[SampleMan]

OB lawsuits have an awful lot to do with it. I'd say about 80%. The rest is better pharmaceuticals.

[goat granny]

It was long before government started to mandate to insurance company's what they had to cover...For instance, birth control pills were not covered and they didn't cost a lot of money. Elective surgery of any kind was not covered unless the doctor could give a medical reason for it, like Rhinoplasty, (nose job) Abortions were illegal, so that wasn't covered...Viagra would not have been covered either, anything with no medical basis you paid for yourself...both hospital and doctor....Doctors visits were not paid for that was the personal responsibility of the person....A doctors visit was 15 dollars. A charge for a penicillin shot was 5 dollars...

I think law suits are responsible for doctors charges going up because they have to carry more insurance themselves...But hospital charges have seemed a bit excessive but then as you say, there is much improvement in what services hospital offer...

But we have all heard of the 60 dollar aspirin in the hospital...I was a nurse and worked in the hospital for 10 years before becoming a goat herder..(that sure does sound strange) but thats why I retired..

City hospitals took the uninsured and now I think the government mandates every hospital has to...so there is much (dead wood) that the insurance companies have to pay for..that ups everyone's premiums..

I am not trying to stick up for the hospitals or insurance companies, but government meddling is what screwed up much of the problems we see today..They started big time in the 70's determining what a doctor must charge for a procedure.

For instance: I was talking with one of our gastroenterologist and asked him how things were working out....This was his answer:

I charge $250.00 for a gastrostopy, the government says it will pay 80% of the charge and the cost was 350.00. The remaining 20% to be paid by the patient...Most doctors would tell you that they would take whatever the insurance would pay, BECAUSE the price the government put on the services allowed were much higher than the average doctor already charged. 80% of the higher charges were a raise for the doctors...

80% of $350.00 was $274.00. The doctor only charged 250 before the government came in an dictated to them.. Hope this is not too complicated. I sometimes describe something a bit garbled..