Until Medicare pays at least the full cost of care for patients, the rates charged to private insurance companies will never make sense

Letters to The WSJ.

"The rates paid by Medicaid and Medicare plans generally don’t cover costs. Therefore, hospitals and providers must negotiate with insurance companies to get the best price and most volume to cover this shortfall (“How Much Does a C-Section Cost? $6,241. Or $60,584,” Page One, Feb. 12). This drives up the premiums paid by working Americans and has created the in-network, out-of-network nightmare. Until the government pays at least the full cost of care for patients, the rates charged to private insurance companies will never make sense.

Bessie Montesano, M.D.

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The “insanity” of U.S. health-care pricing is often the result of governmental intervention in markets. Allow an open and free marketplace in health care and pricing will rationalize. Historically, governmental involvement results in higher cost and less efficiency, for example, housing costs, K-12 education and, especially, college education and, of course, health care.

Alfred Martello, M.D.

Canton, Ohio"