American Healthcare is an American Sickness

George Lundgren, MD penned a commentary in Medscape on April 27, 2017 using the  above title. 

In this commentary he writes about a list composed by Elizabeth Rosenthal, MD in her  book An American Sickness1: 

• More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option. • A lifetime of treatment is better than a cure. 

• Amenities and marketing matter more than good care. 

• As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall. 

• There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American. • More competitors vying for business doesn’t mean better prices; it can drive  prices up, not down. 

• Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big  providers can simply demand more. 

• There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured  pay the highest price of all. 

• There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for  anything and everything. 

• Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear. 

These are “rules” that are guaranteed to make money, but not to improve outcomes, Dr.  Lundgren writes. 

1Rosenthal E. An American Sickness. How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. New York, NY: Penguin Press; 2017