No, the problem with insurance is not that providers have leverage over insurers. The problem is that people buying insurance have imperfect information about what that insurance will and won't cover when they buy it. Even after you get insurance trying to find a list of things that are covered if impossible. Even if you call the insurance company, they won't tell you.
How is a discerning buyer supposed to choose insurance based on anything but price when that is the only information available?
Then there's the entire bureaucracy that is medical billing. You have to know which obscure codes for diagnosis can be used with which, similarly obscure, codes for treatment. None of those codes ever exactly match what is happening to the patient, so you have to choose one that is close enough and hope the insurance agrees.
You ever wonder why it takes 6+ months to get a medical bill? That's why. It has to be processed by the medical billing bureaucracy until it bears only the slightest resemblance to reality and then shuttled back and forth between the provider, the insurance filing system, and the insurance underwriter. Only once that is done can they send you a bill.
How much cheaper could providers offer service if they didn't have to pay dedicated staff to play some perverse game of telephone with the insurance company?
How is a discerning buyer supposed to choose insurance based on anything but price when that is the only information available?
Then there's the entire bureaucracy that is medical billing. You have to know which obscure codes for diagnosis can be used with which, similarly obscure, codes for treatment. None of those codes ever exactly match what is happening to the patient, so you have to choose one that is close enough and hope the insurance agrees.
You ever wonder why it takes 6+ months to get a medical bill? That's why. It has to be processed by the medical billing bureaucracy until it bears only the slightest resemblance to reality and then shuttled back and forth between the provider, the insurance filing system, and the insurance underwriter. Only once that is done can they send you a bill.
How much cheaper could providers offer service if they didn't have to pay dedicated staff to play some perverse game of telephone with the insurance company?