Posted on 07/05/2017 6:28:50 AM PDT by robroys woman
I and my friends without healthcare insurance are finding, everywhere, that health care - even "big" stuff - is not really that expensive. and compared to the cost of health care insurance, it's downright cheap. This is yet another example.
An MRI done, with all the trimmings, with an out the door price of under $400. Why pay the equivalent of your house payment for insurance that won't even touch that until you get to your 20th MRI in a year thanks to the sky high deductible.
Health insurance is a scam and a ripoff.
I made a mistake when I posted this. I had tried to post content from here: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2014/11/22/cheap-mris-proliferate-even-groupon/19431111/
However, the post feature would not let me, so I got the same info from another source and copied that info into the OP. However, rather than delete the original content, it just added it to the top. Sorry about that.
Cash only doctors
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/11/news/economy/cash-only-doctors/index.html
Insurance is not a scam. It still has a role but it not meant for everyday expenses.
One commentator, I think it was John Stossel, made the point on elective surgeries being enormously cheap based on market forces. LASIK vision correction is highly sought, but cheap and getting cheaper in such an active market.
I can’t imagine any other procedure being different.
I had a relative call toward the end of 2016 ago from an MRI facility. There were 2 options
* Use insurance - pay about $500 left for the deductible that year (the insurer would be billed an additional $200+)
* Pay about $300 cash.
She didn’t know what to do (didn’t believe it). I said to pay cash since 2016 was almost over and no more big expenses would happen that year to make it worth paying the entire deductible. She paid cash and it really was $300 and got what her doctor wanted.
I found an MRI in the Pittsburgh area for $350 and all the same included except the professional opinion.
I was thrilled to be able to travel from Dr office to Dr office and negotiate an operation.
Turns out it is RA, but still .... that was not that long ago.
I saw that video on youtube a couple of years ago. It was broadcast before obama was elected. I remember the part about the whole foods employee shopping around for a physical and discovering not only an amazing disparity in pricing, but how many places could not tell her how much it would cost.
That is a serious problem.
There are many doctors now publishing price lists for services. This will be very useful after obamacare completely collapses, which is what will happen if the repubs sit on their thumbs (which may be the plan).
It seems like very high deductible insurance combined with health savings accounts would be the way to go.
P4L
This same thing happened to a friend of mine. I just found out about it last Sunday. And it was around that price too.
This stuff is happening all over the place. I actually got on the air a couple of weeks ago on the Michael Medved show to bring this whole concept up and, comically, a couple of other people called in to confirm it regarding their personal experiences.
He acted like he had never heard of such a thing. Either he’s not very versed on healthcare in the U.S. or he’s being less than honest with his listeners.
This is in Ohio...
Anybody know of an MRI service like this in the northeast? MA, CT, RI, NH, ME, etc?
LASIK is a good example of how healthcare will be impacted by a competitive market.
It seems like very high deductible insurance combined with health savings accounts would be the way to go.
I was talking to her last year about health care and discovered she still tells her friends about that when obamacare comes up. I had no idea it had that much impact on her.
And here is another fun fact that we experienced: one of my daughters hurt herself on the playground at school around that same time. The schools insurance covered it, though it took some arm twisting to get them to. They figured our insurance would cover it, but since we didn’t have insurance for something that “cheap”, it wouldn’t. It’s like they had to dust off the policy.
And if you are injured in a car accident or on someone elses property, there is other insurance to cover your injuries. People often forget that as well.
Yep. It is a textbook case of what it would all be like without health care insurance.
I read some piece from 2015 where a guy from California got fed up with the rates and told his wife (p-t tax person) to figure out a new way of doing this. He wasn’t going to keep paying increased rates.
So she went and talked to the finance lady of the clinic that they used. The finance lady opened up a book and read off the alternate deal....cash or debit-card only. So, the clinic would give you a 25-percent discount if you went this direction. Lab stuff? Same way. They would even open up the clinic on Sat/Sun mornings for two hours just for cash/debit card customers. They even had a private hospital in the area that would be the point if you needed in-patient care....same deal 25-percent off.
So the wife made the husband take the $16,000 a year that he was normally paying for care....go into one special account with two debit cards. The negative of this is catastrophic care and enormous costs. But the couple and their kids had used roughly $3,000 of care over the past three years and really couldn’t see any logic for the continuing trend.
I personally think that health insurance should have been broken up into in-patient and out-patient (catastrophic situations) and the bulk of the public should have signed up only for catastrophic care only.
Many doctors are not allowed to tell you the “true” cost.
Many others simply can’t.
No, it's the law. As long as the vest interests that benefit from that law finance the campaigns of the politicians it will remain the law.
Outside the district campaign financing is the greatest flaw of our political system.
Back east I forget which state there was a walk in ,any blood or urine test you wanted prescription free medical lab. It was right next to the whole in the wall mini Chinese restaurant.
America is bypassing the insurance mafia.
I swear this is true. Two otherwise smart and savy people told me, in all seriousness, that they had never had of this so called “cash for services” when going to a doctor or hospital. They found the whole thing shocking and repugnant.
They were retired unionized steel workers. One got so upset he was almost in tears saying that if he didn’t have insurance he would have been left to die (from a recent illness).
They are both supposedly very conservative. But they are Trumpians and like him believe in wonderful, cheap, preexisting conditions should not be excluded, healthcare for everyone.
As I am learning from others on this forum, they may well be a majority.
“I can’t imagine any other procedure being different.”
Agreed.
A little anecdote - I couldn’t believe it when after our youngest was born I saw the itemized expense list: ~$10k total!
Wow - this for a normal hospital delivery - attended only by a mid-wife. The baby was delivered, and my wife went home the next day.
$10,000! - I’m guessing some enterprising group could offer a “groupon” for 1/4 or even 1/10 of that cost (with the stipulation being that “complications” incur additional fees).
fwiw - I often use your LASIK example, as it perfectly illustrates how market forces can control cost.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.