Healthcare is the number one topic of discussion right now.
And, it's certain that we need to make changes that allow all Americans to have coverage they can afford-even when they're sick or have pre-existing conditions.
And, the US prides itself on being a free market economy.
Competition between companies marketing the same product is usually fierce, but why not with healthcare products? Somehow, we've allowed one industry to be exempt from competition.
Doctors don't compete to have us as patients, pharmacy companies don't compete to have us buy their drugs and health insurance providers don't compete to have us choose their coverage.
If they were trying to compete for our business, their prices would be lower.
The actual costs of providing healthcare and healthcare coverage are not truly rising as quickly as they'd like us to believe.
The fundamental problem with competition and marketing in the healthcare arena is that it all happens behind the scenes, between large companies, insurance providers, doctors and drug companies.
The person actually buying the services in the end is left completely out of the loop.
Large insurance companies market heavily to large corporations to be their insurance provider.
They provide pricing that reduces the amount the corporation pays, but not necessarily the amount the consumer pays.
Those of us with employer provided healthcare plans have seen our out of pocket costs rise dramatically over the last 10 years.
Likely our employers have not seen the same dramatic rise in the portion they pay.
Drug companies market to doctors to convince them to prescribe their drugs.
Most doctors don't care how much the drug costs us, they're listening to the drug companies pitching a product.
And, doctors certainly don't market to consumers on price; they're effectively able to raise their prices as often as they'd like.
There's quite a bad reputation that goes along with providing "low cost" medical treatments.
These are the fundamental problems we have to fix before we can have adequate, affordable healthcare for every American.
After all, isn't it the American way?
And, it's certain that we need to make changes that allow all Americans to have coverage they can afford-even when they're sick or have pre-existing conditions.
And, the US prides itself on being a free market economy.
Competition between companies marketing the same product is usually fierce, but why not with healthcare products? Somehow, we've allowed one industry to be exempt from competition.
Doctors don't compete to have us as patients, pharmacy companies don't compete to have us buy their drugs and health insurance providers don't compete to have us choose their coverage.
If they were trying to compete for our business, their prices would be lower.
The actual costs of providing healthcare and healthcare coverage are not truly rising as quickly as they'd like us to believe.
The fundamental problem with competition and marketing in the healthcare arena is that it all happens behind the scenes, between large companies, insurance providers, doctors and drug companies.
The person actually buying the services in the end is left completely out of the loop.
Large insurance companies market heavily to large corporations to be their insurance provider.
They provide pricing that reduces the amount the corporation pays, but not necessarily the amount the consumer pays.
Those of us with employer provided healthcare plans have seen our out of pocket costs rise dramatically over the last 10 years.
Likely our employers have not seen the same dramatic rise in the portion they pay.
Drug companies market to doctors to convince them to prescribe their drugs.
Most doctors don't care how much the drug costs us, they're listening to the drug companies pitching a product.
And, doctors certainly don't market to consumers on price; they're effectively able to raise their prices as often as they'd like.
There's quite a bad reputation that goes along with providing "low cost" medical treatments.
These are the fundamental problems we have to fix before we can have adequate, affordable healthcare for every American.
After all, isn't it the American way?
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