This is the clearest explanation I've seen of why health insurance costs so much - a John Stossel report on 20/20, courtesy of the Independent Institute's blog. (Follow the link below)
Why Does Health Insurance Cost So Much?
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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I read your PDF and found it interesting. I'm curious regarding your malpractice related hypothesis on the high cost of healthcare. You include only the direct costs of malpractice claims. The malpractice insurance and the claims actually awarded. As a physician I can honestly say that I "spend" more on what are essentially unnecessary test to cover my rear end than I spend or would spend on the direct costs you mention. If it were strictly a cost benefit determination, physicians/hospitals would stop doing the the tests. In the majority of cases we can determine the diagnosis from clinical experience and judgment alone. It is the rare cases that can only be detected by the "unnecessary" tests that scare us. Often we will never in our careers see one of these cases, but if we miss it...our careers would be at stake. This costs hundreds of millions of dollars in "unnecessary" tests per physician over the course of our careers. This is huge. Don't get me wrong...I wouldn't want to miss one of these conditions or be the patient that was "missed" but screening for these rare conditions is a HUGE drain on the medical dollar in the name of CYA.
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