What annoys me is seeing someone with the same HMO able to cover a family of five for half what it will cost me for a month's direct coverage cost payment. His wife couldn't hope to get insurance with her prior conditions but since it's a benefit of a public employee job, there's no screening or limits whatsoever. My premiums probably jump 20% per year. Co-pays aren't cheap.
I think if everyone had to weigh the cost of a $100 or $200 co-pay they might not go to the ER for a hang-nail.
IMHO, there should be punitive measures for those who are injured engaging in risky recreational behavior (e.g. idiot climbers in the dead of winter) or monopolize the doctors time trying to get antibiotics uselessly for a common cold. Folks need to learn when to go to the doctor and when to wait or do self care. We have a range of OTC products and pharmacists to help us out.
While I agree with you think of what you are asking. The elderly have always had, in their previous professions, good health care with little or no deductable. They are used to getting good care cheap.
The uneducated that don't work or have very low paying jobs don't care who pays the bill as long as they don't.
The average person has been convinced that doctors are gods and can do no wrong so they blindly follow what the doctor tells them.
Medicine has been marketed for so long that and Americans have been used to the "best" that they are too scared to question what they are told by a doctor.
An example: My wife took our four year old to a dentist. The kid has perfect teeth. The dentist told my wife that he has two cavities in his back molars. Not by decay but naturally occuring cavities. He wants $340 to fill them and then seal the teath. On baby teeth!
My wife still wants to do it only because that's what the dentist said. I had a tooth filled last year. I asked the dentist how much it would be. He said about $90. I just got the bill. He billed the insuranc company $160 and I am expected to pay the remaining $72. I don't know yet what I am going to do.
Only go to a medical doctor for trauma or a very severe acute illness but never for chronic disease. They will only make you worse. Go to curezone.com. This saves a ton of money.
I totally agree. However, the downside is that there are people who then avoid the ER because of the high co-pay. I'm always amazed at the people who call our clinic with symptoms of a MI or stroke, and refuse to go to the ER. Some of my co-workers (nurses) will relent and give them an appointment in the office. I usually don't back down - bringing a potentially medically unstable patient into our clinic is not appropriate; it's up to the patient to decide whether they want to continue having their stroke in the hospital, or die at home....