Cost of Health Care Regulation

Arnold,
The regulation costs are obvious, but other elements play an even greater part. Standardization of fees charged for health care procedures could save (my guess-estimate) some five times the amount which deregulation would save. Standardization of Fees would also cut Paperwork costs to an estimated 30% of current cost.

A second consideration is the administration of dangerous drugs. Much more intrusive regulation would be enacted to curtail abuse. One alternative could be an immediate online Review board, which would pass on the diagnosis, suggested treatment, and use of drugs prior to their administration to Patients. The Review Board could be mandated to use the cheapest Drugs and medical treatments appliable to said illness, cutting Malpractice insurance costs as well as Doctor-purchase by Drug companies. Such a Program, while not Libertarian, might cut total health care costs in this Country in half. lgl

The only real "natural experiments" available are comparisons between different countries. This is complicated by other factors, such as cultural or political differences, but still holds interest.

LUX -- to a great extent we already have standardation of fees through the insurance companies. But one reason it does not work is that doctors figure out how to get around it. If the insurance company decided to pay too low a fee for a procedures they quickly figure out how to split the procedure into two parts and charge two fees for what had been one procedure.

The studies you cite are interesting. But I do not know enough about the material to make a judgement on possible bias in them. I would feel a lot better about accepting their conclusions if they were published in refereed journals. I do not have a great deal of trust in the sources.

Spencer,
I did not cite Studies in the area, just suggested criterea for consideration. It is interesting that hard Studies in this area are absent.

The Insurance company standardization of fees is a joke. They pursue split components, which allows for greater delays in payment, and high premiums to Insured. Insurance companies could reduce effective payment down to a standard fee per day of hospitalization without further payment, and negiotiate with national hospital associations for the largesse of such fees: Hospitals and staff would allocate resources efficiently at a Profit. The same could be done for Clinic and Doctor visits. Do not say it would be more expensive, or less Profitable for medical providers; there would be more efficient allocation of medical resources. lgl

Standardization of fees would reduce price competition.

We need more market forces, not less.

I am convinced by other commenters and personal experience that standardized fees cannot be effectively defined or enforced.

Suppose they could be? The remaining area of competition would be quality of service.