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Baloney! Without the scam that is insurance, medical costs would drop like a rock.
Insurance is the biggest scam known to mankind.
Even now, paying cash gets huge discounts. Try it. You'll learn from it. I learned the hard way when I had a heart attack with no insurance. Cash talks and the discounts are astonishing.
Ok, so I'll bite... what treatment did you receive for heart attack, and how much did it cost?
Well first we would have to have a free market. We do not. We have full blown corporatism. So unless the world radically changes or we move to an alternate universe it's moot.
You can have some aspects of free market competition in healthcare, but I seriously doubt that it can ever be a true free market system. Even in Singapore and Switzerland, where they don't have state-run exchanges, they force everyone to get insurance and set up health savings accounts - conservatives would flip. That fundamentally points to the fact that this is not a product that can be managed purely in a free market.
Actually conservatives are heavily in favor of HDHP/HSA.
Twenty years ago they tried to stuff it into Hillarycare but she reneged.
Of course it works. Free market force price down because competitions.
All preventive cares should be pay out of pockets, after all, they are preventive cares. If you feel like you are healthy, you don't need a physical every year. It is recommended, but not necessary.
For all expensive operations, that's where insurance comes in. I am talking about real insurance like life insurance, home insurance, not the garbage we currently call health "insurance". Insurance should be insurance. Insure is to insure something that will not guarantee happens.
If you have to use "health insurance" for a doctor visit because you have a cold, then it is not insurance. It is merely a 3rd party payer system. Joe and Jane gives money to Paul to manage and when Joe and/or Jane get sick and see a doctor, the doctor ask Paul for the money instead of Joe and Jane.
Paul is running on a cost plus business. What this mean is, Paul is charging a fee for his services, usually a percentage of whatever he is receiving. So Paul has the incentive to spend all he collected and charge more in the futures. Paul does not call how much doctors (medical billing) charge, because Paul has the incentive to hand out money. The more money Paul hand out, the more he collect in fees.
Baloney! Without the scam that is insurance, medical costs would drop like a rock.
Insurance is the biggest scam known to mankind.
Even now, paying cash gets huge discounts. Try it. You'll learn from it. I learned the hard way when I had a heart attack with no insurance. Cash talks and the discounts are astonishing.
Many costs would drop. But insurance is always needed for very risky, complicated and unpredictable endeavors. Especially when your life itself, family or livelihood are involved. We will always need and have 3rd parties involved with HC. Even with the absurd notion of totally free HC markets, those with the means will want that security.
Discounts can be substantial for cash pay, especially in advance. But for the really big items at hospitals, few could pay cash upfront. And if cash were the only way, hospitals would lose big on the no-pays, unless they could figure out how to otherwise avoid or dispose of them.
Yes, Dale. Please enlighten us Commies...what did your fast-talkin' get your treatment reduced to??? Let me guess. The initial sticker was well over 100k and you wheeled and dealed them down to 900?
Let me share a story too. My wife has a childhood friend who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at the ripe-old age of 28. She was uninsured at the time as well. She had to have a mastectomy, several rounds of aggressive chemo and radiation, and follow up treatment. Not to mention the mental effects of having a breast removed and the strain that puts on someones emotional wellbeing. She paid cash what she could and the rest was on credit. The good news is that she is cancer free and has been for the last 5 years. Bad news is...she's broke. She was sent to collections and now her credit is destroyed. She filed for bankruptcy and she has dealt with that for the last few years. She was practically uninsureable after this.
Her story isn't that uncommon.
This story doesn't make a lot of sense (though I am glad to hear that she is fine now).
She could have simply gone to India, Indonesia or the Philippines and had the same procedures completed for less than a third of the cost out of pocket.
Yes, Dale. Please enlighten us Commies...what did your fast-talkin' get your treatment reduced to??? Let me guess. The initial sticker was well over 100k and you wheeled and dealed them down to 900?
Let me share a story too. My wife has a childhood friend who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at the ripe-old age of 28. She was uninsured at the time as well. She had to have a mastectomy, several rounds of aggressive chemo and radiation, and follow up treatment. Not to mention the mental effects of having a breast removed and the strain that puts on someones emotional wellbeing. She paid cash what she could and the rest was on credit. The good news is that she is cancer free and has been for the last 5 years. Bad news is...she's broke. She was sent to collections and now her credit is destroyed. She filed for bankruptcy and she has dealt with that for the last few years. She was practically uninsureable after this.
This story doesn't make a lot of sense (though I am glad to hear that she is fine now).
She could have simply gone to India, Indonesia or the Philippines and had the same procedures completed for less than a third of the cost out of pocket.
It makes a whole lot of awful sense!
This patients simply does not have the means. Travel, food and lodging expenses. Post op recovery, office visits and then post op chemo. How does she get the necessary foreign currency? Or do you suppose the foreign docs and hospital will extend her credit? <LOL>
Our young and beautiful little Chinese waitress down the street is now near the end of a similar story. She knew I was a doc, and my wife had lost her hair from chemo the year before. She had little means, but a sensible HC policy. We set her up with my wife's oncologist. My wife even gave her her wig. And our ending here is a happy one because she had HC coverage.
Foreign travel for surgery is a growing business. But it is not for most people and for most conditions.
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