The existence of this particular scam is known to the health economics literature.<p>I’m not sure there’s really a point in the insurers’ denying it.<p>Here’s a reference to a recent paper:<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2612913" rel="nofollow">https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2612913</a><p>The paper itself was published in the Journal of Political Economy.
Yeah, I see the advantage of the US health system - all those people who shuffle papers to handle costs and payments, all those people to enforce the rules and deal with infractions, ... People's health should not be a profit centre, maybe a regulated utility but as far as "for the general good" goes, health is up there with fire and police in "things a modern society sorta needs".
Get rid of all the regulations in health care and you will see 95% drops in pricing across the board. If a consumer had to pay directly for medical care, they would consider price. If providers had more competition, prices would drop.
The entire healthcare system in US is a legalized fraud.<p>The number 1 reason why older Americans immigrate to Thailand, Vietnam and other low COL countries is to get access to services at a reasonable price AND to not have to deal with the fraudulent system that nickels and dimes them to bankruptcy.
Healthcare is fraud these days. How many administrators are employed for every MD? How many lawyers for each researcher? How many lobbyists and marketers for each regulator? Follow the money.<p>It isn't hard to see that the unscrupulous find themselves seeking rent in an industry in which the "customers" are very often over a barrel.