Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Time Magazine Special Edition ^ | February 20, 2013 | Steven Brill

[E. Pluribus Unum]

When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie’s father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson with extending his life by at least eight years.

[AmericanExceptionalist]

And that is one of the major problems in our health care system today. Unlike normal markets where prices are known, and guide commerce, true prices are hidden in the medical industry, and the published prices are wildly inflated. Thus as you noted, a $5000 invoice has $3200 in it that nobody is expected to pay. That means that the true price is nothing like what the invoice says it is.

But the patient without insurance still gets sued for the full $5000...

For openers, I would suggest that it is an enormous mistake to go without healthcare insurance--even if one is young and generally healthy--as a catastrophic accident can happen at anytime, as could the contraction of a chronic or lingering disease.

But if one is without insurance anyway, and gets socked with an outrageous medical bill, I would next suggest negotiating with the billing office of the healthcare provider (in person, if possible). Most people would rather receive a firm committment for something, rather than live with the (rather flimsy) hope of receiving an even larger amount.

One consequence of the fake pricing used by the medical industry is that it becomes impossible to determine what medical care really costs. Which number is the real price - the one on paper which is applied to some unlucky customers, or the price which the hospital agreed to provide the service for in its contract with the insurance carriers - a confidential document.

No other industry functions this way...

Most other industries do not have insurance as an intermediary. For instance, if one goes through the checkout lane of a supermarket, one can expect to pay the prices posted for the products chosen. There is no insurance there.

The same way with a hardware store. Or a discount store. Or a restaurant.

[tomkat]

PRECISELY !

[Joshua]

I would suggest you rethink your words. There is no personal glory to God provided by paying taxes. It is through voluntary giving that God is glorified.

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I don’t believe in any system that is funded by the Govt. The problem is that these people are stuck in the system and can’t just be tossed out.
About your “personal” glory and taxes. Jesus didn’t worry about taxes, render to Caesar, if you are I suggest you rethink your priorities. Your logic that “only voluntary giving” gives glory to God doesn’t warrant a response