Its almost definitely going to just empower insurance companies further to keep pushing HDHPs. Which they are already doing to great effect. Deposit mechanism into HSAs.... AKA an HDHP.
Wonder if the entire market would collapse if Congress mandated through a bill that the maximum price you can charge for a medical service or procedure is the medicare reimbursement rate.
Not medicare for all, just medicare price fixing. It's about as libertarian as Joseph Stalin but prices for services is what needs to be fixed, insurance sucks and adds layers of bureaucracy that cost extra, but the actual cost of services has exploded as well. Despite doctors/hospitals all doing the same services for 10% of the cost when Medicare pays for it.
Apparently Maryland already does something like this, but its only hospital rates: Maryland’s all-payer hospital rate-setting (1977–present): Sets hospital rates for all payers; rates are above Medicare and yield ~8–12% margins. Result: lowest hospital cost growth in the nation, no rural closures, high quality.
I asked Grok to model what would happen if we capped all prices at 115% of medicare and also capped the cost of prescription drugs at the lowest worldwide price it is sold for. Basically Grok thinks this would likely fix nearly everything, but would fuck the pharma companies and might result in less drug innovation.
I then asked what if we completely ban all pharma advertising, doctor contact, and lobbying, completely, 100% banned. They just research, make drugs, and doctors can decide what they prescribe or not with no "help" from the pharma industry. And THEN, since pharma companies will probably say they can't afford research now (which is bullshit, they spend an insane % of their revenue on marketing/lobbying), I'd say take 10% of the federal outlays that are reduced by this series of reforms and subsidize research laboratories that are run by independent companies that are by law prohibited from being affiliated with the pharma companies in any way, and all of their discoveries are public.
In summary, this package would substantially resolve the issues by rebalancing incentives toward public good, likely maintaining or even enhancing long-term innovation and access—though with a more collaborative, less profit-maximizing pharma sector. It's a viable path to sustainable reform without the collapse risks of unchecked price caps.
Come on Trump, lets see your bill do these 4 things.
