A Health Care System I Won't Miss

I had my TV tuned to a local broadcast channel earlier this evening, mostly for background noise. A law firm class action commercial started. I usually ignore/tune them out. This one got my attention. It was an invitation to join a class action lawsuit concerning faulty or dangerous hip implants. Zimmer was one of the companies being sued...the Warsaw-based company that made the implant for the patient who is cited in the parent note of this thread. A tiny amount of searching will reveal that Zimmer has been sued multiple times for patent infringement. That could explain why they can make stuff cheaper than other companies. R&D costs money. What makes this even more interesting is, Zimmer and the company who developed the devices are both being sued because the implants are not only not lasting as long as they should, materials used are having negative health effects on people who have them.

I have to wonder if the Belgium medical tourist cited in the NYTimes article is now a class action plaintiff....

chilly & forky were for it before they were against it. The govt had 4 years to implement this and it still isn't ready

You make it sound like it was cheap because it was inferior and substandard compared to what one would receive in the US. Fact of the matter is it's identical to what one would receive in the US. "The Belgian hospital paid about $4,000 for Mr. Shopenn’s high-end Zimmer implant at a time when American hospitals were paying an average of over $8,000 for the same model". Zimmer makes an FDA approved product that has been used extensively in the US. The only difference between the Hips used here and the ones used in Belgium is the double cost.

The real problem is we don't have anything close to free markets for medical care in the US. Prices are fixed by a collaboration of the US Government, Medical Providers and Insurance Companies. Big Pharma is a highly regulated Patent Monopoly with huge barriers to entry. The AMA is a Cartel that controls the supply of doctors, hospitals and medical schools.

Obamacare may reduce the cost of medical care....slightly. But unless the US industry is forced to compete for insurance dollars with high quality international providers, we'll never realize the 10 fold savings that could be possible. But that would be real reform.

This is one Prix Fixe menu that consumers just can't afford.

alanleroII- you are absolutely correct.

If hoops2 was a better reader, he'd realize the delay is due to employers not being ready, not due to government not being ready.

But he's not a better reader, and so he doesn't know stuff.

That's right, the free market doesn't work for health care in the US.

According to the NYTimes article, Belgium's government sets prices for big ticket items like hip implants:

Like many other countries, Belgium oversees major medical purchases, approving dozens of different types of implants from a selection of manufacturers, and determining the allowed wholesale price for each of them, for example. That price, which is published, currently averages about $3,000, depending on the model, and can be marked up by about $180 per implant. (The Belgian hospital paid about $4,000 for Mr. Shopenn’s high-end Zimmer implant at a time when American hospitals were paying an average of over $8,000 for the same model.)

It's market forces that cause the American prices for implants to be double the price in Belgium.

Which makes sense. Free markets can't work when the consumer has no power to negotiate. When you need a hip implant, you need a hip implant. There are no substitutes, and people in pain don't have the information to shop around, and they can't really decline the purchase.

Free markets are usually the best solution for stuff. But not always.

Medical providers - that is doctors, hospitals, etc. - collaborate with the US government to fix prices for consumers? I hadn't heard that one before.

Please, fill us in.

alanleroyII hits a home run.

The problem with Obamacare or any other health care plan anybody would come up is we always start with the assumption that we have to guarantee unending and ever increasing profits for insurance companies, medical providers and pharmaceutical companies. The insurance companies were ok back when overall medical costs were low, but they make no sense in today's world.

I don't think you know what free markets are. No one holds up US medical care as an example of free markets. It's controlled by a combination of Oligopolies, Monopolies and Regulators. Nothing 'Free' about it.

I wish you realized we agree that the US health care system is not a free market and hasn't been for a long time.