What does the same medical equipment cost in countries with nationalized health care?
Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
291–300 of 370 posts
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#292I just got an itemized bill today for a minor fall I took a couple months back.. On top of the nearly $6k in other charges from the hospital, they charged $531 for one dab of superglue or "liquid stitches" on my forehead for something that would have healed by itself. One of my friends died two years ago from pneumonia. He didn't go to the hospital when symptoms first started because he was afraid of the bills that w…
It’s worth writing a long article about. In the US there’s no cost conscious party that does price shopping or similar to bring the costs down. There’s only cost pushing parties. Hospitals pushes it to insurance, insurance to employers and employers to the govt as a tax write off. The person getting the treatment only looks at where the “best” care is. That is usually a code word for finding the most expensive hospit…
The insurers would be able to keep the costs in check, IF the employers were taken out of the equation. With employers, especially white collar ones, siphoning the healthy lives into their own separate insurance pools, the remaining pool of lives is costly to insure and thus only a very small number of insurers can afford to exist. If the pool of healthy lives was bigger to offset the cost of the sick lives, then multiple insurance companies can exist and compete on healthcare.gov to offer lower premiums which they can offer because they negotiated lower prices with providers.
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#293Just to pile on about how ridiculous medical costs are: After giving birth my wife was offered Ibuprofen. On the bill we were charged $80 for the 2 pills she took. This was before Obamacare. After Obamacare I twisted my ankle and the doctors insisted I wear a cheap fabric boot with stiff plastic plates while it healed over the next couple weeks. I asked how much it cost and they said $280. I took it off and refused i…
The ACA was a blatant failure in most states. It's still not affordable and large groups of people were never insured. ACA approved plans proved to be bogus. I wrote about this once before: https://fightthefuture.org/article/returning-to-america-and-...
ACA plans on healthcare.gov are only too costly because employers were allowed to keep their grandfathered plans silo-ing healthy lives in low cost plans to benefit big white collar businesses. This had to be done to appease the Republicans who need to “cross the aisle” and vote for it (and Lieberman who was basically a Republican too).
If everyone was forced onto healthcare.gov, there would be enough healthy lives to offset costs from sick lives to create an effective market.
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
The whole system of massive school debt and massive salaries for doctors resting on the AMA artificially limiting the supply and scope of doctors? Yea I'd say so.
> AMA artificially limiting the supply and scope of doctors? I see people say this, but what does this mean? Should we not certify our doctors? Should just about anyone be able to hang out their shingle?
You could increase the supply of doctors without impacting quality, by training more doctors. Medical schools are the main bottleneck, and their sizes are regulated by the AMA to constrain supply.
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#295Just to pile on about how ridiculous medical costs are: After giving birth my wife was offered Ibuprofen. On the bill we were charged $80 for the 2 pills she took. This was before Obamacare. After Obamacare I twisted my ankle and the doctors insisted I wear a cheap fabric boot with stiff plastic plates while it healed over the next couple weeks. I asked how much it cost and they said $280. I took it off and refused i…
It isn't just about getting everyone insurance. It's about fixing the whole process. My Dr ordered some not too expensive tests for me. My insurance refused. I was like, wait, what? You're overriding my Dr? It's insane.
The health insurance company also has doctors working for them. Similar to how auto insurance companies will have mechanics working for them to ensure they aren’t getting ripped off on repair costs.
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from the UK, but live in the SF Bay Area, and this is the single biggest thing I don't get about the US (with education costs being second). I kind of get the libertarian view of not wanting to trust the government but when the alternative is some kind of Mad Max dystopian hellscape (where people are literally dying), surely looking around the world for alternatives that actually work makes sense?
It's not libertarian. The US system is cronyism, statism at its finest, possibly illegal. Honestly, I think with current US laws and a willing political force, a lot of top players in the current US healthcare system could be punished, even with the death penalty (especially if reinstated at the federal level). Dreams aside, in order to have a free market healthcare, which is what informed libertarians want, you need…
A functioning market is one where multiple market participants exist (both buyers and sellers) and both are able to make educated choices.
How can a market like this exist when the buyer is incapacitated, not to mention even when not incapacitated, the buyer is not sufficiently educated to understand what they are buying?
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#297I live in a developing country ... Thailand. Reading things like this, stories in this thread, and about how people are avoiding seeing the doctor because they're afraid of the bills ... makes me realize in some ways Thai people actually have a higher quality of life than many in US in this respect. Costs are order of magnitude(s) lower. A night in the hospital is typically 5,000-10,000 baht or $166-$333. And the qua…
Sounds like people should take some time off work and fly to Thailand for treatment. Any reason why there isn't more medical tourism?
They do this in the UK for getting dental treatment in Eastern Europe where fillings can cost €20 each.
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
> AMA artificially limiting the supply and scope of doctors? I see people say this, but what does this mean? Should we not certify our doctors? Should just about anyone be able to hang out their shingle?
You could increase the supply of doctors without impacting quality, by training more doctors. Medical schools are the main bottleneck, and their sizes are regulated by the AMA to constrain supply.
Schools are not the bottleneck, residency spots are the bottleneck. Residency spots are governed by the federal government (Congress) and someone, somewhere must be lobbying to keep the number of spots low.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/who-pays-for-resident-sal_b_1...
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our first born came with a $42k bill. Hospital and doctor said we were covered by our insurance pre-auth, but come bill time apparently pre-auth was null and void b/c it was requisite on a negotiation that fell through. Each side had a different story and their representatives acted absolutely helpless. We were broke at the time we found out about the pregnancy and memories of the first two years of my boy's life are…
Why aren’t US citizens queuing up to emigrate? At this stage, it seems like the US is the “land of the free”, whereby “freedom” is defined as the ability to freely exploit everyone.
At least what we know is that currently the flow of migration is reversed with a lot of European countries. Many countries like all the northern countries, Netherlands, Switzerland, or even Spain have more Americans moving than their own citizen settling in the US.
Re: Medical equipment pricing is completely broken when a sling costs $200
#300I just got an itemized bill today for a minor fall I took a couple months back.. On top of the nearly $6k in other charges from the hospital, they charged $531 for one dab of superglue or "liquid stitches" on my forehead for something that would have healed by itself. One of my friends died two years ago from pneumonia. He didn't go to the hospital when symptoms first started because he was afraid of the bills that w…
Young and middle-aged people need to vote. I've been in and out of hospitals for the last few years, months, days, hours with relatives, and guess what they don't ever worry about: medical bills. Like never. And guess what they won't ever vote for: Those of us younger than 65 ever having the same luxury. We may be visiting them in the hospital every day, but they don't really see us. And it's hard, because our genera…
Are you referring to Medicare part A and B coverage? They paid out the whole $50k bill for triple coronary artery bypass. Apparently they cover 60 days of inpatient hospital stay for any health issue. I hope I have this coverage when we hit 65....