41–50 of 189 posts
It seems like the majority of the problem here is that we let the insurance companies bargain with hospitals, so everyone pays a different rate. Just make everyone pay the same rate and let insurance worry about how to drive the costs down across the board by encouraging people to get/stay healthier and reducing the burden on the hospital.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why high deductible insurance offers the best hope for cost control. Too bad it becomes illegal in 2014.
It depends on what you mean by "high deductible", but the Affordable Care Act specifically includes a circa-$6000 deductible option that would satisfy the individual mandate. See: http://www.kff.org/pullingittogether/What-Conservatives-Won-...
http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/regulations/preventi...
The fact that high deductible coverage may be possible for the non-"recommended" chunk of services is a good thing, however.
(I say "may be possible" since 3 actuarial firms couldn't read the law and come to an agreement on what it says.)
My wife is the manager of budget and reimbursement at a hospital, and from many conversations with her, I can imagine that this article is accurate. However, if I were writing this, I would have given greater emphasis to the effect that Medicare has on these problems. The article does mention that Medicare typically pays fees that are below actual cost for the procedures, and that hospitals must therefore increase ch…
> Medical care is the most highly regulated industry in the economy, and so nothing you see happening is going to bear very much resemblance to reality. This is a pretty big logical jump. I'm American, but have been living in the Netherlands for a while. Health care is probably more regulated here than in the US, yet in all of the ER visits I've experienced (myself or friends/family) I've never seen bills like that.…
Regulation does actually cause bills like that. It's just that in Europe, you don't ever see them.
My wife is the manager of budget and reimbursement at a hospital, and from many conversations with her, I can imagine that this article is accurate. However, if I were writing this, I would have given greater emphasis to the effect that Medicare has on these problems. The article does mention that Medicare typically pays fees that are below actual cost for the procedures, and that hospitals must therefore increase ch…
> Medical care is the most highly regulated industry in the economy, and so nothing you see happening is going to bear very much resemblance to reality. This is a pretty big logical jump. I'm American, but have been living in the Netherlands for a while. Health care is probably more regulated here than in the US, yet in all of the ER visits I've experienced (myself or friends/family) I've never seen bills like that.…
If I recall correctly, the United Kingdom, with its much-maligned National Health Service, spends about 40% of what the US spends per capita on health care, and yet when you measure things like life expectancy, Britons are as healthy as Americans. That gives you an idea of how much money is going down the tubes due to administrative inefficiency.
As far as I can tell from the facts given in the EU you would have paid about the same amount the author had to pay out of his own pocket (~ 700 USD). If you had no health insurance at all.
Far from. In Stockholm, for a child she would have paid 120 SEK (~17 USD) for an ER visit. That is assuming she was a resident or in possesion of an EU/EEC insurance card. Going price for an ER visit without EU insurance would be 1650 SEK (~240 USD). So not close even there.
My wife is the manager of budget and reimbursement at a hospital, and from many conversations with her, I can imagine that this article is accurate. However, if I were writing this, I would have given greater emphasis to the effect that Medicare has on these problems. The article does mention that Medicare typically pays fees that are below actual cost for the procedures, and that hospitals must therefore increase ch…
I get that they set their prices in a way that distorts the market to some extent but it seems that that distortion is far less than what the really-smart-guys-in-suits have been able to manage all by themselves.
I understand the impulse that markets make things better. I really do. Look at computer parts for example, there's a robust market that keeps driving down prices and really delivers. But what about the healthcare industry resembles a sane market at all? There's effectively no market forces at work, due to the way that private sector businesses have structured it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why high deductible insurance offers the best hope for cost control. Too bad it becomes illegal in 2014.
I think it only delays the inevitable and ends up making things worse. If people don't have the money for surgery (and really how many of us can pull ou $5000, right no). They'll delay it. Delay it too long and that $4000 surgery becomes a $50000 intensive care, emergency operation.
http://www.rand.org/health/projects/hie.html
Unfortunately, we never repeated the rand experiment, so it's a bit dated. For some reason we never tried repeating it before pushing massive changes in the law.
I have spent a week in a hospital twice, once in the late 90s, once in the lates 00s. Different hospitals, different health plans. Here's the thing: in the 90s experience, I received a complete itemized bill, organized by time and day, for everything that was done to me. I didn't have to pay, my insurance did, but I received copies of the bill. In the 00s, I received virtually nothing. Again, my insurance paid, and I…
I agree. I've been active in helping my grandparents manage their affairs the last few years and I find it interesting how frictionless it is for them, under the Kaiser HMO, to get medical services, especially prescriptions. I find it a little too frictionless at times. They sometimes show me the paperwork Kaiser gives them, but I don't remember ever seeing an itemized bill. I'd find it insightful, as I think they wo…
At the risk of being pedantic, this is one case where one needs to remember that the government never bears any costs of anything. To the point:
I'd also like them, and everyone (especially seniors), to see how much of those costs their fellow taxpayers bear.
I have spent a week in a hospital twice, once in the late 90s, once in the lates 00s. Different hospitals, different health plans. Here's the thing: in the 90s experience, I received a complete itemized bill, organized by time and day, for everything that was done to me. I didn't have to pay, my insurance did, but I received copies of the bill. In the 00s, I received virtually nothing. Again, my insurance paid, and I…
My wife is the manager of budget and reimbursement at a hospital, and from many conversations with her, I can imagine that this article is accurate. However, if I were writing this, I would have given greater emphasis to the effect that Medicare has on these problems. The article does mention that Medicare typically pays fees that are below actual cost for the procedures, and that hospitals must therefore increase ch…
Hang on, so medicare told the hospitals and insurance companies to run their businesses that way? The transaction described in the article was entirely between private business entities. I get that they set their prices in a way that distorts the market to some extent but it seems that that distortion is far less than what the really-smart-guys-in-suits have been able to manage all by themselves. I understand the imp…
It seems that they're afraid of the millions of dollars of lost revenue, without considering the greater sum of expenses that they'd free up.