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The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

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Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#191

Post by trixie_ »

ElDji wrote: post #125
trixie_ wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free market works fine, unfortunately like tuition prices the government got involved and prevented what the free market is good at and driving down prices. Fortunately now there a new price transparency laws which the full the effects haven’t been felt yet and are a step in the right direction.

When free market doesn't work, free market advocates have their solution : there wasn't enough free market, so we need MORE free market.

A free market wouldn’t be dumb enough to give a teenager a loan for 100k. That idiocy is reserved for the government.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#192

Post by DangitBobby »

donatj wrote: post #136
LightG wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool story. So what you're saying is there is an horrendous creeping bueaucracy cost here. Funny, because that's exactly what free market proponents argue is the cause of inefficiency in publicly managed healthcare systems, and the reason to move towards models based on the US system. Someone is lying.

> Someone is lying. It’s you, to yourself. What we have is not by any stretch of the imagination a free market solution. It’s insane amounts of paper pushers created by the government. The whole insurance system we have is an impractical mess designed to fail. The free market would never have designed something so customer unfriendly, people would have gone elsewhere had competing solutions been allowed to exist. In…

When was it outlawed and by whom?

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#193

Post by echlipse »

Damn this is costly. I am an outsider from a developing nation in the east looking into this. Here that treatment wouldn't have costed more than 10$ in a very good hospital maybe. I have two questions for US citizens: 1. How are the prices so high(ELI5)? 2. What happens if someone doesn't pay the entire amount of the their medical bills?

Edit: Another question I want to ask after reading some of the other comments. 3. Doesn't big companies in the US keep medical staff for basic medical emergencies like this? That would be free of cost for the employees if things are similar to how it is here.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#195

Post by jac241 »

bottled_poe wrote: post #62
helloguillecl wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States leads the way in treatments and medical tech, but this gives me the impression that the US society is not benefiting as it could from that.

This seems poignant. The cost/benefit analysis does not seem to be aligned with the market. I suspect it’s driven purely by lack of qualified practitioners.

It's not. Physician reimbursement has been going down year over year since the late 90s. Each unit of physician work (relative value units, RVUs) is worth 50% of what it was in 1998 for Medicare at least, and most insurers peg their reimbursement at a specific multiple of the Medicare rate. Sorry, the insurance companies, PBMs, and hospital administration is to blame for the high cost of care, not the physicians who don't control how much they are reimbursed for each office visit or procedure.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#196

Post by dheera »

donatj wrote: post #63
garmaine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$400 still sounds high, to be honest.

I paid $400 for a plumber to do 30 minutes of work this week. A doctor has more training and a lot higher infrastructure costs and overhead, and thus a higher hourly fee.

But plumbers have to deal with a lot of nauseating stuff. "Amount of nauseating substances you have to deal with" should be a huge factor in pay rate.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#197

Post by trixie_ »

nameunimportant wrote: post #166
trixie_ wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free market works fine, unfortunately like tuition prices the government got involved and prevented what the free market is good at and driving down prices. Fortunately now there a new price transparency laws which the full the effects haven’t been felt yet and are a step in the right direction.

When I got my tonsils removed my options were the $75k surgery at the private hospital, or waiting 3 months at the public hospital. I actually stopped consulting and took a job so that I could get insurance, and had the surgery two weeks later. A few years back I broke my wrist while bicycling across England. I was patched up and casted a few hours later, I think the bill was about $200, as a foreign tourist. It wasn…

The free market didn’t make your operation 75k. The government giving a blank check to hospitals and the lack of price transparency did that. Both are as far from the ‘free market’ as you can get.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#198

Post by ben_w »

brobdingnagians wrote: post #71
helloguillecl wrote: post #8

This is absurd. Even in a country with liberal economics and "free choice" health system (however with universal care, and state regulation), the same stitches in a world-class private clinic in Santiago, Chile would cost 400 USD, before insurance . The clinics there are not the ones Americans imagine from a middle-income country, most of them have better infrastructure and doctors than the ones I know in Europe. And…

The US is not a market-led economy in healthcare; I currently live in a country with universal healthcare and I make clear to people that when I disagree with universal healthcare it is not because I think it should be more like the US.

I’m curious what your proposal is, in that case?

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#199

Post by lmilcin »

Hi USA. You are sick.

It is called "health care" and you are doing neither.

I live in a second world country called Poland and even here with all our failings and problems we are not afraid to go to ER when we need stitches.

Organizing medical help should be basic responsibility of a government the same way it should be to get its children to be educated and have good start for life.

Nation is a collection of people that work together so that they can prosper but, most importantly, fulfill their basic needs including a need for safety.

I can think of no large group of people that would say "Let's work together. But maybe let's decide we are not going to to deal with our life threatening problems that can hurt as sometimes completely at random.

When people talk about helping a third world country what are the first thing that are being mentioned? It is usually building schools and hospitals. Because educated and healthy people can take care of themselves. Why would USA decide to not provide free education and free healthcare is completely beyond me.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#200

Post by busyant »

brobdingnagians wrote: post #71
helloguillecl wrote: post #8

This is absurd. Even in a country with liberal economics and "free choice" health system (however with universal care, and state regulation), the same stitches in a world-class private clinic in Santiago, Chile would cost 400 USD, before insurance . The clinics there are not the ones Americans imagine from a middle-income country, most of them have better infrastructure and doctors than the ones I know in Europe. And…

The US is not a market-led economy in healthcare; I currently live in a country with universal healthcare and I make clear to people that when I disagree with universal healthcare it is not because I think it should be more like the US.

Can you elaborate on where you disagree with universal healthcare?

Your opinion sounds nuanced and, therefore, possibly interesting.

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