Bonkers pricing of "free" flu shots shows what's wrong with US healthcare
The annual flu shots that are free to those with health insurance are not immune from the convoluted and contemptible price-gouging that plague the US healthcare system.
Health insurance companies pay wildly different amounts for the same vaccines depending on how negotiations go with individual medical providers across the country. In some cases, providers have forced insurers to pay upward of three times the price they would pay to other providers, according to an investigation by Kaiser Health News.
The outlet noted that one Sacramento, California, doctors' office got an insurer to pay $85 for a flu shot that it offered to uninsured patients for $25.
Though $85 might seem like a trifling amount in the bloated scheme of the US healthcare system, such prices quickly add up as tens of millions of people receive a flu shot each year. And while the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover the full costs of all federally recommended vaccines, including the flu vaccine, any extra costs to insurers get passed on to patients through higher insurance premiums, economists told KHN.
Looking further at what insurers paid for flu vaccines, KHN found that costs spanned the whole range from $25 to $85. A doctor in Long Beach, California, got insurer Cigna to pay $47.53 for a shot, while a CVS in downtown Washington, DC, got $32 from Cigna for the same shot. A CVS just 10 miles away in Maryland got $40.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:00AM (5 children)
Deregulate and allow as much competition as possible. Get those flu shots included with a Happy Meal for only an extra 25 cents!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Booga1 on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:16AM (1 child)
Some of the folks at McD's already have on the job experience!
Pennsylvania: https://www.news.com.au/news/national/mcdonalds-employee-charged-with-selling-drugs-in-happy-meal-kits/news-story/da9930d61cbd98ba94a104a3d92ce70f [news.com.au]
New York: https://abc7ny.com/bronx-mcdonalds-manager-accused-of-selling-drugs/2489617/ [abc7ny.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by jasassin on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:30AM
>
Now that's what I call a happy meal!
😁
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:19AM (1 child)
That's still not free!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @02:41AM
...because "free" exists? I suppose if you're RMS and think that living in your MIT office is "free" and doesn't cost the labor of janitors paid by student tuition to clean up after you, and that other people will donate loads of time to go chase bugs in your crap software because labor, manpower, and know-how expertise is also "free," then sure. Otherwise... no.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 21 2019, @08:37AM
Fun fact! A lot of the costs in the medical system are because of doctors offices having to navigate all of the different insurance billing systems. If you standardize the billing system, though it would be a regulatory burden on companies, it would also reduce costs in the system overall.