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Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

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Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#21

Post by joni123 »

retillit wrote: post #11
joni123 wrote: post #7

Silly americans... in my country, it's obligatory to have health insurance and if you cannot afford it, the government will pay your insurance, for god's sake. Not even the most conservative and right-wing politicans who see our freedom in danger when we can't keep fully automatic assault rifles at home anymorehere question this system, because it just makes sense.

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of an insurance company when participation in the pool is mandatory? A policy like this seems like it creates a legislated middle-man that just wastes money.

Well, somehow it seems to work. Swiss insurance companoies aren't known for being insolvent.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#22

Post by suresk »

nisa wrote: post #14
retillit wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of an insurance company when participation in the pool is mandatory? A policy like this seems like it creates a legislated middle-man that just wastes money.

Not sure if you are joking. Having everyone inside the pool makes up for members with chronical illnesses and other illnesses that need a lot of care. Some still healthy young poeple pay maybe a little bit more but everyone can be treated reasonably well. If you run an insurance without mandatory participation people with problematic illnesses are a risky for the business and that is one reason why the op can't get a…

I think the point retillit is trying to make is, why even bother with private insurance companies if insurance is compulsory? Which is a good question.

The answer, I think, is partially politics, but also partly whether you think the competition a system like this (in theory) encourages outweighs the cost of profits.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#23

Post by sshumaker »

retillit wrote: post #11
joni123 wrote: post #7

Silly americans... in my country, it's obligatory to have health insurance and if you cannot afford it, the government will pay your insurance, for god's sake. Not even the most conservative and right-wing politicans who see our freedom in danger when we can't keep fully automatic assault rifles at home anymorehere question this system, because it just makes sense.

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of an insurance company when participation in the pool is mandatory? A policy like this seems like it creates a legislated middle-man that just wastes money.

You mean like auto insurance (liability)?

You're subsidizing risk across a large group of people. The chances of something happen to an individual are small, but could be financially devastating. So everyone pools their risk together for affordable premiums.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#24

Post by cperciva »

retillit wrote: post #11
joni123 wrote: post #7

Silly americans... in my country, it's obligatory to have health insurance and if you cannot afford it, the government will pay your insurance, for god's sake. Not even the most conservative and right-wing politicans who see our freedom in danger when we can't keep fully automatic assault rifles at home anymorehere question this system, because it just makes sense.

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of an insurance company when participation in the pool is mandatory? A policy like this seems like it creates a legislated middle-man that just wastes money.

Theoretically, it could produce competition between the insurance companies. Sure, you have to buy insurance from someone, but do you want to buy it from the company which has more doctors close to where you live, or the one which pays for PSA blood tests? Maybe one company only pays for you to visit your GP when you're sick, while another decides that they can save money by encouraging you to get regular checkups and catch problems before they become more serious.

I don't know if this sort of story actually plays out -- I live in a country where the only way to get better health care is to move to a different province -- but it doesn't seem completely implausible.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#25

Post by fernly »

_delirium wrote: post #2

Even though I've been researching with interest, so far I haven't run across much in the American healthcare system that makes me question my decision (as an American) to move to Denmark. My taxes are higher, but my costs are very predictable, and by design cannot ever bankrupt me: I pay a flat 8% of my income to support the national healthcare system. I won't end up with a charge equal to 20% or 50% or 500% of my in…

What is your legal status in Denmark, and how did you achieve it? Are you a "resident alien" or an immigrant or what? What restrictions/hoops did you have to jump to get permanent residence status? What did it cost?

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#26

Post by cperciva »

kefs wrote: post #13
fleitz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Canadian but lets be realistic, there are many things that would cause serious financial hardship due to medical costs in Canada. A friend of mine right now is suffering through intense pain from her teeth that aren't being fixed because she doesn't have money/insurance. She's deciding between healthcare and money. You can also lose your life on a waiting list in Canada. Not much purpose in having $23K in the ban…

Chemo is most definitely covered for me.. just as everything else that would be medically required. http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/msp/infoben/benefits.html#notcov... Nothing you have commented with is based on fact. Edit: OP added a ninja-edit to his comment that included the part about teeth-pain... as my link explains, non-emergency dentalcare is not covered by default.

The BC government doesn't pay for my insulin.

As a type 1 diabetic... yeah, I'd say it is medically required.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#27

Post by jellicle »

If he's still in the hospital and thinks the bill is $23K he's got a surprise coming. The bills will keep coming for months. Many items may be billed multiple times. Writer is going to have to invest several man-weeks in dealing with this, minimum.

I talked to a friend of mine who received some treatment recently. He made sure the hospital was "in network", but apparently someone who came in to give a shot was "out of network" - personally, for herself only - so he received a huge out of network bill for the services of one nurse in giving one shot. He asked the insurer if he was supposed to quiz each medical person in the hospital about whether they were in a particular insurance network before allowing them to provide treatment. The insurer's answer was "yes", with no irony.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#28

Post by klodolph »

retillit wrote: post #11
joni123 wrote: post #7

Silly americans... in my country, it's obligatory to have health insurance and if you cannot afford it, the government will pay your insurance, for god's sake. Not even the most conservative and right-wing politicans who see our freedom in danger when we can't keep fully automatic assault rifles at home anymorehere question this system, because it just makes sense.

Can someone please explain to me the purpose of an insurance company when participation in the pool is mandatory? A policy like this seems like it creates a legislated middle-man that just wastes money.

Some kind of organization is going to perform the task of paying money for medical bills: figuring out which medical bills to pay and trying to get lower prices. It can be part of the state or it can a separate corporation; both kinds have historically shown the capacity to waste money.

"Middle man" isn't a dirty word. The health care deals you get in the US are much better with the middle man than without the middle man. Since the insurance companies have so much power, they can (and do) negotiate better rates with health care providers. The cost of paying for your own health care is shockingly high by comparison to the rates the insurance companies would pay on your behalf.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#29

Post by abtinf »

ojiikun wrote: post #15

Every time a healthcare discussion comes up and everyone gets derailed on whether (or how much) to socialize things, I wonder the following: from a technology, taxation, and moral standpoint, what the hell led to a system where some heavy-duty antibiotics cost about 10-15X what they should? More importantly, why do generally intellegent audiences get caught up in arguments over socialism rather than correcting the co…

The reason is simple. Many folks, myself included, hold the view that it is government intervention that has led to the insane system currently in place. Eliminating the perverse healthcare system forced on us by current policy IS the way to control the cost issue.

Re: Greg Knauss's 10-year-old son's $23,800 bug bite

#30

Post by fiatmoney »

abtinf wrote: post #12

This is an inappropriate article for HN.

You know what's a huge barrier to entrepreneurship? Needing the insurance that comes with a BigCo job, so you're not ruined financially when your kid gets bit by a bug. I know many people who have this explicit rationale for not founding or joining a startup.
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