enjoy without paying for it. Again, those who won't comply go to prison for 10 years. All of them.
Do just those three things and the cost of medical care drops like a stone.
The law requiring those sentences has been on the books for 100 years and has twice been confirmed to apply by the US Supreme Court.
Further, I bet people will suddenly care a great deal about whether something works or not when they personally have to pay for it, no matter how much or little it costs.
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