u/Kittehmilk

RAND has been tracking payments since 2017. They take real claims from employer health plans and reprice each one using Medicare's formulas for the same service at the same hospital. So 300% means the insurer paid three times what Medicare would have.

The national average was 242% in 2020 and rose to 254% in the 2022 update. Florida is now the highest at 346%. Arkansas is the lowest at 162%. Maryland isn't on the chart because it already sets one price for every payer, which is the closest thing the US has to what this sub is asking for.

It's interesting what RAND found when they looked at the trend. Prices had no clear link to quality. They didn't track with how many Medicare or Medicaid patients a hospital treats, which is the excuse hospitals usually give for charging private plans more. The one thing that did predict price was market share. Fewer competing hospitals in a metro lead to higher prices.

Montana's state employee plan capped what it pays at 235% of Medicare back in 2016 and premiums flattened. Oregon capped at 200% for state workers and saved over $100 million. Those were single-buyer decisions. This chart shows what happens when there's no single buyer.

Source is RAND's Hospital Price Transparency Study, Round 4 (2020 inpatient data) for the chart, Round 5.1 for the 2022 figures. Made in matplotlib.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/of-course-we-should-primary-hakeem-jeffries

https://x.com/davidsaysstuff\_/status/2094158627028259131

MAKE THIS IOF WAR CRIMINAL FAMOUS.