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from the there-should-be-an-app-for-that dept.
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @10:42AM (7 children)
I'm not going to dive into the details because it's depressing for me and boring for you. I'm in my forties, lived a healthy lifestyle, non-drinker/smoker, no drugs. I'm self employed and paid for my own health plan for decades. Then the Affordable Care Act was passed, followed by 50+ lawsuits challenging it, and insurance companies began raising rates to levels I couldn't begin to afford. After feeling like complete shit for the past six months, I finally went to one of those private clinics. There is no upfront pricing. Any tests you have done will result in a bunch of invoices from multiple third parties who read the results (i.e. the MRI done at the clinic must be sent off to some other company for analysis which results in additional costly fees). If the results are bad, like in my case, it's essentially a death sentence. I could opt for some level of "care" but the costs are so far out of reach that I'd be homeless in a few months. I grew up believing there were viable options for these situations, however after an exhaustive search I can tell you there really aren't any. I quite literally sit at home now trying to work up the courage MDC had...
America, fuck yeah...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @12:33PM (2 children)
I've been living with one of these for a while. I am slowly dying. What can you do?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @01:10PM (1 child)
Most of this "care" isn't really helping you anyway. You likely are not missing out on much, if that makes you feel any better. Just look at cuba with their chronic medicine shortages and old equipment yet life expectancy is about equal with the US. That alone strongly suggests the majority of the "care" is wasteful or even harmful.
(Score: 2) by number11 on Sunday August 04 2019, @01:52AM
Interesting, I didn't expect that. US:Cuba life expectancy at birth is 79.3:79.1 (WHO 2015), 78,88:79.16 (UNDESA 2010-15), 75.9:76.1 (GDB 2010), 80.0:78.8 (CIA 2017). Pretty much the same (2 of the studies show longer lifespan for the US, the other 2 for Cuba). And Cuba is a pretty poor country.
I expect that if the US made comparable care available for everybody, we'd rank better. But, of course, we don't.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @01:16PM
Sorry to hear about your situation. If you are willing to uproot and move to a country will good healthcare you could get affordable, quality treatment. Being self employed for as long as you have it may be tough to get a regular 9-5 job, but it sure beats the alternative of suffering (physically and psychologically) and an early death.
The US is a great place to live, unless you get sick and you're not wealthy. Don't think of it as choosing to live somewhere other than the US; think of it as choosing to live.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @10:24PM
Move to Canada or Ecuador, work for 6mo in Canada or 2mo in Ecuador, and use the local systems.
Seriously, please.
Quito's hospitals are world-quality, and Canadian care is generally also top notch. Just move. Don't stay where you are to die.
Canadian doctors and other medpros have a legal requirement to treat you even if you haven't got any money (even if you have no *name* - you can be a coma case pulled out of a river and you'll still get life support until you wake or pass). Ecuadorian medicine is ridiculously cheap, not just procedures and tests (often on the order of 1% of USA costs) but medication also.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04 2019, @12:50AM
You make it sound like Obamacare caused that. The reality is that Obamacare somewhat slowed the speed at which that happened. The solution is to just tax the people and provide healthcare like a civilized country would.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 05 2019, @07:52PM
Yeah. That happened for about two years. Then the ACA had nothing to do with why your rates rose.