Per Karl Denninger. market-ticker.org
Why would you need health insurance if the following pricing was commonplace for the following routine medical things — and remember to extend these representative samples to everything else in the medical field:
MRI: $275
CT scan: $167
X-Ray: $37
Mammogram: $142
Ultrasound (pregnancy-related primarily, I suspect): $94
A1c test (common for diabetics): $4
CBC (complete blood count; common for a lot of diagnostics): $3.13
Metabolic panel (common diagnostic as well): $3.50
PSA screening (common for men over 50): $7
3-Panel cholesterol (the cheap and common one): $3.94
Tetanus booster: $20
90 Prozacs: $1.98
30 Prilosecs: $1.44
30 Plavix (blood thinner; newer generation of Warfarin): $2.76
90 Zocors (which I’d argue you probably ought not take at all!): $2.16
These are not fantasy prices — they’re real. They’re what you could have today, or darn close to them if we had a conversation about competitive markets in medicine. I didn’t pull these numbers out of my ass; they’re on a “concierge” site for a “direct care” practice in Michigan and none of them are being provided at a loss.
Think about what you spend on “health insurance” today; whether you pay for it directly or you “get it” through employment. If you get it through your job then every penny of what your employer spends is money you could instead have in salary. Multiply the monthly amount your employer spends on health insurance for you by 12 and that’s money you should receive in cash but don’t because it’s stolen and given to an industry that then charges you five to ten times the above through the so-called “insurance.” In fact for most medications your co-pay is larger, often by ten times, the above prices!
Would you rather pay a $10 or $20 co-pay for that Plavix prescription or would you rather pay $2.76 cash?
If the answer is “cash” then can you please explain why you would then pay for said “coverage” at all?
So why are these medical procedures, drugs and similar so expensive now for most people? Why are you basically extorted into buying “insurance” either through your employer or directly? Why is now the law to run these charges through a company that has to make a profit and thus is guaranteed to drive up cost?
Holy cow! What a difference in prices!!
Pinging this one out also!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3538525/posts?page=72#72
Insurance is a racket...
Agree completely...Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement to doctors/hospitals averages 15%-30% depending on the procedure/product. That $3000. MRI becomes $499. after the 0.15 math! I read that some Obamacare policy holders are saying “to heck with paying the $3000. applied to my $6000. deductible, I am getting a $499.99 MRI here!”: http://www.mripathways.com
Personal note, the surgeon who did my dad’s hip surgery got paid something like $500. by Medicare for 3.5 hours of meticulous surgery...that is almost less per hour than my car mechanic charges, and certainly less than a lawyer charges!
“These are not fantasy prices — they’re real. they’re on a “concierge” site for a “direct care” practice”
You forgot the $20,000 annual fee!! But you do go to the front of the line.
“Per Karl Denninger. market-ticker.org”
Exactly what Ms Barnhardt was saying in her post this morning, as per my post #14.
The damn insurance companies and that whole racket use price fixing, gauging, and collusion to what amounts to ‘legalized’ extortion now that the government has gotten involved! There’s absolutely no reason many, if not most, of the treatments, procedures, medications, etc. should cost as much as we are being charged if this racket was broken apart and the free market was allowed to flourish.
I’m personally dealing with an allegedly very aggressive cancer. I’m FAR from wealthy, but I refused to sign up for Obamacare. There’s a number of reasons, but my principles won’t allow me to take part in this corrupt system, enriching those in the racket at the expense of those who pay far more taxes than I. But that’s not the point. For example, I’m SLOWLY paying off an MRI. When I went in for the MRI (which took 10 minutes, once they finally got to me) I received a bill for about $5500. That MRI machine costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1million. It’s being used non-stop every day. At $5500 for 10 minutes of use, it doesn’t take long to pay that machine off. Sure, there’s other costs such as maintenance, the salary of the operator, etc., but there’s no reason the patient cost isn’t closer to $275 as Denninger points out, except for the involvement of The Racket!
Again, the specialists say I need a surgery. I asked what that would cost if I paid cash: $28,000. It generally requires (but never did before) a machine that costs $1million. The machine gets used every day, all day, by multiple doctors. Like the MRI, it gets paid off fairly quickly. Yes, the surgon has a unique skill set, started out with a mountain of education debt (a whole other topic), but charges significantly MORE (@$60,000) than the $28,000 cash price when it’s billed out through The Racket.
But what gets me the most angry, is when I first was seeking out a doctor to perform the surgery, I was referred to a guy working in a large hospital. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to go meet him, just to see if I liked the guy and would trust him with my life. I made it abundantly clear that all I wanted to do was just meet the guy. I drove the 5-1/2 hours to his location, spent a few hours filling out lots and lots of papers at various stations, then had an intern come visit me to ask more questions, and finally met the doctor. After talking with him for a maximum of 10 minutes, my visit was over. A week or so later I received a bill for that visit for right at about $350!!! All so I could just meet the guy. Because The Racket is involved, they get away with billing out that much. It’s nuts!!!!
All that was over a year ago, and I’m still here. My health is declining, but I’m not fearful, because I have absolute faith in Christ. I obviously have quite an interest in what these retarded Uniparty fools come up with, and so far they seem to just want more of the same, but with a different label. They don’t care, because they’ll be exempt from whatever turd they serve up to the American (and illegal) public. They get their ‘special’ gifts from those in The Racket to vote a certain way ensuring The Racket can continue to fill their coffers. It’s immoral, it’s unlawful, and it’s unconstitutional, and it needs to be repealed immediately. THEN they ‘could’ start working on the solution.