While Newt "Fire Janitors and Make Kids Clean Toilets" Gingrich would undoubtedly celebrate the contents of this article as proof of the glories of the so-called free market:
Daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are best known for offering limited-time discounts on a variety of discretionary goods and services including restaurant meals, wine tastings, spa visits and hotel stays. The discounts are paid for upfront and then it's up to the customer to book an appointment and redeem a coupon before it expires. Merchants like the deals because it gives them exposure and a pop in business. Customers use them to try something new, to save money on something they already use, or both.
The sites are increasingly moving beyond little luxuries like facials and vacations and offering deals that are helping some people fill holes in their health insurance coverage. Visitors to these sites are finding a growing number of markdowns on health care services such as teeth cleanings, eye exams, chiropractic care and even medical checkups. They're also offering deals on elective procedures not commonly covered by health insurers, such as wrinkle-reducing Botox injections and vision-correcting Lasik eye surgery. About one out of every 11 deals offered online is for a health care service, according to data compiled by DealRadar.com, a site that gathers and lists 20,000 deals a day from different websites.
For those of us with any knowledge of how a proper health care system focusing on prevention should work, it is an abomination:
The health care deals may be attractive for people with gaps in their coverage or no insurance, but jumping from one health care provider to the next isn't ideal. Visiting the same doctor or dentist makes it easier to monitor how a patient's health is progressing, said David Williams, co-founder of medical consultancy group MedPharma Partners and author of HealthBusinessBlog.com.
So, the bottom line: for elective procedures and some dental work, this is probably a good thing, but when it comes to individuals needing to resort to discount Web sites best looked to for gourmet cupcakes in order to get basic care like:
In New York, a full medical checkup with blood, stool and urinalysis testing sold for $69 in December on Groupon — below the regular price of $200.
It is pretty appalling and an example of a sick society.
Oh, and I won't hold my breath for the real bloodsuckers to show up on Groupon anytime soon -- the crooks at Aetna and Cigna need not give discounts when they already have quasi-monopolies.
Groupon is no substitute for the Medicare-for-all system that our nation needs and deserves.
UPDATE:
First, thanks for the REC list.
Second, and more importantly, there is a great comment below from "farmerchuck" stating that he already checked and there was nothing on Groupon for chemotherapy.
PRECISELY.
Republicans always claim that the "market" brings down the cost of cosmetic care (i.e. laser eye surgery which is discussed throughout the article linked to in this diary) so it will necessarily bring down the cost of all health care, but that does not happen.
Laser eye surgery is the most elective of elective procedures -- chemotherapy or tumor removals are not. The "market" works great for things for which people can make a choice to purchase -- it works pretty piss poor for things that people have no choice to purchase or not...like, you know, chemotherapy to fight cancer.