But I doubt it because the reason hospitals are able to afford Medicare prices
It's not just Medicare. It's insurance in general, and the arms race to try to get paid the same amount (adjusted for inflation) for the same procedure, over time.
So, suppose you get a really nasty cut that needs stitches, and you go to a clinic, and get that done. And suppose that the clinic adds up all the costs -- medical supplies, nurse time, doctor time, facilities (which includes everything from rent to keeping the lights on), time to process the bill through your insurance company, everything, and decide that $100 covers it, so they send a bill for $100 for "suturing" (the stitches to close up your cut). Your insurance company pays, everybody's happy.
Fast forward a few years. Little bit of inflation has happened, so maybe now the clinic needs to make $102. But the insurance company has used the leverage of its network system to get the clinic to accept a lower rate -- they can threaten to stop sending patients to the clinic if the clinic won't agree. And now the "suturing" billing code only pays $90.
So some clever person at the clinic comes up with an idea: instead of billing "suturing" for $102 and getting $90, they can bill for "antiseptic gel" at $20 and get paid $12, and bill for "suturing" at $100 and get paid $90, which means the clinic gets the $102, but now on a total bill of $120.
Fast forward a few more years. Now inflation has resulted in the clinic needing to make $105, but the insurance pays even less now. So now it's billed as "suturing" at $100 (paying $80), plus "antiseptic gel" at $20 (paying $8), plus "cotton swabs" (to soak up the blood) at $30 (paying $17). The clinic gets the $105 to cover its costs, but now the initial bill comes in at $150.
It does not take a terribly long time for this arms race to turn treatment of a simple cut into a gigantic laundry list of services, materials, personnel and facilities, at a total initial bill that might run into the thousands of dollars, just to get, say, $110 out of the insurance company.
And that is basically what has been happening in the US. When you see one of those "shocking" hospital bills for something that seems simple, what you're seeing is the result of the arms race between the medical billing arm of the hospital and the insurance company, which will have dozens or possibly hundreds of items on the bill, all at prices well above what the hospital expects to get, but calculated so that the eventual insurance payment will cover the actual cost.
I suggest you read the Time magazine article "The Bitter Pill". You talk as if the insurance company networks are the only ones who are using leverage to push prices paid down. This is no longer correct. Physicians and hospitals have now banded together into cooperative, consolidated practices/groups/networks, and they have absolutely been exerting huge upward price pressures on negotiated payments with the insurance companies.
If the situation was as you described it, the costs for insurance would have been going up, but not at the levels/rates that have actually occurred.
I suggest you read the article. Is is an incredibly well written, balanced, and well sourced piece of journalism. It is also a long and engrossing read.
FYI, the negotiated Medicare rates are actually designed to make sure that hospitals MORE than make up their costs of doing business.
It's not just Medicare. It's insurance in general, and the arms race to try to get paid the same amount (adjusted for inflation) for the same procedure, over time.
So, suppose you get a really nasty cut that needs stitches, and you go to a clinic, and get that done. And suppose that the clinic adds up all the costs -- medical supplies, nurse time, doctor time, facilities (which includes everything from rent to keeping the lights on), time to process the bill through your insurance company, everything, and decide that $100 covers it, so they send a bill for $100 for "suturing" (the stitches to close up your cut). Your insurance company pays, everybody's happy.
Fast forward a few years. Little bit of inflation has happened, so maybe now the clinic needs to make $102. But the insurance company has used the leverage of its network system to get the clinic to accept a lower rate -- they can threaten to stop sending patients to the clinic if the clinic won't agree. And now the "suturing" billing code only pays $90.
So some clever person at the clinic comes up with an idea: instead of billing "suturing" for $102 and getting $90, they can bill for "antiseptic gel" at $20 and get paid $12, and bill for "suturing" at $100 and get paid $90, which means the clinic gets the $102, but now on a total bill of $120.
Fast forward a few more years. Now inflation has resulted in the clinic needing to make $105, but the insurance pays even less now. So now it's billed as "suturing" at $100 (paying $80), plus "antiseptic gel" at $20 (paying $8), plus "cotton swabs" (to soak up the blood) at $30 (paying $17). The clinic gets the $105 to cover its costs, but now the initial bill comes in at $150.
It does not take a terribly long time for this arms race to turn treatment of a simple cut into a gigantic laundry list of services, materials, personnel and facilities, at a total initial bill that might run into the thousands of dollars, just to get, say, $110 out of the insurance company.
And that is basically what has been happening in the US. When you see one of those "shocking" hospital bills for something that seems simple, what you're seeing is the result of the arms race between the medical billing arm of the hospital and the insurance company, which will have dozens or possibly hundreds of items on the bill, all at prices well above what the hospital expects to get, but calculated so that the eventual insurance payment will cover the actual cost.