When my boys were little (in the 1980s) a visit to the pediatrician was about 25$. There was no co-pay, that’s what the doctor got. The last time I checked into how much a doctor visit was (to a GP) without insurance, it was over 100$ (I think it was 110$ but I am not positive).
Some of us remember those days, like you said we didn’t need insurance, doctor, and hospital visits were not expensive, we could afford them.
I believe it. My Dad died of cancer in June, 1965, after suffering from it for nine months. He had an operation in January, radiation treatment after the cancer proved inoperable, and spent the last month in the hospital. All this and he didn’t use up the $12,000 insurance policy he had. His private room in a good community hospital costs $20 a day. My mom and I only had to pay $300 to our doctor and part of that was for my grandmother who died about the same time.
My dad saved the bill from when I was born: Total was about $500 (1954) They had apparently paid something during the pregnancy for $35. The doctor owned the hospital and had a policy of delivering the 5th child FREE. I have the bill with a $35 CREDIT due my folks!
About the same time, government got involved in student loans, it got involved in the provision of health care. Look at what has happened to tuition and the cost of health care.
My first semester in college cost $100. The following semester it dropped to $75. I paid it all out of pocket.
By the time I graduated, LBJs great society had begun to kick in and I had to borrow $400 to finish.
Bookmarking and bumping.
Obama and his librat cohorts are relying on people to not remember that far back. We need to remind them.
I do have to say that some of the price increase is because of a “sue happy” society. I know of a doctor that gave up his practice because he couldn’t afford the insurance premiums.
Upload it to Rapidshare.com, and post the link on this thread.
My mom recently showed us the receipts from my older sister’s birth (in 1955). The grand total was $300.
Check out plastic surgery and lasik surgery. They keep getting better and cheaper. No insurance, no government.
Yes it was.
The government abetting the insurance industry and criminal businessmen using illegal alien labor killed our stellar health care system.
Not only was it affordable, but doctors made housecalls.
My husband opened a family practice office in 1980. Office visits were $6-$15. His office was staffed with only two full time employees-one nurse and a receptionist and a part-time typist...no computer...just a handwritten super bill which the patient mailed to Medicare or their insurance. Things changed with the onslaught of HMO’s, DRG’s and government coding.
Same thing with auto insurance and auto body repair prices.
Monday my dentist took half an hour to complete 3 run of the mill fillings for minor cavities. Got the bill today: $504. Just for the fillings. Nothing else. Ugh.
That is so true. But the problem is not only due to government health programs like Medicare. Health insurance in general, particularly employer-paid health insurance has an inflationary effect by dampening price competition and price awareness.
This is really where reform should start. You can’t have cost controls without price disclosure. No true market system can exist if you can’t compete on cost.
Think of how much more efficiency and discipline could be brought to the system if we had menu pricing. Think of the money that clinics and physicians could save if they received payment at the time of service. They could spend less time and money on billing services and personnel. Cash flow would also improve. Health insurance should be catastrophic. For routine care (doctor visits, labs, minor procedures), people should use tax free instruments such as MSAs.
I can remember insurance coverage offered from a job was strictly, “Major Medical” or “Hospitalization”. That’s when medical insurance was actually insurance for unforseen medical problems only.
Open a free account at http://box.net/, upload your file, share it, then post the shared link.
Here is a link to a PDF file that I have uploaded to my BOX.net account.
What caused this dramatic increase in health care was government meddling. Medicare did it, when Medicare came into being docs started padding it, the first medicare didn’t have co-pay and everything was paid, soon medical cost were out of sight and everyone had to have insurance. I remember the days when virtually no one had it and could afford to pay out of pocket for care.