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Here's my point, which I might not have written out very well. Let's say I go to a restaurant and have an uncapped expense account. I will order the lobster entree rather than an almost as delicious shrimp, since I do not care about price.
the impact of insurance is to make the patient unconcerned about price.
Socialized medicine does that to an even greater degree. The patient does not even pay a portion of the amount. The government is not going to reduce costs, it will only limit who can receive the benefit of how much cost. It the government going to decide for each patient whether the treatment they want is cost effective? "Sorry, you cannot have your cancer treated, it is too expensive - just go die somewhere"
The added cost of the bureaucracy of health insurance has probably done more to make things unaffordable than anything else. It's scary for people to think of not having insurance, they think they couldn't afford to see a Dr at all if they got sick or had issues, but we are at the point now where I've got a $7800 deductible so unless something catastrophic happens I already have to pay for all my meds and Dr visits. And this is NOT a "catastrophic" plan!!! THIS happened because of bureaucracy creep and took a huge leap forward with the ACA, which added MORE bureaucracy.
Ultimately yes, I think most people WOULD be better off with a hard reset on our medical system, transparent pricing, and ACTUAL affordable catastrophic insurance plans. The ultra poor will always have programs to assist them, but we are creating too many ultra poor these days. I'll even go so far as to say free or mostly free medical school....we need a glut of Dr's and professionals to bring costs down and we wouldn't even have to import them.
Here's my point, which I might not have written out very well. Let's say I go to a restaurant and have an uncapped expense account. I will order the lobster entree rather than an almost as delicious shrimp, since I do not care about price.
the impact of insurance is to make the patient unconcerned about price.
Your analogy about prices does not work when it comes to medical care.
Buying a coronary bypass operation is not like buying a television set or a blender.
I do not need a television. I can get by without one. I can wait on a blender. If I don't like the price, I just pass it by.
Coronary bypass surgery or chemotherapy for my leukemia? I have no ability to haggle over it. I get the operation or I may well die. There is no opportunity to bargain over the cost of such a surgery. What I say is true of most medical care.
The free market just doesn't work when it comes to medical care.
Until that principle is grasped we are going to continue to be unable to agree on effective solutions to reform a system which has explosive costs that vastly outstrip the rate of inflation.
OK so in October I took a ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Good times - but I digress.
I told the paramedics I have insurance and the info was in my purse but apparently that didn't accomplish anything, so I got a bill a few weeks ago that said "Private Pay" or something like that, and had charges of around $1050. On the bill was this note: "We do not have insurance information on file for you. Please go to such and such website and put in your insurance information if applicable." So I did so.
I just got a new and unimproved bill from them. They charged my insurance (and collected it already) MORE than the original private pay bill, and THEN to add insult to injury, they nearly doubled both the trip charge and the mileage and are saying that I now owe them nearly $600 more. THEIR BILL NEARLY DOUBLED as soon as they realized I have insurance coverage! To add insult to injury, I just sent off my payment for my deductible - $6700. So yeah, I'm pretty put out.
Apparently $1000 a month with a high deductible, and bills that I pay immediately, isn't good enough for anyone.
OK so in October I took a ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Good times - but I digress.
I told the paramedics I have insurance and the info was in my purse but apparently that didn't accomplish anything, so I got a bill a few weeks ago that said "Private Pay" or something like that, and had charges of around $1050. On the bill was this note: "We do not have insurance information on file for you. Please go to such and such website and put in your insurance information if applicable." So I did so.
I just got a new and unimproved bill from them. They charged my insurance (and collected it already) MORE than the original private pay bill, and THEN to add insult to injury, they nearly doubled both the trip charge and the mileage and are saying that I now owe them nearly $600 more. THEIR BILL NEARLY DOUBLED as soon as they realized I have insurance coverage! To add insult to injury, I just sent off my payment for my deductible - $6700. So yeah, I'm pretty put out.
Apparently $1000 a month with a high deductible, and bills that I pay immediately, isn't good enough for anyone.
Did you notify your insurance company to let them know about the excessive charges?
OK so in October I took a ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Good times - but I digress.
I told the paramedics I have insurance and the info was in my purse but apparently that didn't accomplish anything, so I got a bill a few weeks ago that said "Private Pay" or something like that, and had charges of around $1050. On the bill was this note: "We do not have insurance information on file for you. Please go to such and such website and put in your insurance information if applicable." So I did so.
I just got a new and unimproved bill from them. They charged my insurance (and collected it already) MORE than the original private pay bill, and THEN to add insult to injury, they nearly doubled both the trip charge and the mileage and are saying that I now owe them nearly $600 more. THEIR BILL NEARLY DOUBLED as soon as they realized I have insurance coverage! To add insult to injury, I just sent off my payment for my deductible - $6700. So yeah, I'm pretty put out.
Apparently $1000 a month with a high deductible, and bills that I pay immediately, isn't good enough for anyone.
Our tiny town covers ambulance transportation through a small donation with the water bill. Quite a few off that.
If your insurance does not cover ambulance - time to talk to a broker.
Premiums and deductibles - as contractor that is something to consider. In this case hindsight. Time to restructure.
I was in your glorified socialized insurance programms and so were my parents. Please do not pass 60
how do our parents and their parents handle healthcare?
Few people take prescription drug,my mother kept aspirin in the safe,only she can dispense them.
We eat homecook meals ,drink water,coffee is a luxury ,a piece of fruit after dinner,no desert,in the summer time,we may enjoy a bottle of coca cola when we come home from school.
We have flu,fever,appendicitis,young people dont have high blood pressure,we dont take birth control pills,there is always fresh vegetables for dinner,as meat is expensive.
we walk a lot ,save busfare and buy a snack.
We have never heard of cholestral,eggs are welcome,
There is no health insurance,we pay cash,my parents put away cash for medical needs,since they have 5 children ,we are no different than other families,they dont get sick easily.
everyone stays home and eat homecook meal ,no pizza,no Mcdonald hamburger .
Europeans consider french fry as a special treat and here we eat them with our burger
Did you notify your insurance company to let them know about the excessive charges?
Bigger question, is why insurance companies don't police this in the first place? They have the staff, don't they, to oversee this better? This has always been a puzzlement to me.
Just like the time I went thru the Ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, MRI with contrast route, why didn't they just approve the MRI with Contrast and not the others. Couldn't they see that a Baker's Cyst only needed aspiration?
Don't we all know who owns and operates these imaging factories? Doctors with vested self-interests!
Bigger question, is why insurance companies don't police this in the first place? They have the staff, don't they, to oversee this better? This has always been a puzzlement to me.
Just like the time I went thru the Ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, MRI with contrast route, why didn't they just approve the MRI with Contrast and not the others. Couldn't they see that a Baker's Cyst only needed aspiration?
Don't we all know who owns and operates these imaging factories? Doctors with vested self-interests!
My health insurance (NYSHIP) is provided by the State of New York and is not owned or administered by doctors. When I have suspected physician over-charge, I have contacted my insurance company through the fraud telephone line that they have, and they have investigated and taken any necessary action.
All I know is, DH and I would be up **** creek without Medicare and Supplimentals. We do not have chronic illnesses, but we’ve had lots of surgeries, like joint replacements, etc. This is part of old age. We get by financially, but no way could we have paid for these procedures.
People make the mistake in thinking Medicare is free. It isn’t. Aside from having paid into it during our working lives, it costs $145.@ a month. Our Supplimentals, N and D, are about another $100.@ Well worth it, and reasonably affordable for most people. Although that $500. is a lot of money to us.
I suspect that if the country had a Medicare type system, where each family member had to pay $250. a month, it would still be too expensive for most families.
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