From article:
“Thanks to federal intervention in the health care system—Medicare, Medicaid, and the employer tax exclusion—hospitals have been able to charge whatever they want for their services, knowing that the average consumer has no idea how much he’s paying, because he’s paying mostly through taxes and other indirect means.
“In 2013, U.S. government entities—i.e., taxpayers—spent a half-trillion dollars subsidizing American hospitals. By 2021, thanks in part to Obamacare, that will grow to $800 billion a year. . .”
Doctor’s and hospitals and affiliated labs have a real racket going on. They do not have to tell you what they will charge when they get your signature agreeing to pay (while you are of course desperately ill...). Then they send you a gigantic bill about a week later when all of a sudden they remembered their pricing.
bmp
There is NO WAY a chest x-ray is going to cost $20. The cost of the film, developing, the tech's time, the radiologist to review it, storage in a PACS system, amortizing the cost of the equipment, all that would cause the cost to run well into three figures.
They have to charge us more so we can see what’s being billed.....what, what?
What does he want Obama to do? Set price controls? Look at the empty shelves of Venezuela super markets to see how well that works. Shall we cut the pay of doctors, nurses, technicians or other hospital workers? Health care costs a lot for a number of reasons. New technologies cost money. Pharmaceutical research cost money, Liability insurance costs money. A high level of health care costs money, and you just can't wish that away. Businesses involved with health care are incentivized to provide quality care in large part because of the money involved. You tamper with that at your peril.
Sure, there are things that can improved efficiency and lead to trimming of costs at the margins, but I just don't believe that a government bureaucracy is the mechanism to achieve these efficiencies.
Medicine is a large segment in the economy where by and large, due to the nature of it, there really isn’t competition and that is the problem. You go to who you like and in case of emergency perhaps who is closest. Even when possible, there is no mechanism to shop around on price.
My local lib was complaining about this this morning. Yeah, I was unsympathetic and laughed in her face.
My husband went to the doctor’s last Monday, Jan. 5 for the flu. He was charged $75.00 for the visit because they said he had to cover his deductible. We have NEVER had a deductible with our insurance plan like this.
Tell hospitals you are illegally here and get it all free
Problem solved....
Oklahoma Doctors vs Obamacare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uPdkhMVdMQ
I think most on here would agree that, for the most part, most problems could be handled with very simple and efficient solutions. Too bad the clowns in DC can’t grasp that.
My son had a minor fracture in his arm, near the wrist. Went to the ER and got a bill for $1300 from the PA for squeezing his wrist and asking, “does this hurt?” And reading an x-Ray and ordering a splint.