Steven Brill, who last year authored Bitter Pill, TIME’s in-depth look at the health care industry’s bewildering billing system, appeared on The Daily Show on Thursday to discuss his latest TIME column, in which he lexamines some of the early effects of Obamacare.
In his original story, Brill wrote about a cancer patient who had to pay $83,900, in advance for his treatment plan and $13,702 transfusion of cancer drugs. Now under Obamacare, Brill said, nothing has been done to change the cost structure; the bill has merely shifted to the taxpayers. “We pay his insurance premium, we being the taxpayers,” Brill said. “And guess what the price of that drug is: $13,700.”
Brill said it’s outrageous that nothing has been done to control health care costs. “The government creates a whole bunch of new customers to get gouged in the health care system.”