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Look Who’s Fighting Against Hospital Mergers


Geee

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look-whos-fighting-against-hospital-mergers

The most vexing thing about the Obamacare debate so many years ago was the emphasis on coverage. The administration rarely talked about reducing the cost of health care – which is the real the problem – rather they pushed how much everyone needed insurance coverage. This, very much like the current insistence for “free college,” has moved the debate in the wrong direct

No one would need insurance for day-to-day care if it were affordable: check-ups, basic prescriptions, simple medical devices, and so forth. People should only need insurance in the event of a catastrophe, just like with auto insurance – we don’t ding our insurance every time we get an oil change. But the third-party payer system has contributed to health care costs ballooning so much that patients can’t get even basic treatment without insurance. 

And the people who have benefited the most from this are not patients but … insurance companies themselves, who have seen record profits under Obamacare, which makes one wonder who that particular agenda was really supposed to help. Obamacare has not made health care cheaper; it’s made insurance companies richer. (And the dark lining on that dark cloud is that it’s also driving doctors to leave medicine.) 

So, in the effort for the private sector to find cost-savings to keep doctors in practice and hospitals open, many hospitals are merging and consolidating to reduce costs. One analysis of this practice, studying mergers between 2009 and 2014, showed that merging hospitals’ annual operating expenses went down 2.5% and drove quality improvements through standardization, investments to upgrade facilities, and services at acquired hospitals. Mergers typically expand the scope of services available to patients, the study continued, and “build upon existing institutional strengths to provide more comprehensive and efficient care.”:snip:

 

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