Govt's new insurance and cancer centers

Agreed - it's a deplorable situation and the fault lies squarely with the individual states.  Maryland has very tight controls on both the insurance and hospital industries.  Top-rated Johns Hopkins, an NCI-designated Cancer Center, is required by state law to accept all insurance - they can't pick and choose.  More states need to make such requirements.  Maryland also requires that hospitals charge everyone the same - they can't negotiate better rates for favored insurance companies and worse rates for other insurance companies and the non-insured.

Maryland tends to be a leader in health cost and hospital cost containment, with good results.  Here's an article about the most recent cost-containment initiative Maryland is starting, where hospitals have financial incentives to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations.  From the article:  "Under the plan, each Maryland hospital will be given a budget, based on
its historic revenue levels, to care for a defined number of people in
its community, regardless of the number of actual admissions or the
severity of the cases. . . .The hope is that hospitals will, for example, hire doctors to work in
nearby nursing homes to prevent chronically ill residents from ending up
in the emergency room. Hospitals also are expected to collaborate with
independent physicians in their communities to help chronically ill
patients manage their diseases, thereby avoiding hospitalization."  If it works, it could provide a model for other states. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/...