Fascinating thing about, say, laser eye surgery; the price has been trending downward, largely because it’s not covered by health insurance. Which is a polite way of saying Lasik is subject to market forces. When people have to pay their own money, they take prices seriously.
Anyway: I’m seeing more and more folks visibly deciding that, instead of paying Obamacare’s new sky-high deductibles, they’re going to keep that money, eat the tax (which is not going to be insanely high in 2014), and pay out of pocket if they need health care treatment. If this turns out to be a common reaction, you may very well see doctors and hospitals ready to take advantage of that situation…
Moe Lane
PS: This will, of course, do nothing to keep the healthcare exchanges from going into a death spiral. Then again, neither does expanding the Medicaid rolls.