When the buck doesn’t stop here people aren’t often concerned about the final costs. They imagine they will have passed tne buck, not been left holding the bill.
That’s true of medical bills as well as the politics as usual game.
Just for fun, when you go to your doctor, medical group, or hospital - ask if you can pay cash, and what the price would be.
I have tried it, even for a regular and generic service like an X-ray - no one can tell you.
Zero competition of costs. Self regulated.
Blank check.
Brought to you by The Exempt Ones.
You can never get a straight answer out of anybody what the cost will be before you have anything done. But afterwards they will send you a bill and turn it over to collection if you don’t pay it promptly.
This is why I HATE, HATE, HATE dealing with hospitals and doctors. My basic method for medical bills has been to ignore them because the number will change for seemingly random reasons.
Also its why I’m going to fly out of the country to get some dental work done. Maybe get some optional medical tests done also. Pay once and be done.
It’s a libtard racket designed to funnel tax money to their buddies just like in academia
Comparable to "Because it's Tuesday" or "Because it is what it is."
Regards,
Imagine if every other sector of the economy behaved this way.
I’m thinking grocery store billing would be quite problematic under this system.
I know there’s probably a proper place for medical insurance, just because often the need for medical care can’t be anticipated, but the way the system works now just encourages collusion between insurers and providers, and the patients get fleeced in the process. It used to be that an argument could be made that illegal aliens were the primary reason for rising medical costs, due to cost-shifting, but these days most of the insane costs are just due to plain old greed. Ever wonder why so many new hospitals were built in recent years that look like 5-star resorts inside? They have all these luxurious public spaces that have virtually nothing to do with patient care, but which obviously add a tremendous amount to the cost of building the hospital. My understanding is that it’s because regulations allow healthcare providers to bill on a “cost-plus” basis, meaning they can charge whatever their “costs” are plus a certain percentage of that amount as profit. Well obviously, that arrangement only encourages them to use every excuse possible, including building luxurious hospital lobbies with piano players and resort-style decor, in order to boost their costs as high as they can, because a percentage of a bigger number means more profit than the same percentage of a smaller number.
Consolidation of most hospitals into a cartel of health care consortiums has had a terrible effect on pricing and on deceptive billing practices. CEOs of these monstrosities are now making tens of millions of dollars, and many of the other administrators are similarly living high on the hog. Our daughter in law is the deputy VP of finance for one of these companies, and she has actually told us that she makes so much money that she’s embarrassed to say how much. Let’s just say that they live EXTREMELY well.
I once got railroaded by my “insurer” into visiting the ER to make sure I wasn’t having a heart attack. It was absurd, because all that was going on was that I had an ear infection (which the doctor had already diagnosed) that was causing some dizziness. The dizziness had gone on for a week or so and not gotten worse, but I simply called to see if they could prescribe antivert to make it a little more bearable (this was Kaiser Permanente, so kind of combined insurer-provider). They refused to do anything unless I immediately went to the ER to make sure I wasn’t having an heart attack (in other words, they were really just doing a ridiculous level of CYA). So, thinking that the cost couldn’t be too bad anyway because they had forced me to do this, I went and 45 minutes later, after doing nothing but giving me a saline IV (in case it was caused by dehydration - I tried to tell them what was happening, but they wouldn’t listen either) and administering an EKG, I was on my way back home. A few weeks later I was stunned when I received a nearly $8,000 bill (not including the doctor’s fees, by the way). My portion was nearly $3,000.
Needless to say, I was both shocked and furious. So next time we saw our daughter in law I took the bill with me to see what she thought. I presumed there must have been some type of mistake, but she just glanced at it and without even blinking nonchalantly said, “Yeah, that looks about right. Pretty standard.” It was so obscene that I did something I have never done before and just refused to pay. It was like dealing with the mafia, and I just refuse to reward their cravenness. Of course, they sent it to collections and it dinged my credit for a while, but eventually it just went away and I never felt even the slightest twinge of guilt. This problem is so out of control that the credit rating agencies have even created new versions of their rating formulas that de-emphasize the effect of unpaid medical debt.
The medical industry has become in essence, even if not technically from a legal standpoint, a criminal cartel. It’s as bad as the utterly corrupt federal government.
I dislike people using the word “cost” when they really mean “price”. The cost of a cup of coffee is 10 cents but the price is $3.95.
I can go to my local clinic in Honduras, with no referral or appointment for an MRI, and walk out in less than an hour with the results in hand for a whopping $50.
So what is the “cost” of an MRI?
EC
Need an explanation why health care costs in the US are unknowable and expensive?
It’s a criminal enterprise.
All caused directly by government interference.
The only innovative cost effective section of medicine is plastic surgery. And the reason why is because it’s not covered by insurance.
I have had similar experiences with understanding my medical bills. I broke my elbow and had an outpatient surgical repair. The surgeons bill was less than $1,000, which I thought wasn’t unreasonable. The bill for the surgical center was over $20,000 but when I got the insurance statement, the surgical center bill had dropped by almost $6,000 to conform with the insurance company’s negotiated price. While my out of pocket cost stayed the same in any situation, I fail to understand why the surgical center could just drop its price by $6,000. I am certain that the prices being bantered around have little or nothing to do with the actual cost of providing the services.
So, they still haven’t implemented this basic law, and the administration isn’t enforcing it.