Not to sound like an ass, but their kid choked twice in 2 weeks?? Anyone else see a problem there?
The anatomy of a ripoff
61–70 of 189 posts
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#62This is a big part of what's driving people into poverty in this country.
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.…
The American health-care system thrives in the uncanny valley between the government and the free market. There are all sorts of laws and regulations that prevent normal market procedures from working (for example, emergency rooms can’t turn someone away because they can’t pay), but at the same time, American anxiety over “socialism” has prevented Congress from letting the government take a more active role in actual…
...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.
It's hardly clear the money is going down the tubes due to administrative inefficiency. It might just be spent on unnecessary medicine, and costs might be higher in the US.
According to one fairly decent source, administrative inefficiency is a pretty minor contributor - the biggest contributor is outpatient care.
http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/what-makes-the-u...
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#64Wow , I'm glad I don't have to expend mental energy on stuff like this. Universal Healthcare, get it. It's really good. Honest.
I'd like to, but unfortunately I live in the US and my government doesn't allow legislators to propose universal healthcare systems: the rules state that single payer systems may not be discussed, much less voted on.
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#65Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
How do the doctors get paid if the patient is only paying $17 per visit?
That's heavily subsidized, of course, but part of it is also that doctors are only paid about half as much in Europe, on average, as in the US.
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
As far as I know in EU public insurance is mandatory, so you would never pay such ammount.
It varies a lot by country. In Denmark, all hospital visits are free to anyone, whether a resident or visitor. In other countries, non-EU visitors to an ER might pay substantial amounts, though usually still quite a bit less than in the US. Also, some EU countries tie insurance to payroll-tax contributions, so the unemployed may not be covered.
Well, been living in 4 European countries and never paid anything but in mine (Italy). I am also pretty sure unemployed are covered too. Don't know in Germany, where I still can't get how insurance works, but I would guess there is a way to get cover there too.
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#68I 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…
It’s possible that in the second case, your insurance company was paying the hospital according to the diagnosis, rather than covering each procedure as a separate line item, and therefore no itemized bill was necessary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnosis-related_group
Hmm, that's an interesting take on it. Thank you.
That's not my impression of what happened, but it could fit what I observed, and the concept of diagnosis-related groups seems useful.
"diagnosis-related groups" reminds me of how car repair is sometimes done. A made-up example: a tune-up on your model of car at the local mechanics is $350, regardless of how much time it takes or parts required.
Still, at the end of the day, they give me an itemized bill detailing everything they did, and put in, including waste fees they might be paying.
While some of that may be useful for marketing/upsell reasons, much of that keeps me better informed as to the state of my car.
In my 00s experience in the hospital, there was literally none of that, except for one thing: they gave me a manufacturer's warranty card, which was weird beyond belief, but I guess nice to have. Other than that, no detailed list of what had just happened.
If DRGs are the future for billing, I'm not sure they are the best future for doctor/patient/hospital communications.
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#69Earlier 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.
Usually, you should always get an insurance deductible as high as you can afford to pay out of pocket. If you can't afford to pay the deductible out of pocket, you should look for a lower one. So a $5000 deductible isn't for everyone, but it would be good if the people who could afford it would start to use it and bring some price-sensitivity into the system.
Re: The anatomy of a ripoff
#70The more I see this prices, the more I think that: 1) we have too less doctors due to stupid closed numbers policies in schools; 2) we have a patent system that allows companies to legally rip us of for medicines and machinery. With an aging population, this is just not sustainable.