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I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

dolthub.com

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Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#51

Post by JumpCrisscross »

javajosh wrote: post #37
Someone1234 wrote: post #13

When High Deductible Insurance was introduced the supposed concept was to "give employees a stake in their costs, and therefore lower them for both employer and employee." However, even today doing so is very challenging, and before laws like this it was essentially impossible. There's no way to shop around American healthcare, with the system itself working against you at every turn (e.g. doctors prescribing named b…

>So I guess I should shop around by moving cities No, the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor. If you are poor, stop it. Then you don't have to worry about any of this. Consider abortion, a procedure now outlawed in many US states. If you're not poor, you can just pay to travel to another state or country, have the procedure, do some sight-seeing, and come home. The law has no de facto ef…

> the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor

American healthcare works well if you have money and better than anywhere else in the world if you have money and a chronic condition. If you get in an accident, however, particularly while away from your posh neighbourhood, you’re getting the same overworked, hyper-indebted surgeon as the homeless man. (If you’re a billionaire or head of state, that’s different, but that’s different everywhere.)

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#52

Post by legitster »

nomilk wrote: post #30

> CMS's price transparency law, which requires all hospitals to post their prices online in a single, machine-readable file Whoever got this legislation through deserves a pat on the back.

It was part of the ACA, but hospitals tied it up in court for a long time.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#53

Post by legitster »

remflight wrote: post #22

I hate Trump and am glad he was voted out, but you have to give him his dues. This is 100% his doing, through executive action. The Dems could have done this but never did. It’s just another example of how neither side of the aisle is truly on your side.

The price transparency rule was actually an ACA provision. It just got tied up in legal limbo for a long period.

It was finalized during the Trump administration, but in no way should he get 100% of the credit.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#54

Post by IncRnd »

Someone1234 wrote: post #13

When High Deductible Insurance was introduced the supposed concept was to "give employees a stake in their costs, and therefore lower them for both employer and employee." However, even today doing so is very challenging, and before laws like this it was essentially impossible. There's no way to shop around American healthcare, with the system itself working against you at every turn (e.g. doctors prescribing named b…

The Pharmacist is a doctor and can offer the generic version. They do that regularly. There is no need to go back to the original doctor you saw.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#55

Post by gumby »

javajosh wrote: post #37
Someone1234 wrote: post #13

When High Deductible Insurance was introduced the supposed concept was to "give employees a stake in their costs, and therefore lower them for both employer and employee." However, even today doing so is very challenging, and before laws like this it was essentially impossible. There's no way to shop around American healthcare, with the system itself working against you at every turn (e.g. doctors prescribing named b…

>So I guess I should shop around by moving cities No, the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor. If you are poor, stop it. Then you don't have to worry about any of this. Consider abortion, a procedure now outlawed in many US states. If you're not poor, you can just pay to travel to another state or country, have the procedure, do some sight-seeing, and come home. The law has no de facto ef…

> No, the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor. If you are poor, stop it.

Those people deserve it. I mean, some people chose to be born to wealthy parents; if you were too lazy to do that why should I have to reward your laziness by paying to look after you? Really, some people can be so selfish!

> It is very nice indeed to be a VIP in an American hospital

My gf had a life threatening illness and went to Stanford hospital. They gave her the special blanket just for Stanford Faculty so she'd get the VIP treatment. Which in practice meant nothing. Thankfully she survived; now I wonder if I should be glad or not that VIPs get the same shitty health care there as everybody else.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#56

Post by thenerdhead »

Only way to get hospitals to abide is to complain. It’s quite sad as a person who wants to get care about an issue in their health and needing to bounce between the insurance quote and the hospital costing quote.

You shouldn’t have to do napkin math to know how much it’s going to cost you in worst or best cases for simple visits, procedures, or devices/drugs.

This is a positive change as you can now ask directly and hold parties responsible for a transparent price. No more ranges or “estimates”. It’s been slow rolling, but I did have success when complaining recently to my local hospital. I just hope that the fees for ignoring this start to become hefty enough to change the healthcare industry’s behavior.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#57

Post by majormajor »

ars wrote: post #47
nomilk wrote: post #30

> CMS's price transparency law, which requires all hospitals to post their prices online in a single, machine-readable file Whoever got this legislation through deserves a pat on the back.

> Whoever got this legislation through deserves a pat on the back. That would be Trump.

Trump's administration offices finalized the rules on how it would work, but the law was part of the Affordable Care Act, so it would be the Democratic congress and presidency of the Obama era.

Per https://www.sihd.org/affordable-care-act-price-list-2718-e and others

One wonders what took so long, of course.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#58

Post by lotsofpulp »

screye wrote: post #40
khuey wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially our government. Spending. Salaries. It all needs to be public. A lot of it is. In California for example you can go look up any public employee's compensation at https://transparentcalifornia.com/

What's up with those million dollar benefits ? What could they possibly be spending those on ?

Defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare.

Politicians get to calculate the present value however they want today (which always means understating the real cost), and letting the future deal with the problem and playing catch-up to the real costs.

No one cared about this enough so government employee unions and politicians back then got away with underpaying employees in cash (hence reputation of government pay being low), but then give cops and some others 3% final average pay pay pensions including overtime or just averaging the final 3 or 5 years of pay. I have even seen pension plans just use the final year of pay.

The pensions start at 20 years of service, so you can have people earning a couple hundred thousand in their final years in mid 40s or 50s, and then get an annuity worth $200k * 20 years * .03 per year = $120k per year, and then on top of that some even negotiated cost of living adjustments (currently wrecking Illinois’ taxpayers).

Go ask an insurance agent for a quote for an annuity of $120k starting at age 50 until you die and see what they quote you.

They will probably laugh you out of the room.

Add government doctors, lawyers, university management, etc and the costs explode.

Re: I analyzed hospital price lists so you didn't have to

#60

Post by javajosh »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
javajosh wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So I guess I should shop around by moving cities No, the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor. If you are poor, stop it. Then you don't have to worry about any of this. Consider abortion, a procedure now outlawed in many US states. If you're not poor, you can just pay to travel to another state or country, have the procedure, do some sight-seeing, and come home. The law has no de facto ef…

> the solution to most social ills in America is to simply not be poor American healthcare works well if you have money and better than anywhere else in the world if you have money and a chronic condition. If you get in an accident, however, particularly while away from your posh neighbourhood, you’re getting the same overworked, hyper-indebted surgeon as the homeless man. (If you’re a billionaire or head of state, t…

This might be true initially. But such people have networks who know people, pull strings, and move them pretty quickly to "the best" hospital in the area. You know, the Mayo Clinics, the Johns Hopkins, the Cedar Sinais of the world. It makes the hospitals happy, too because they run fundraisers and happy rich patients tend to give a lot, for just this reason.
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