Who's to Blame for High Health Care Costs? 2 Takes

One of the most talked-about policies in the national conversation around insurance is Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield's decision in Connecticut, New York, and Missouri to deny claims for anesthesia for surgeries that went longer than a set time limit. It was greeted with huge uproar before the insurer backtracked, citing "misinformation" about the issue. For some, that's exactly what this was, wrongly painting the insurer as the bad guy. For others, it's a further sign that the private insurance system needs to go. Two opinions:

Eric Levitz, Vox:

• "People imagined patients waking up from surgery to find they owed thousands of dollars because their procedure went 15 minutes long," writes the journalist. But this was a "cost control" that would've reduced payments for anesthesiologists who tend to exaggerate and overbill, says Levitz, stressing the burden would've fallen on those providers, not patients. Ultimately, if health care costs are to fall in the US, hospitals, physicians, and drug companies—which "charge much higher rates than their peers in other wealthy nations"—need to "accept lower payments," Levitz writes. "Ideally, we would do this through a comprehensive system of public cost controls and insurance provision. Failing that, we need private insurers to drive a harder bargain with the most expensive doctors and hospitals."

Dr. Adam Gaffney, MSNBC:

• Gaffney of the Harvard Medical School redirects the blame onto insurers. "Obviously, most health care spending goes to health care provision," he writes. "The relevant question is how to realize savings while upgrading care for everyone, and the best answer is by eliminating the gargantuan waste that is our private insurance system." "The traditional, public Medicare program spends about 2% of its total revenue on administration. Private insurers, by contrast, take 10% (or more) of your premium for administration and profit," he writes. "This fivefold difference accounts for the more than $400 billion in savings that the Congressional Budget Office projects could be saved annually from eliminating private insurance and moving to 'Medicare for All.' Instead, we're basically setting that money on fire."

(More health insurers stories.)