PNHP

Medicare-for-all would end surprise medical billing

By Ken Lefkowitz
The Washington Post, Letters, December 25, 2020

Regarding the Dec. 22 news article “Congress cuts deal to prevent unexpected medical bills”:

Banning surprise medical billing is praiseworthy. However, it’s much like patching a hole in a worn-out tire that’s leaking in many other places.

The ban makes surprise bills illegal. Instead, health-care providers must negotiate payment with insurers or use arbitration to settle the amount. This relieves the consumer from the burden of payment, but it will increase administrative costs for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. Because health care operates within the broken free-market framework, these costs will be passed on to the consumer through higher premiums, deductibles and/or co-pays.

Medicare-for-all can solve this, as well as many other health coverage issues, because all residents’ health care would be covered with no co-pays and deductibles. This surely would address the surprise billing issue.

Equally important, overall Medicare-for-all would save money and control costs in the future. Three major studies, one by the University of Massachusetts, another published in the Lancet and another appearing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, have estimated annual savings on health-care spending of about $500 billion.

The writer is a former director of compensation and benefits for major corporations and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program.

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