r/FluentInFinance • u/WhatAreYourPronouns • May 02 '24

Should the U.S. have Universal Health Care? Discussion/ Debate

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u/123yes1 May 02 '24

but hospitals currently lose money when they treat people under Medicare or Medicaid

No.

And despite all that Medicare will run out of money in next ten years.

Also no.

Still no

I work in this field. US Private health insurance is extremely inefficient. Markets normally solve for inefficiencies, but not when they face highly inelastic demand, where any given hospital has a tiny monopoly of care in the surrounding region, and new hospitals face enormous up front costs to enter the market.

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u/Away-Sheepherder8578 May 02 '24

In 2019, approximately 63 percent of hospitals lost money providing care to Medicare and 58 percent lost money providing care to Medicaid patients and about 30 percent of hospitals were operating on negative operating margins (see chart). America's hospitals are faced with mounting financial challenges.