This is an editorial opinion by Robert Hall, content creator and small business owner.
Nothing is more important to your long-term health than having access to health care when you need it. But every jurisdiction around the world does this process differently. Many countries socialize health care costs through the government on a sliding scale from total government control to the private health market, with a sprinkle of government-provided health insurance for the poor and elderly.
In the United States, we primarily have a private health care system. If you have money, you can purchase health services from your preferred service provider. But the problem in America is not a shortage of health care providers; it is how health services are paid for.
When you see your doctor, you don’t know how much you will spend. But if you think about it for a second, it’s very strange. Can you think of another service that you didn’t know how much you would spend before your visit? Hell, even some sort of estimate would be nice, right?
When you come to the doctor’s office, you usually hand over your health insurance card and pay the copay. Do you know what copay or coinsurance is and how it works? Not many people. All most people know is that you hand over your card, pay a nominal fee and receive service.
After services are provided, your doctor’s office will submit a claim to your health insurance company for payment. Once the claim has been paid, you must pay the rest if there is a balance. This usually happens a month later, and at this point, you may not have the money to pay off the balance.
How crazy is this? Not only are you hit with unbudgeted surprise bills, but healthcare providers also struggle to find qualified staff to process payments. The government also passed the No Surprises Act last year, making payments more difficult for healthcare providers.
Why do we need a third party to pay medical bills in the first place? Imagine if your car insurance company paid to fill up the gas tank. Strange, isn’t it?
Did you know that by 2021, 20% of Americans will have medical debt, and 58% of bills in collections will be for medical debt?
As you can see, people are struggling with medical debt, which has an ongoing impact on healthcare providers. Healthcare providers lose revenue when patients don’t pay and have to raise prices to make up the difference. Are healthcare consumers seeing immediate price increases? No, health insurance companies are seeing an increase in the cost of providing services.
This increase in the price of health goods and services is reflected in the price paid for health insurance. The typical American family spends $22,221 on health insurance each year. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of money. Imagine what you could do with $22,221 in your pocket.
The situation is worrisome when considering the federal government and how much it costs for health care.
Medicare is expected to be bankrupt by 2026. That’s only three years from now, but no one is talking about it in the media, and no one is campaigning significantly on it during the election. Medicare provides health coverage to 63 million elderly and disabled Americans.
What will happen when the government runs out of money to provide health coverage to this population? By 2021, growth in Medicare spending has averaged 7.6% over the past five years and will not slow down any time soon. This is a slow moving train wreck in the middle of a broken healthcare system.
The system is broken and must be replaced before it implodes and takes everyone down with it. How can we transform the healthcare system into one based on free market principles while helping healthcare providers increase revenue and reduce costs for patients?
Bitcoin To The Rescue
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Imagine a world where you know how much your medical bill will be before services are provided. Imagine a world where you can compare the prices of different medical procedures in the same way you go to a store or shop on Amazon.
Bitcoin makes this world possible. If the world adopts the Bitcoin standard, the average consumer will have more purchasing power to pay their medical bills. The deflationary nature of Bitcoin makes this possible.
There are only 21 million bitcoins to be created. The longer you hold it, the more it will increase in value. The more it costs, the more health services you can use to purchase. The increase in value will entice more healthcare providers to enter the market and offer services for bitcoin. More competition between healthcare providers means more access to healthcare, better customer service and lower prices for all. Do you see how this all works now?
Healthcare providers will be incentivized to list the price of their services in bitcoin to attract new patients to their practice.
Typical health insurance, where the insurance company pays the bill for a simple office visit, will disappear in the Bitcoin standard. There is no need, as the consumer will have enough purchasing power to pay the bill at the time of service.
Lightning Networks: Advantages For Healthcare Providers
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Running a doctor’s office is a business. There are overhead costs that must be paid to stay in business. Rent must be paid, employees must be paid and supplies must be purchased.
Medical practices can use the Lightning Network to receive instant payments from patients and reduce confusion about medical bills. Adopting Lightning payments will increase revenue and improve cash flow.
This cash flow can be used to invest in the business, buy better equipment and hire more employees. Not only does this benefit the company, but better equipment leads to better health care outcomes, and more staff leads to better customer service. Quality customer service will increase your profits in the long run.
According to a recent study, healthcare providers who provide “excellent” customer service report net margins that are 50% higher than those who provide “average” customer service.
The Lightning Network will also reduce transaction costs for medical practices. Payment processing takes the bottom line for healthcare providers and provides little utility. The average payment processor charges 1.5% to 3.5%, as well as often other confusing formulas to make the company out of money.
Healthcare providers can save money on transaction fees if they switch to the Lightning Network. The average fee for sending Lightning payments is .01%! Many Lightning nodes do not charge fees for sending payments. Traditional payment processors cannot compete with this.
Healthcare providers should switch to the Bitcoin standard and use the Lightning Network as soon as possible, and watch their business transform. It will be good for them, the patients and the economy.
This is a guest post by Robert Hall. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.