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The problem here is there are many illnesses that fall under “catastrophic” due to health care costs. If I had to pay privately for my outpatient back surgery, which took all of 3 hours, I’d have owed almost $100,000 between use of the hospital surgical suite ($64,000 alone) plus the surgeon and anesthesia bills.
FIRST, I hope your back surgery was successful and that you've found relief. I wouldn't wish back problems on my worst enemy, so to speak.
Please note above when you write "health care costs," that isn't quite true. It is more correct to write "health care prices."
In almost every other industry, there are pretty good connections between costs and prices, with the difference being a measure of gross margin or gross profit.
In healthcare delivery such as your back surgery, the pricing system is absurd beyond belief.
It is reprehensible to price a procedure to someone without insurance $100,000 when that same procedure, when billed through insurance, is a tiny fraction of the total (say, $8000). Trying to rein in prices by charging one person less is just a matter of squeezing a balloon. It always pops elsewhere.
At the end of the day, the root cause of high costs (rather than high prices) appears to be red tape and bureaucratic mess driven by absurd overhead and administration.
FIRST, I hope your back surgery was successful and that you've found relief. I wouldn't wish back problems on my worst enemy, so to speak.
Please note above when you write "health care costs," that isn't quite true. It is more correct to write "health care prices."
In almost every other industry, there are pretty good connections between costs and prices, with the difference being a measure of gross margin or gross profit.
In healthcare delivery such as your back surgery, the pricing system is absurd beyond belief.
It is reprehensible to price a procedure to someone without insurance $100,000 when that same procedure, when billed through insurance, is a tiny fraction of the total (say, $8000). Trying to rein in prices by charging one person less is just a matter of squeezing a balloon. It always pops elsewhere.
At the end of the day, the root cause of high costs (rather than high prices) appears to be red tape and bureaucratic mess driven by absurd overhead and administration.
I think a lot of it is the corporatization of health care in recent years as well. Priority in big hospital systems, chain pain management centers, etc, is stock holders, not patients.
My back is good now, thanks. I spent a fortune though in the year before being forced into treatments such as PT and chiropractic before I got a correct diagnoses though. And the hospital I had the surgery at made me pay $500 upfront in case something went wrong and I had to be admitted. When I tried to get it back after, they said they didn’t have to give it back because they were “prepared” to admit me, which apparently is the same as if I were admitted. I even had an advocate from blue cross try to intervene and she was surprised to learn they actually were allowed to keep it.
This is the kind of thing that makes me feel all the rules are stacked against the little guy in favor of big business, which is what healthcare is today. These are all the little things, fees here and fees there, that prevent people from getting ahead in the game. Despite arguments to the contrary, things did not used to be like this in terms of nickel and dining everyone to death. You can’t even open a savings account for your kid with his piggy bank today because most would charge maintenance fees.
how do i change their way of thinking ? i don't , not within my ability or problem to solve .
i can make suggestions but when they don't follow game is over .
i am still friendly with some of the guys i grew up with as kids in the nyc housing project . i begged them to go with me when i went to apex technical school back in the 1970's .
nope , they rather work their dead end jobs and drink beer . well today they are raising their own families still living the projects and complaining about their terrible jobs and i am comfortably retired. we had choices in life , they chose one path and i another . it isn't the fact they are stuck in low paying jobs . the issues are deeper than that and the low paying jobs are the result of , not the cause of their problems .
For many of us at this stage of life our financial reality is different then many others. While yes we are fortunate the fact is that many of us at one time had a very shared reality with those less fortunate than us now. You are one as are many of us. It is the reality of our choices and KNOWING the choices they made when they could have made others that influences many of our thoughts today. How we react to our fortune and their not so much fortune differs between us. However we have walked a mile in their shoes and along the way to what could have been a shared destination we find ourselves walking differently.
Your reaction may be different than mine however I fully understand your perspective. May not own it but understand it.
Imagine what teachers and administrators think in hindsight about their years of observing student decision making and eventual life outcomes.
Employers need to do more on their end. My employer contributes a whopping $600 annually to the HSA for singles. That's 1% of my annual pay. Many places offer to no employer paid health benefits at all.
Would you prefer that your employer drop your salary from $60K to, say, $55K and use that $5K to boost HSA contributions from $600 to $5600 ?
how do i change their way of thinking ? i don't , not within my ability or problem to solve .
i can make suggestions but when they don't follow game is over .
i am still friendly with some of the guys i grew up with as kids in the nyc housing project . i begged them to go with me when i went to apex technical school back in the 1970's .
nope , they rather work their dead end jobs and drink beer . well today they are raising their own families still living the projects and complaining about their terrible jobs and i am comfortably retired. we had choices in life , they chose one path and i another . it isn't the fact they are stuck in low paying jobs . the issues are deeper than that and the low paying jobs are the result of , not the cause of their problems .
I'm curious why you think everyone in the U.S. who makes a modest living is like the handful of people (or dozen or couple dozen or whatever number) who you knew and know in a NYC housing development?
There were reports yesterday that WalMart will now pay college tuition for their workers. If their employees will take advantage of this program, they’ll make themselves more valuable, move up and.....hopefully be able to save more for their retirement.
Not everyone has technical abilities nor do they have abilities to succeed with it - which is why the former U.S. manufacturing economy with many manufacturing jobs served people without technical ability better than the current U.S. economy.
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