This is an opinion editorial by Robert Hall, content creator and small business owner.
Nothing is more critical to long-term health than having access to medical care when needed. But every jurisdiction in the world implements this process differently. Many countries socialize the cost of health care through the government on a sliding scale from full government control to private market health care, with a sprinkling of government-provided health insurance for the poor and elderly.
In the United States, we have mainly a private health system. If you have the money, you can buy health care services from any service provider you want. But the problem in America is not a lack of health care providers; it is how health services are paid for.
When you see your doctor, you don’t know how much you’ll spend. But if you think about this for a second, it’s very strange. Can you think of any other service for which you do not know how much you are going to spend before your visit? Hell, even some sort of estimate would be nice, right?
When you get to the doctor’s office, you usually hand in your health insurance card and pay a copay. Do you know what a copay or coinsurance is and how it works? Not many people do. All most people know is that you hand over a card, pay a nominal fee, and receive services.
After services are rendered, your doctor’s office will submit a claim to your health insurance company for payment. Once the claim is settled, you must pay the rest if there is a balance. This usually happens months later, and at this point you may not have the money to pay off the balance.
How crazy is this? Not only do you get a surprise bill that hasn’t been budgeted for yet, but healthcare providers are having a hard time too find qualified personnel to process payments. The government too passed the No Surprises Law last yearmaking receiving payments even more cumbersome for healthcare providers.
Why do we need third parties to pay medical bills in the first place? Imagine your auto insurance company paying to fill up your gas tank. Strange, right?
Did you know that in 2021, 20% of Americans had medical debt and 58% of bills in collection were for medical debt.?
As you can see, people are struggling with medical debt, which has a cascading effect on healthcare providers. Healthcare providers are losing revenue when their patients don’t pay and have to raise prices to make a difference.. Does the healthcare consumer see a price increase directly? No, health insurance companies see the 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 in health insurance every year. I don’t know about you, but this is a lot of money. Imagine what you could do with $22,221 in your pocket.
The situation becomes troubling when you consider the federal government and how much it pays for health care.
Medicare is projected to be insolvent by 2026. That’s only three years from now, yet no one is talking about this in the media, and no one campaigned meaningfully on this during the election. Medicare provides health coverage for 63 million seniors and disabled Americans.
What will they do when the government runs out of money to provide health coverage to this population? As of 2021, growth in Medicare spending had averaged 7.6% over the previous five years And it won’t be slowing down any time soon. This is a slow-motion train wreck in the middle of an already broken healthcare system.
The system is broken and needs to change before it implodes and takes everyone 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 their patients?
bitcoin to the rescue
Imagine a world where you know how much your medical bills will be before services are provided. Imagine a world where you can compare the prices of different medical procedures in the same way as when you go to the supermarket or shop on Amazon.
Bitcoin makes this world possible. If the world were to adopt a Bitcoin standard, the average consumer would have more spending power to pay their medical bills. The deflationary nature of Bitcoin makes this possible.
Only 21 million bitcoins will be created. The longer you hold it, the more its value will increase. The more value you accumulate, the more healthcare services that can be used to purchase. The increase in value will attract more healthcare providers to enter the market and offer their services for bitcoin. More competition among health care providers means more access to care, better customer service, and lower prices for everyone. Are you seeing how all this works now?
Healthcare providers would be incentivized to list the prices of their services in bitcoin to attract new patients to their practice.
Typical health insurance, where insurance companies foot the bill for simple office visits, would be gone in a Bitcoin standard. There would be no need for this, as consumers would have enough purchasing power to pay their bills at the time of service.
Lightning Network: A Boon for Healthcare Providers
Running a medical office is a business. There are overhead costs that must be paid to stay in business. Rents must be paid, employees must be paid, and supplies must be purchased.
Medical practices can use the Lightning Network to receive an instant billing from their patients and Reduce confusion about medical billing. Adoption of Lightning payments would increase revenue and improve cash flow.
This cash flow could be used to invest in the business, buy better equipment, and hire more staff. This not only benefits the company, but a better team also leads to better healthcare outcomes, and more staff leads to better customer service. High-quality customer service will increase profitability in the long run.
According to a recent study, healthcare providers who provide “excellent” customer service reported a net margin that was 50% higher than those who provide “average” customer service.
The Lightning Network will also reduce transaction costs for medical practices. Payment processing takes a large chunk of the bottom line from healthcare providers and provides very little utility. The average payment processor charges between 1.5% and 3.5%, and often institutes other confusing formulas on top of that scam companies out of their money.
Healthcare providers could save money on transaction fees by switching to the Lightning Network. The average fee for sending a Lightning payment is .01%! Many Lightning nodes do not charge a fee to send a payment. Traditional payment processors just can’t compete with this.
Healthcare providers should switch to a Bitcoin standard and use the Lightning Network as soon as possible, and watch their businesses transform. It will be good for them, their 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.
