Do high deductibles lower healthcare prices? Price Controls VS Managed Market Healthcare.

Hi. I’m Lone Candle.

You’ve seen the stats. The United States pays way more for healthcare than other countries, without getting better outcomes. Not just per capita, but procedure by procedure, drug by drug, we are emptying our wallets while other advanced countries get a better deal.

Not only this, but the process of paying for healthcare is truly hell. It’s difficult to find out how much something costs. Sometimes you get a bill that ends up being way higher than what was quoted beforehand. Often you have to get the care and then wait a few months to see how many hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars you supposedly owe.

A big idea that’s been blossoming for the last decade or more is high deductibles. High deductibles are supposed to put skin in the game and force people to shop more carefully for healthcare either by not using care we don’t need or by finding providers offering better prices. With high deductibles, the hope was that a normal market for healthcare could form that would drive down prices and ease the consumer experience.

High deductible plans have become common. From 2002 to 2016, deductibles for private insurance have more than tripled, and now a majority of the U.S. workforce is in high deductible plans. So, has forcing people to pay a thousand or more dollars before their insurance kicks in, improved prices and the shopping experience?