Similarly MedLion (http://www.medlion.com/) provides primary care in Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley for $59/mo + $10 visit in part by not accepting insurance (they claim on their website it saves them 40% in costs).
Insurance works great for catastrophic things, just like car insurance and then it clearly makes sense to make it universal. If you could only buy gas through your car insurance--who occasionally would decide you drive too much and not cover this months' gas--you can bet prices would go sky high.
I'm all in favor of universal health care, but having universal (private) insurance without a collective bargaining system raises a lot of problems. For example, here in Italy car insurance is mandatory, but people choose where to make their car repairs, and prices aren't regulated in any way. The results: Once I went for a repair, and got quoted something like 150€ - I told the repairman I thought I was covered by my insurance. Then I discovered that particular problem wasn't covered, and well - the prices magically came down to 70€ "You know sir, with insurances we have all those additional costs...".
"You know sir, with insurances we have all those additional costs...".
Well, with many insurance companies there can be an additional cost. Submitting the claims, filling out the paperwork, proving the work was done, etc... all add up. Depending on how much work a person does with an insurance company it could easily add up to another full time employee.
> "You know sir, with insurances we have all those additional costs...".
Two possible issues here. First, it _does_ cost more to reclaim payment from an insurance company than to get it from the consumer. There are the forms to be considered, and also the fact that insurers often pay substantially in arrears. Also, did you end up paying cash? Some providers of services like this will prefer a cash deal, as they do not necessarily plan to declare it.
Hehe, in Italy the "do not necessarily plan to declare" is unfortunately all too common. But I'm sure I required a fiscal receipt, so in this case that wasn't the origin of the price difference.
As someone who had insurance that doesn't help me. I might not have a pay out of pocket for an MRI but I'm still having to pay for it through higher charges. I'm unable to shop around to reduce the insurance company's (and therefore my own) costs.
Same reason why lasik became so cheap so quickly. The free market actually at work. Especially effective on technological product based innovation and pricing.
If they'd really get out of the way, MRIs could perhaps cost $200 in the USA due to the volume that could be absorbed by clinics.
This nationwide chain provides MRIs as low as $335 depending on the state.
http://a2zimaging.com/
No insurance accepted, no payment plans. Those cost money. Just charges the cost.