Like literally, have some government body write a table:
1 pill of 400 mg paracetamol ............ $0.50
1 pill of 800 mg paracetamol ............ $0.60
prescribing medicine (once per day) ..... $4.32
base fee for an ER visit .............. $200.00
5 minutes of work by an ER physician ... $27.43
etc. and impose that as the maximum price that can be charged.
It's not going to happen because "omg socialism", but this is literally how other countries handle it. Possibly with a multiplier that the hospital/doctor can apply within certain limits. If you really need to, maybe even allow deviating from it as long as the patient is conscious, in a position to make that choice (i.e. not emergency care), is explicitly informed that this is above the "official" rate, is informed about the rate, and signs off on it beforehand.
And I'd like to point out that this sort of regulation isn't unprecedented in the US either. Taxi prices are regulated this way in many areas. Apparently, transportation is more important and less suitable to be left to a free market than healthcare...
Shouldn't the max price of services (not things like RX of course) be different depending on the cost of living in that area? You'd need different prices in different areas otherwise the prices might be too expensive in some areas and too cheap in others. If the prices set are too cheap, you might see more people using the ER for non-emergency purposes, which would be bad for the people that need to use the ER for actual emergencies.
> If the prices set are too cheap, you might see more people using the ER for non-emergency purposes, which would be bad for the people that need to use the ER for actual emergencies.
The "long wait times" that Canadians sometimes complain about actually address this problem within public healthcare. If you come into the ER for a non-emergency, fine, but prepare to wait 4-6 hours. Every emergency case coming in the door will get placement ahead of you.
Some provinces (e.g. Ontario) address this with phone triage hotlines that help you make a decision about whether to go to the ER, a walk-in clinic, or wait for a doctor's appointment.
Universal-Care citizen here. Let me explain how it works. It's definitively not "first in, first served": when you reach the place, you get "pre-examined" by a doctor, who estimates the urgency of your case. Fast, like, in minutes. He assigns you an "urgency level". You then have to wait more or less depending on that. I don't know the exact algorithm they use, but I would assume it's some kind of weighted queue. If you go to ER with a headache, you will have to wait for a long time.
This probably helps but is not the sole solution. The state of Maryland has done this for 40 years and they have some of the highest Medicare hospital prices in the country. The problem seems to be consolidation: Johns Hopkins has gobbled up most of the other hospitals in the state, and so has significant control over prices.
(Source: my wife worked at a rural hospital on the border in a neighboring state.)
Like literally, have some government body write a table:
etc. and impose that as the maximum price that can be charged.It's not going to happen because "omg socialism", but this is literally how other countries handle it. Possibly with a multiplier that the hospital/doctor can apply within certain limits. If you really need to, maybe even allow deviating from it as long as the patient is conscious, in a position to make that choice (i.e. not emergency care), is explicitly informed that this is above the "official" rate, is informed about the rate, and signs off on it beforehand.
And I'd like to point out that this sort of regulation isn't unprecedented in the US either. Taxi prices are regulated this way in many areas. Apparently, transportation is more important and less suitable to be left to a free market than healthcare...