Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Supply and demand. Doctors and hospitals are going to keep increasing costs until demand starts to fall off. And that's never going to happen as long as the government keeps promising to cover the bills.
That would make sense except for one thing, the demand for healthcare is inelastic. If you have stage 4 kidney failure you will pay the nephrologist no matter what he/she charges, if your child is having an asthma attack you don't bargain shop for a cheap ER or argue about prices while they are turning blue. The only price sensitivity in medical services is for elective procedures like plastic surgery or hair transplants which consumers will forego if the price is too high.
Many times they can for the more simple, cheap, less risky and easy rashes, coughs,colds, aches and pains. Also some more routine and non-emergent surgeries, testings and treatments.
Not so much.
Have you actually tried calling a series of doctors asking, "I have a severe cough--how much would you charge to diagnose it?"
Try that. Actually try to get a cost figure before getting the service.
And if you did get numbers to compare, on what basis would you compare them? How do you know that the expensive doctor is or is not worth the money? How do you know that the cheap doctor is not cutting corners?
People think they can scrape by with hardly any health insurance.
Last night a guy called in to the radio program, so proud that his family doesn't have any health insurance.
Said they went to Florida and his wife got in an accident. Huge hospital bills but when the hospital found out they didn't have insurance, they cut the bills way down. He still had to pay but how do the rest of the people in Florida feel, knowing that THEY really paid for this free loader who was too cheap to have health insurance for his own family.
And I wonder if he'll be that lucky when one of his kids suffers a sports injury or somebody in his family gets cancer. It's dumb to go without insurance.
Not sure where in NE you live, but I have family in MA and CT, and I can tell you that their insurance coverage is much cheaper than Florida's. MA, of course has its own Romneycare exchange--not sure about other NE states. The states with idiot governors such as Rick Scott have screwed over their residents in order to childishly spite Obama.
Quote:
Originally Posted by detshen
It is not a wise decision to go without insurance but what makes me angry is how IRRESPONSIBLE it is. The human body is fallible, any one of us can become ill or injured at any time. There is nothing more irresponsible than expecting someone else to pay thier bills. These irresponsible, selfish people were taken care of because the responsible among us pay insurance premiums and taxes to cover their reduced or unpaid (more likely) bills. The so-called "party of personal responsibility" has constantly faught against any sort of mandate to have coverage even though they know full well many of those people will end up in the ER one day and legally they must be treated.
For many people, the only choice is whether to go into debt for health insurance or take a chance and pay cash for services.
In FL, depending on the county, people between the ages of 59 and 64 who make over a certain amount of income per year, pay extremely high premiums before paying the $6,000 deductions. If single, and making over $47k, the lowest premiums run about $900 per month. If a couple and making over $64k, the lowest premiums are $1,500 per month. Prior to the ACA, many of these individuals were rejected for insurance, so couldn't get it anyway. If you were self-employed or a contractor, the insurance companies would use anything to reject coverage (prescriptions inferred diseases, menopause, acid reflux--basically age).
If one pays cash for services, it is much much cheaper than using the insurance and still paying off deductible. Physicians have stated the reason for this is that they spend half of their hours and half of their resources dealing with insurance companies, so charge much less if they do not have to deal with them.
One trend for families in S. FL is to join a 'concierge' physicians' service, priced for the middle and working class, and then buy a cheap policy from one of the religious network sharing programs. It is still cheaper than insurance.
Stop blaming people's inability to buy sky high insurance premiums on 'irresponsibility'.
The problem has been, and is, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Pharmaceuticals need price controls and the insurance industry should be eliminated as middle man.
That would make sense except for one thing, the demand for healthcare is inelastic. If you have stage 4 kidney failure you will pay the nephrologist no matter what he/she charges, if your child is having an asthma attack you don't bargain shop for a cheap ER or argue about prices while they are turning blue. The only price sensitivity in medical services is for elective procedures like plastic surgery or hair transplants which consumers will forego if the price is too high.
I don't see how this invalidates my reasoning for why prices are so high.
That would make sense except for one thing, the demand for healthcare is inelastic. If you have stage 4 kidney failure you will pay the nephrologist no matter what he/she charges, if your child is having an asthma attack you don't bargain shop for a cheap ER or argue about prices while they are turning blue. The only price sensitivity in medical services is for elective procedures like plastic surgery or hair transplants which consumers will forego if the price is too high.
Not only that, most 3rd parties have pre-negotiated or preset reimbursements. For instance as a doc I haven't had the ability to raise my rates with Medicare for 30 years. Nor do hospitals. I get paid based on a Medicare schedule, hospitals are paid by DRG payment rates.
Have you actually tried calling a series of doctors asking, "I have a severe cough--how much would you charge to diagnose it?"
Try that. Actually try to get a cost figure before getting the service.
And if you did get numbers to compare, on what basis would you compare them? How do you know that the expensive doctor is or is not worth the money? How do you know that the cheap doctor is not cutting corners?
I'm a doc. And a patient, so I understand and agree with you.
A simple cough. No blood, high fever, shortness of breath, chest pain, or other serious concomitant disease or predisposing factors.
A simple office visit.
A possible x-ray and Rx and that is about it 90+% of the time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
