Hadly Baldwin
Health care costs fluctuate in almost unfathomable ways that are unrelated to quality, making it more and more costly for both individuals and companies. Market failures brought on by insurer and provider consolidation call for government action. Due to a federal government shutdown, health care costs are rising in marketplaces with no competitors. In this article, we go over a variety of approaches available to politicians to more directly regulate healthcare costs:
1. Establishing a benchmark for cost-growth.
2. Development of a public option.
3. Establishing criteria for affordability that would allow the insurance commissioner to reject agreements including excessive rate increases.
4. Setting a default out-of-network payment rate or capping it for medical services.
5. Developing a payment scheme based on population.
6. Establishing a population-based payment system.
7. Tiering permitted rate adjustments and restricting excessive pricing.