Health care prices have been spiraling skyward in recent years but, like many a hospital system, Portland-based Legacy Health says it’s got to raise them even more.
Health insurer Regence BlueCross BlueShield, for example, says two years after a contract dispute over the exact same issue that Legacy is asking for a pay bump of 22% at its hospitals and clinics over the next two years.
There is, of course, a bigger picture here. The U.S. spends way more on health care per person than peer nations—a fact analysts tend to attribute to, among other things, the U.S. system’s ridiculously fragmented nature, and the fact that health insurance participation here is optional…