having everyone pay their medical bills directly would do more than anything else to reduce medical costs.
This is the only answer - unless cost is directly tied to the consumer or the provider - everyone will merrily continue on consuming too much health care that does too little good at too much cost. I have no idea why this isn't obvious to everyone. It is how markets work.
On the other hand, it is absolutely insane to not screen everyone for Diabetes, but provide forever dialysis on the government tab once your Kidneys fail (Kidney failure being a secondary problem to the original problem, diabetes). Of course this path then opens the door to the diet police, regulators, tax incentives to modify behavior, etc.
Apparently the providers are responding to cost - more procedures equal more revenue - more procedures equal a defense case, in case of getting sued for making a human mistake.
And the consumers? More like, either you can pay (meaning someone else pays) or you can't and you live sicker and die younger.
Are there any, or many, health care consumers out there that ever dare ask - Why am I paying non generic prices for this extended release version of the same drug I can get for 1/10th less? Or asking why am I paying non generic prices, because you combined 2 generic drugs and got a new patent? Or asking why do you want to do a MRI every 6 months to watch some medical thing in which you can neither cure or treat. What good does watching it do?
Or as an earlier poster mentioned - why do people go to ICU to die? What good does that do for anyone?
Why the good provider says - but I can get you a 1% chance of a better outcome. They tell you they prevent things. How can they know whether they prevented anything, when they do not know who will or will not get something?
It is currently popular to point to fat people, as burdens to the health care system. 25% of fat people never get diabetes. They do not know who will or who won't. (my BMI is just fine thank you, so no I am not defending fat people as being people too).
In the name of prevention, the medical business world wants to treat pre-diabetes. Again, what are they treating - when they have no way of know who will or who won't.
Tie cost to the consumer, and over consumption gets reigned in.
They say if the consumer has to pay, they won't go for routine checkups. I don't know anyone personally - who had no symptoms, who ever benefited from seeing a doctor (though I am sure there are folks). Health Care is infinity expensive when they are treating people with no symptoms, and no disease, but in the absence of, begin treating for risk of such, never knowing who will or won't eventually get disease. Why look at the market - the business folks drool, it is everyone.
suncameuptoday