Fountain Valley resident Jennifer Moore makes a really good point.
"When you take your car to the mechanic, they give you a written estimate before they touch it," she told me.
"So why is it that when you go to the hospital, you have no idea how much something will cost until the bill arrives?"
Moreover, why are prices so completely different from one healthcare provider to another?
And why is it that when patients try to find out in advance how much something will cost, they're treated like unwelcome guests rather than equal partners in their own treatment?
[...] The near-total lack of transparency in healthcare pricing is a key reason we have the highest costs in the world — roughly twice what people in other developed countries pay.
Simply put, drugmakers, hospitals, labs and other medical providers face no accountability for their frequently obscene charges because it's often impossible for patients to know how badly they're being ripped off.
[...] Moore's insurer, Cigna, was charged $2,758 by the medical center for the two ultrasounds. However, Cigna gets a contractual discount of just over $1,000 because it's, well, Cigna. All insurers cut such sweetheart deals with medical providers.
That lowered the bill to $1,739. Cigna paid $500. That left a balance of $1,239, for which Mika was entirely responsible because she hadn't met her $1,250 deductible for the year.
Moore quickly ascertained online that the average cost for a pair of ultrasounds is about $500 — meaning the medical center's original $2,758 charge represented a more than 400% markup.
Cigna's lower contractual charge of $1,739 still meant the bill had been marked up more than 200%.
And the $1,239 Mika had to pay was more than twice the national average.
Wait, it gets even worse.
Moore said that after working her way through various levels of customer service in the medical center's billing department, she learned that the cash price for the two ultrasounds was $521.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-07-29/column-could-our-healthcare-system-be-any-dumber
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:32AM (9 children)
Which makes it that much harder to save the cash needed.
Mandatory insurance only benefits the insurance companies, and their pet politicians.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @09:25AM (4 children)
Just wait until you have an actual medical issue to pay for. Being hit for thousands for something you thought you were covered for really sucks.
I did a calculation for the 'insurance' I have. I would need to have several very nasty problems happen in one year to break even. Break even mind you.
Completely and utterly useless.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @12:59PM (3 children)
My friend is diabetic and found out his new insurance (he became a federal employee) won't even cover insulin. Totally worthless mandatory waste of money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @07:57AM (2 children)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/01/07/feature/insulin-is-a-lifesaving-drug-but-it-has-become-intolerably-expensive-and-the-consequences-can-be-tragic/?noredirect=on [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @04:07PM
What's this bullshit about "keeping the same doctor"? Apparently you can't afford him, so move in. How much would have Obamacare cost for basic care and prescription coverage?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @01:07PM
tl;dr The system is broken
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @11:07AM
Just splurge and self-pay for the lobotomy we all know you desperately need. Oh, and be sure to tell us you got it because we may not be able to tell based on just the content of your posts.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday August 03 2019, @12:27PM (1 child)
In the culture of corruption which seems to prevail in the United States, yes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 06 2019, @10:43AM
FTFY
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @12:41AM
The problem isn't the mandatory insurance, the problem is that the GOP has continually fought for policies that cover nothing so that you can pay a low premium. Then you get something serious and go bankrupt because the policy didn't cover anything.
Requiring everybody to have insurance would have worked had the GOP not sabotaged the bill. A large part of what drives up the cost of insurance was charity care and people not receiving preventative care. It would have taken ages for the cost of insurance to come down to the point where insurance was reasonable again as there's many millions of people who hadn't been receiving routine care or treatment for preventable illnesses. But, it would have eventually come down a lot.
Still not really good enough, we should have had a public option at a minimum and medicare for all as the only option.