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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: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Thursday November 21 2019, @12:19AM (2 children)
Why don't I see TV commercials, like those of the old fart throwing a football through a tire hanging off a tree with the hot 20 something clapping and smiling?
This is just a microcosm as to how fucked up the American health care system is.
/ then again, at my age boinking a hot 20 year old sounds good
// 2 weeks puking for 10 minutes, yeah, I could do that
/// Good thing I'm divorced, or I would be by next month.
In the end, America was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday November 21 2019, @01:23AM (1 child)
Boinking a hot 20 year old sounds good at ANY age, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Thursday November 21 2019, @02:59AM
But what if you're not his type?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex