Here Medicare is the name for the universal system, not just senior.
That sort of situation is the reason that we have legislation - to
control socially unacceptable behaviours.
At the extreme, a free market is as unfair as the other extreme.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 27/02/2007, at 9:41 AM, Steve Dropkin wrote:
>
> Andrew Fildes wrote:
>
>> Simple. Private providers, government rebates. Thus the government
>> controls the charges. Here a service provider can charge what they
>> want but the patient gets rather annoyed if the govt. rebate is a
>> long way below the charge. Even 'gap' insurance only covers to a pre-
>> set level. Thus the service provider is under enormous pressure to
>> conform and many hospitals and surgeons simply charge the rebate plus
>> gap so that an insured patient sees no charge at all.
>
> That, more or less, describes how Medicare (senior care) works in
> the U.S. However, here, health providers decide either en masse that
> they will no longer accept patients covered by Medicare or that they
> will charge what they charge and _you_ are responsible for making up
> the difference. There is no "enormous pressure" to meet a
> government-mandated price. :-(
>
> Steve
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