New Hampshire’s Rising Health Care Costs

This is for the current show about NH healthcare costs. This is a general question but should be applied to NH also.

I would like to know why the healthcare "cost" discussion only focuses on the cost that the health insurance industry charges to the patient. Should we not be looking into the "actual" costs that procedures, visits, etc. cost to the provider? By this I mean, for example, we are charged 4 to 5 thousand dollars for an MRI. But really now, how much does it "actually" cost a hospital to perform that MRI.....ie., a little bit in electricity, some labor for the techs, some labor for the radiologist, some cost for malpractice insurance (divided by thousands of patients, divided by thousands of appointments, etc). Catch my drift? We NEVER question these "actual" costs and even worse, we never question the mark up! Does your 20 minute doctor's visit at your doctor's office really cost that clinic $150 to $250 dollars or if it's all broken down, does it really cost that clinic more like $30 to administer the visit? Why aren't we questioning and challenging the "mark-ups" and profit margins that are being made by these health care individuals and institutions?

The health insurance industry claims better health leads to lower cost, but lower for whom? I suggest it’s for them- not us. If healthier people cost less, and we’re increasingly a healthier nation as evidenced by higher mortality rates, then why does the cost continue to skyrocket? We don’t seem to be getting any return for our investment in a healthier lifestyle. The insurance companies make their money on healthy people- more money comes in and less goes out. So naturally they want us to live a healthy lifestyle, and they want us to pre-pay for our sick care we don’t use, so they can reap obscene profits. Someday we'll wise up and take the agent out of health care, and we’ll instantly save 20-30%.