A fascinating tidbit: "Surgery Center of Oklahoma does accept private insurance, but the center does not accept Medicaid or Medicare. Dr. Smith said federal Medicare regulation would not allow for their online price menu. They have avoided government regulation and control in that area by choosing not to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments." Well, so much for the idea that regulations encourage competition and lower prices.
This is a ray of hope -- that the sort of competitive free market health care I envisioned in "After the ACA" can emerge as people abandon the complete dysfunctionality of the highly regulated system.
I had seen the emergence of "concierge medicine," and cash and carry doctors, who step off the highly regulated insurance and government treadmill. But if you get really sick, you need a hospital. And traveling abroad isn't always an option. So the emergence of US cash and carry hospitals is interesting and encouraging.
This innovation clearly undermines the regulated system. A healthy young person knowing there are doctors who post reasonable prices and take cash, and now similarly reasonable cash and carry surgery, might be well advised to pay the Obamacare tax and skip out of the whole system. A bit of savings or a catastrophe only policy is enough.
But before you cheer that Obamacare will die of its own weight, look hard at the other side. The government needs everyone in the system, especially the relatively healthy and solvent customers of this hospital. It also needs hospitals and doctors to take medicare patients. The emergence of a two-track system is a financial and political disaster. So, how long can it last before the government bans it? Other countries have banned private practice to support their government health systems. Ours will likely go down fighting, and this is the obvious move. In addition, the hospitals that don't want to compete have strong political power to shut this down, and will make the same cherry-picking complaints that airlines and phone companies used to keep their protections in place. It will not survive easily.
