THE MAGNIFICENT FOLLY OF KNEECAPPING YOUR OWN DOCTORS
Lets call it “An accidental masterclass in bad policy”.
A 🧵….
Riddle me this:
How do you drive up healthcare expenses while making it harder to see a doctor?
Simple.
Just copy U.S. health policy for the past three decades.
It’s the bureaucratic version of setting your own house on fire and congratulating yourself on the warmth.
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Step one:
Make it a illegal for doctors to own the tools of their own trade.
The “Anti-Kickback Statute” , it sounds noble, right?
A crusade against corruption.
In reality?
Physicians may not own hospitals.
However,
Hospitals owned by universities, private equity, MBAs, and insurance companies may own everything in sight.
Funny coincidence.
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Step two:
Reduce reimbursements into oblivion.
Medicare reimbursements to physicians have dropped about 25% in real terms over the past twenty years.
Meanwhile, hospital and health system facility fees keep climbing like they’ve found a ladder to the moon.
The American Hospital Association and its supporters, academic and large non profit health systems, lobby, aka bribes to lawmakers each and every year.
It’s the equivalent of slashing your chef’s paycheck while raising the price of dinner.
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