chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on Aug 1, 2013 9:24:31 GMT -5
The main problem is that our Health Care System has been taken over by "For Profit" Corporations (and by Non Profits) taking in a hell of a lot of money and emphasizing profit over patient care. A wave of consolidations has left us with fewer and fewer HC Providers and choices. And those that remain seem to be those that charge the most money...
If you have never heard of the Chargemaster, that is the mechanism used by HC providers to create highly inflated patient bills. This is the price, you have to pay if you are unable to find an advocate. Medicare negotiates the largest discounts from the Chargemaster rates, Private insurances get varying discounts lesser than medicare does. Then it is the private citizen who pays the most unless the hospital has mercy. But if you have assets, they are fair game for our HC Providers.
I have had personal experience dealing with the system this year. I had to have surgery this year. My bills have been more than $50,000.00 according to the Chargemaster. If I did not have good health insurance I would have really had to dig into my savings.
For example: Hospital Bill was 33,225.96...my insurance got that discounted to 11,467.51 and I had a co-pay of $500.00. What would I have had to pay without this insurance. What would I have had to pay if I had a lesser hospitalization plan (as I had when I was a Contractor)? How much would I have had to pay out of my pocket if I had no insurance?
Surgeons bill was $4893, insurance got it discounted to $3148. Anesthesia was $2483, discounted by insurance to $983.
The charges that would really gall you are the Lab Charges which seem to be totally ridiculous, but my favorite(an oxymoron) was the Physical Therapy Charges. I would go for a half hour(of which I was lucky to get 15 minutes of actual PT); the Therapist would ask if I wanted some ice afterward. I said yes( I did not have the good sense to ask how much...yes I assumed icing down inflamed tissue and muscle was standard ). The bills revealed otherwise. Each (reuseable but not given to me) Ice Pack taken from their freezers was a seventy dollar charge. yes...seventy dollars for using their ice pack! Unbelievable. They never told me about this charge and I didn't get a bill until after PT was completed (How Convenient).
Charlie
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Post by helens on Aug 1, 2013 9:29:58 GMT -5
There's only 5 major health insurance providers in the US.
Aetna's CEO made 72 million dollars in 2010 salary (at that rate you can guess what they pay corporate officers and Board).
Aetna's average profit was 40% AFTER those salaries were paid.
Our premiums probably only pay out something like 20% of our health care BEFORE 'administrative costs', advertising, and propaganda articles.
Those insurance companies already control who lives or dies, simply by denial of coverage for certain treatments and medicines.
But we would rather pay $300 a week to them for insurance, rather than $200 a month for Medicare (socialized medicine- DIRECT payment to providers from the Gov't, no middleman). Idiocracy.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2013 14:48:46 GMT -5
Charlie, I see many reasons why. Your point is taken. May I illustrate another?
In the USA we have become very unconscious of actual health care costs due to employer type programs. This much a month, visit fee, copay of 10-20% of the negotiated rate. These plans are expensive for the insurer to administer and cost the consumer more. Plus they carry larger out of pocket maximums.
I have (for over 20 years) taken the approach of having catastrophic plans. Isn't that the original intent of insurance? To cover use in the event of a catastrophe? Death, care accident, home fire, tree falls on neighbor's car, those are catastrophes.
Everyday sprained sprained ankles, cut fingers, the sniffles, the flu. Those are NOT catastrophe's. Why not pay those out of pocket and have a large deductible (but lower maximum out of pocket) plan?
I had a major accident in 2009. Helicopter ride, exploratory surgery, multiple cat scans, 7 days hospitalization, two ambulance rides = $180,000+ bill. I wrote the check for deductible and it was over. Helicopter ride was $36,600. I paid nothing. That year I paid $4224 for ALL of my medical care. I doubt many people can say that, on premiums alone.
For too long folks have abdicated control to the insurance companies by choosing the wrong plans. We mad bad choices and now the government is going to make worse choices for us.
Obamacare has removed this type of plan from the choice of the consumer.
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