There was a time in my life many years ago, in grade school, when I thought that I must really be smart because I mostly always had my hand up when the teacher asked a question.
Since then I've learned (sometimes in harsh circumstances) that most others are smarter than me. It's just that they don't put their hand up.
So now, as before, I wonder why is that?
Right now my hand is up because I have an answer to part of the problem, the problem of outrageous medical and insurance costs.
Medical procedures are priced according to "fair market value," and medical providers base their prices accordingly (some higher than others.)
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If you are being billed as "self pay," the bill will be less than if it gets billed first to your insurance company. The insurance company, knowing this, simply pops up their insurance premium. Voila. Who gets it in the shorts?
Now, I don't know whose wisdom established "fair market value" in the first place. But I do know that if there is an unrestrained source for paying the bill, there is no end in sight.
It's no different from college costs becoming outrageous. If parents' only means of paying school costs had come directly from their own pockets, instead of resorting to the easy solution of student loans, the brakes would have been applied long ago.
But, back to medical costs. I know there are many other parts to the ultimate equation.
Why aren't people (especially medical people) raising their hands and joining the discussion?
Errol Bluhm
Willmar
