
Hospitals Stand to Lose Billions Under ‘Medicare for All’ - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/health/medicare-for-all-hospitals.html
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onetimemanytime
>> _One hospital would get about $4,200 from Medicare for removing someone’s
gallbladder. The same hospital would get $7,400 from commercial insurers._

That's roughly double. Now, are Medicare lower because private insurance
subsidizes them or hospitals can actually make it happen (survive) with half
price billing?

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JoeAltmaier
A hospital wants to keep its facility 100% busy, because facilities have a
fixed-cost component. Like an airline that offers cheaper seats to some
travelers to fill the plane.

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onetimemanytime
OK, but:

Medicare spending: $705.9 billion in 2017

Medicaid spending: $581.9 billion

Private health insurance spending: $1,183.9 billion

Out of pocket: $365.5 billion

[https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-
systems/sta...](https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-
systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-
sheet.html) as you see Medicare+Medicaid make a nice chunk of health care
spending. Airlines lower prices as a last minute resort, they'd go bankrupt if
half (or a nice %) of seats were to be sold at half price.

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JoeAltmaier
Hm. Airlines _raise_ the prices at the last minute. They estimate how many
seats will go unfilled and offer cheap seats first/early.

