Despite the disruption of normalcy, the devastating economic consequences, and the loss of life caused by the coronavirus, the biggest question regarding it isn’t if this will stop — because, of course, it will — but what long-term changes will come about after this short-term pandemic.
Many are insisting that this is the tipping point to show the world that it was wrong to allow the China into so many international institutions — for example, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization. But regardless of whatever the world decides to do with China, many domestically are seizing upon this crisis to try to grab control of a domestic institution: the U.S. healthcare market.
Democrats (and some Republicans) did everything they could to ram medical price controls through in the emergency coronavirus-relief bill. The plan is to get the government’s claws into our system even more than they already are. Conservative and medical groups are pushing back, and they need all the help they can get.
Before the third, and $2 trillion, coronavirus relief package was passed, two dozen conservative groups, including Americans for Tax Reform, the Club for Growth, and Heritage Action, quickly assembled a letter to Congress warning the body to reject any effort to impose price controls, which “would be particularly devastating at a time of great stress for our nation’s patients and healthcare providers.”
At the same time, a coalition of healthcare provider groups, including the National Association of ACOs and the American College of Physicians, sent a letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma insisting the agency remove reporting requirements and penalties for value-based payment contracts because of the coronavirus.
These doctor groups realize the coronavirus will drive up Medicare beneficiary spending, which will affect benchmarks used to determine savings and losses in alternative payment models.
Now, as Congress begins discussing another relief package, surprise medical billing is again a part of the discussion.
Capitalizing on the current frenzy to disrupt healthcare providers’ pricing models will have zero positive outcome in either the short or long term.
The particular issue the evangelists of socialized medicine want to get their hands on, using the coronavirus as the excuse of the day, is surprise medical bills.
SMBs arise when an insured individual gets care from an out-of-network provider when they believed they were otherwise in-network, like if your insurance covers the surgeon but not the anesthesiologist. SMBs enrich insurance companies, because they don’t have to pay out benefits, but it hurts patients, doctors, hospitals and others.
SMB is an issue Democrats have salivated over for a long time, and unfortunately Senate Health Committee chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), is drooling right along with them. The legislation would give the government the ability to impose price controls on our already labyrinthine healthcare system, something opposed by doctors, some Democrats any rational-thinking economist.
Economics 101: an economy has an equilibrium, where the market sets prices based on the demand for its supply. When supply is high, the price goes down; when supply is low, the price goes up. But if an activist government decides that prices are too high — even on something that is super important like healthcare — and enforces price controls, the result is shortages, long waits, price gouging and even black markets.
Fatuously slamming the podium of “healthcare is a human right” won’t alter this most basic of economic principles, and fomenting panic at a time like this will only cause more stress on our already overburdened system.
The only group price controls will help is insurance companies, a group that is already making record profits thanks to a healthcare reform crafted to benefit the insurance companies: Obamacare. Forcing Americans to buy high-cost insurance plans is perfect for insurers because they get to craft coverage areas while Americans are stuck with high deductibles and weak coverage.
When President Trump took office, premiums had doubled in states using HealthCare.gov compared to 2013, the year before Obamacare took effect. Average premiums went up by an additional 26 percent in 2018.
The goal of so-called progressive efforts to extend healthcare to all, no matter how wondrous that dream may sound, is not to improve the quality and quantity of medicine in America. It’s simply to grab power for themselves. They see the short-term coronavirus panic as a crisis that will give them long-term power.
