Posted on 04/07/2021 4:15:16 AM PDT by Kaslin
And some people don’t get a necessary (and relatively inexpensive) procedure because it’s not covered.
Why in the world would you WANT to get an MRI?
There isn’t any radiation, but it’s still not without potential side effects, plus it’s not exactly fun.
We’re the only country that has insurance so closely linked with employment. It’s very strange.
Bet the patient was a public employee.
I don’t know anyone with a private sector job whose insurance would cover that.
It’s a legacy of WWII wage controls. Companies could offer health insurance to get around wage increase limits to attract employees, who were in short supply due to all the men being off to the military. It has been baked into the US system for a long time now.
“We’re the only country that has insurance so closely linked with employment. It’s very strange.”
And it should be. People should EARN their medical care, just as they should EARN their housing and food. It’s not our fault that other countries can’t figure this out (and have twice the unemployment to show for it).
I have had to pay for every MRI I have had. The last 10 years because of powerlifting for so many years I have torn triceps on one arm and the triceps tendon. Then herniated discs in lower back and neck and then tore the other triceps tendon off the elbow. So now my elbows match except at least the triceps this time stayed in tact. Then torn shoulder bad so finally had to have surgery on that. 11 months later I tore it again worse than last time. He can fix one more time but over time my policies have gotten where I have to pay more and more and with covid restrictions they want me to walk in alone and when they are done they dump you off on the curb. Lol. Your ride has to wait outside. Wife and I had 2 out of 15 years that our policy was really good and of course no injuries those years.
Uh athlete or not, we all generally have a huge stake in our physical well being.
I would love to retire but I don’t want to pay for insurance that my employer provides. Employer provided health insurance is a drug and I’m addicted.
If I had a nickel for every problem caused by government and blamed on free markets I’d be a big fat “filmmaker” with a baseball cap.
I actually got an MRI (not one that I was bucking for) that lead to diagnosis fixation and mistreatment. I would have been better off with the MRI. My share of the cost was substantial, close to a thousand bucks. The MRI was a the bright shiny thing that caused the doctors to miss my real problem. After insurance, the course of treatment was a waste of about ten grand. I am not completely sold on the miracles American healthcare, no.
“Never mind, too, that he has a $5,000.00 deductible on that policy.”
Give the guy the MRI. Just smile when he has to cough up the $5k.
I hear you.
would have been better off with the MRI
WITHOUT the MRI, ( heard what you said, not what you wrote)
Particularly with a $5,000 deductible.
The reason Americans in general stopped caring how much their health care cost was because of employer-supplied health benefits. If your job comes with heath care bennies, you're two layers removed from the cost of things. You're not just not paying for the medical bills, you're not paying for the health insurance that covers them. So when you go to the Doc for a lingering headache after a weekend in Vegas and he suggests you have a $1000 MRI done, you're all for it because you know you won't have to pay the $1000. And you can't put a price on your health, right?
It's the same with your $1000 smart phone. You convince yourself it's free, so you don't care that it retails for $1000. But what you're conveniently overlooking is that $200 a month you're paying for "cell phone service." You were always paying for that "employer-provided" health care insurance, too, because that was overhead your boss had to factor in when determining how much salary he could afford to offer you. You just preferred not to acknowledge it as such.
Jobs didn't include "benefits" until after WWII. Before that everybody pretty much paid all their medical bills out of pocket, beginning with office visits, so we were very conscious of how much treatment cost. And you cared very much.
After the war, for fear that all those able-bodied men coming back from the war would spark a bidding war and cause massive inflation, the government enacted a wage freeze. Then employers hit on the idea of offering "benefits" on top of wages to try to lure the cream of the crop coming back from the war because that skirted government limits on wage increases.
And that was how America learned to stop caring about how expensive their health care was becoming.
Then (some) Americans decided it was reasonable to expect doctors always to be perfect. And if your Doc couldn't undo the thing G-d had done to you, ... sue him for malpractice. But that's okay because he's got malpractice insurance and he won't have to pay it either.
The litigiousness is an simple fix. Tort reform and "loser pays." Simple but not easy because more than 40% of the legislators in DC were attorneys by profession before they started suckling at the government teat. And that's not a pill they will willingly swallow.
The tougher nut to crack will be convincing the American public that it was always a bad idea to have a health insurance plan that paid all of your medical costs, right down to the tongue depressors. But when you start having to raid the cookie jar every time you rush to see your doctor with a case of the sniffles, then you'll return to the time when we cared how expensive treatment is.
I think the best long term solutions are:
1) High Deductible/ HSA programs. They give the consumer an incentive to control costs.
2) More transparency in expected cost PRIOR to treatment. 5 years ago, I could NOT get an estimate for a simple colonoscopy. With the new laws passed in recent years, I was easily able to get quotes. There was a big discrepancy in the costs.
3) Allow cross-state pooling of people for insurance groups. Bigger pools = lower individual costs.
4) As suggested in the article, remove ALL requirements for specific coverages. Allow the market to provide coverage as the market demands.
Health care is a mess. And, I’m sure more is needed. But, these are good changes we’ve made in recent years. Cost control was returning to the system. Of course, it’s all bastardized now, with government bailouts for COVID distorting every phase of our health care system now.
No such thing as health insurance.
Try taking your car in for a tune up or tire replacement and file a claim on it... see what happens.
It’s Socialized Medicine.
Correct: WITHOUT.
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