A new Emory University Rollins School of Public Health-Gallup poll confirmed what a lot of us already know: Healthcare is too expensive and remains inaccessible for far too many Americans.
According to the poll, 25% of Americans said healthcare access and affordability remain the top public health priority. Of respondents, 52% ranked improving healthcare access and affordability ranks as one of their top three issues.
Since unaffordable healthcare amounts to inaccessible healthcare, the poll is a stark reminder of the importance of keeping costs down in our health system.
Lowering costs is something the much-maligned insurance industry plays a key role in achieving by checking providers' ability to extract vastly higher prices than what they already charge.
But despite this — and although providers, not insurers, set high healthcare prices —insurers are typically first to receive the blame over price and access issues.
This is particularly the case among young Americans.
For proof, look no further than the disturbing response to last month’s horrifying assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
In a survey of college students conducted by Generation Lab, 81% said they have an extremely or somewhat negative view of Thompson, a husband, father of two, and leading supporter of the Special Olympics.
Nearly half said they viewed the killing as "justified."
While insurers are under attack in the court of public opinion, providers are much more to blame for driving up the cost of healthcare in America in recent years.
Hospitals, doctors, and healthcare systems across the U.S. are demanding reimbursement rate increases that significantly exceed inflation, increasing healthcare costs, and impacting patients.
These demands have sparked disputes with insurers and further threatened the affordability of healthcare for many Americans.
In North Carolina, for example, UNC Health demanded new reimbursement rate terms that would hike healthcare and insurance costs by $570 million over three years for North Carolina families and businesses.
A similar situation also unfolded recently in Florida, where Baptist Health requested a 60 % rate increase from insurer Florida Blue, which would amount to $1 billion in additional costs to patients in Northeast Florida.
Naples Comprehensive Health in Southwest Florida demanded 30% higher reimbursements from the insurance company and its customers.
CommonSpirit in Colorado and Nebraska’s CHI Health both said they would remove their hospitals, clinics, and doctors from insurers plans unless they’re awarded reimbursement rate increases more than three times the rate of inflation.
Inflated reimbursement rates aren’t the only way providers are fleecing Americans.
Hospitals regularly charge excessive fees for basic procedures and reclassify outpatient visits as inpatient care to boost revenue.
In one example featured by NPR, the cost of steroid injections into an Ohio retiree’s arthritic finger joints increased by more than 10 times.
The hospital system claimed they "moved [their] infusion clinic from an office-based practice to a hospital-based setting." In reality, they administered the woman’s shot one floor further up in the same medical building.
Dishonest billing practices make matters worse.
Providers frequently charge for services they didn’t perform or inflate costs.
Last month, for example, a Chesapeake, Virginia, hospital was indicted on charges including healthcare fraud and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. after collecting $18.5 million in bogus reimbursements.
The reimbursements were related to unnecessary hysterectomies, which needlessly sterilized scores of women.
Add up the sky-high reimbursement rates, the excessive fees, and the bogus billing, and hospitals raked in 360 percent more profits than those "greedy" insurance companies.
The threats of removing healthcare services from communities unless exorbitant fee increases are met, as well as other costs such as fraudulent bills and unnecessary tests, reveal how healthcare providers are seemingly putting financial strains on insurers and consumers.
They also highlight the need for greater collaboration between lawmakers, insurers, and providers to address rising healthcare costs without sacrificing access or affordability —clearly both priorities for Americans, per the polling data.
But most of all, they illustrate just how successful healthcare providers have been at controlling the narrative to vilify insurers and protect their own image, especially with Gen Z.
Vilifying insurers while giving providers a free pass is both unfair and counterproductive. Providers’ runaway prices are the major driver of high healthcare costs, and insurers are vital in keeping those costs in check.
Instead of demonizing insurers, we need to hold providers accountable and push for systemic reforms that address the root causes of America’s healthcare crisis.
Anything less is a disservice to the millions of Americans who depend on affordable, high-quality care — and the 52% of us for whom affordability — is a top priority.
Drew Johnson serves as a budget and health policy analyst at several public policy think tanks. He was recently the Republican nominee for Congress in Nevada’s 3rd district. Read Drew Johnson's Reports — More Here.
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