191–200 of 202 posts
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Generally this is true. For anything over a thousand, I try to negotiate. Most of the time they rather compromise than fight/sell it at a % to collections.
I’m curious too - what’s your best strategy for lowering?
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The thing that is unique to the US is the level of corruption. Politicians are 100% beholden to corporate interests and nothing else. America’s dominance is entirely reliant on industry, so nothing can be done to upset the big corps.
Is corruption actually worse in the US than in countries with single-payer? I doubt it. Let's stop making excuses for ourselves and get it done. Maggie Thatcher, who I don't pretend to love, once said (IIRC what I read, paraphrasing), 'Ask military leaders if something can be done, and they'll give you a hundred reasons that it can't. Tell them it will be done and ask how, and you'll get a hundred solutions.' Adjourn…
Yes, in particular America has by far the largest pharmaceutical and medical devices industries in the world, so politicians in other countries have no particularly strong incentive to prioritize healthcare profits over wellbeing. Ask a thousand healthcare economists why healthcare in the US is so expensive and 99% will have this in their top 3 answers.
> Tell them it will be done and ask how, you’ll get 100 solutions
Here’s the solutions: demographic shifts due to death, labor strikes, or violence. Voting in 2024 isn’t one of them. I will still vote because it’s easy and makes some minuscule difference, but there is no mainstream political will for change here.
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One thing my mom has been dealing with recently is where the insurance EOB and the bill differs substantially. My mom called the hospital to ask for an explanation and poof the bill is magically lowered by a several hundred dollars. How the heck is this not criminal fraud? Why are people allowed to simply bill whatever they feel like it, and why is my mother getting 'balance billed' for random amounts? They're still…
its not nefarious - most likely the patient statement printed and sent before someone corrected the coordination of benefits (i.e. right insurance, right copay etc), usually triggered by you. So you got a paper that was outdated, that's it. Its actually typical for a patient to have a huge balance, then get sent the amount, so the patient has ownership of the problem. That usually results in patients calling and corr…
I'm of the strong opinion that the US healthcare system should join the developed world and go single payer. The system we have was clearly set up to exploit patients.
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I generally vote Democrat, but there is no American political party putting serious support toward a sensible healthcare system.
It was top billing in Democrat policy for decades, from Clinton through Clinton, and Biden did some too. Top billing in Republican policy was to oppose it and undermine it - remember the endless, pointless, virtue-signaling votes during Obama's administration by Congressional Republicans to kill Obama's healthcare plan. Remember he got it through on the slimist margin, through procedural maneuver, with (no? one?) Rep…
I remember how the ACA was essentially a giant gift to the insurance industry, and that despite being mandated in most states, only increased the insurance rate by a few percent. Oh, and the vast majority of the increase in insurance was health plans with a $10000+ deductible. I remember how medical debt bankruptcies continued to climb after it was passed.
> Don't worry, most politicians will do anything to get some votes!
Before they get votes, they have to win the money primary. Then we get to decide which technocrat or self-funded billionaire candidate sounds nicest to our ear.
It’s time to stop thinking you can vote your way out of this. Our leverage is our labor.
> Thus, notwithstanding the type of contract created in a particular case, this article concludes that the proper application of contract law principles dictates that patients are usually required to pay no more than the reasonable market-based value of the health care they receive. The determination of reasonable value is based on the market value—the average actual reimbursement the hospital receives for the care in question—and not on the hospitals unilaterally-set list price or billed charge.
From the abstract in: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?artic...
Has this been tested in court? I guess the main issue is that the people who receive the big bills are most likely to have the hardest time finding representation since poorer people are more likely to not have insurance. Really it should be illegal for hospitals to send any bill with crazy inflated prices that are negotiated down by all insurance policies.
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Is corruption actually worse in the US than in countries with single-payer? I doubt it. Let's stop making excuses for ourselves and get it done. Maggie Thatcher, who I don't pretend to love, once said (IIRC what I read, paraphrasing), 'Ask military leaders if something can be done, and they'll give you a hundred reasons that it can't. Tell them it will be done and ask how, and you'll get a hundred solutions.' Adjourn…
> Is corruption actually worse in the US Yes, in particular America has by far the largest pharmaceutical and medical devices industries in the world, so politicians in other countries have no particularly strong incentive to prioritize healthcare profits over wellbeing. Ask a thousand healthcare economists why healthcare in the US is so expensive and 99% will have this in their top 3 answers. > Tell them it will be…
I never thought about the fact that we have a domestic pharmaceutical and medical devices industry, that's present in a way that's unique to the US. That's a factor you don't get in Spain or Norway or Australia. Very enlightening -- TIL!
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It's still better than billing to the hospital and the hospital billing to the patient, piling up taxes and comissions. The patient is also getting more cost transparency instead of a bundled bill one can never make sense of.
Transparency would be far more useful if it came before the service being rendered. Obviously there are some practical limits in exceptional cases, but I can't think of another industry that has high-price services where providing estimates isn't standard.
This is why healthcare should be provided for free at the point of service, paid for by the government. It works very, very well for many other countries. The only reason we haven't been able to make it work here is the rampant lobbying.
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The only advice is: Get up and start working, start thinking and focusing on solving problems, start organizing and winning. Any leader, any manager, anyone with life experience can tell you: If I do it for you, then nothing has changed. Yes, Republican Party political tactics - pretty consistent since at least 2000 - have been effective. Why would they stop until someone stops them? Did you think those power-brokers…
So, you've got zero effective political strategy. Just a bunch of empty exhortation and generic advice. Sorry but that's not helpful. A little bit of advice back to you: the world is a much more complicated place than you seem you to think. The real world isn't a morality play where simply having "the truth" and "good faith" makes it so it "couldn't be easier" to win. That's the movies. That's fantasy. Not real life.
That's you. You keep asking me to do your work. I've got plenty of ideas, energy, direction, and action.
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It's fair, but it's a waste of time. It's fair to pick your nose, but not responsible to your community, the people who built it, and the people who will come after you.
Deflecting the question while simultaneously insisting others act without questioning ("it's a waste of time," apparently to ask questions) is an act of hypocrisy. Show us that you practice what you preach - and make no mistake, you are preaching.
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https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/no-surprises-unders...
From what I’ve experienced, having an open dispute doesn’t prevent healthcare providers from sending you to collections and permanently ruining your credit.