Guess I misread it. Regardless, I'd prefer to see some actual numbers before I start criticizing the markup.
$$$. Healthcare companies are on nasdaq and hospitals survive off of reimbursements. If they have paid $20 for a product and get reimbursed 10x, they make $180. If they pay $80, they make $780. The author refers to implants, but there are total shoulder and knee companies that are doing $1500 total joint implants now. She's just off with her targets.
that's when you find out how it works and start a secondary career if you ever desire. It usually comes down to a monthly or quarterly meeting where new products or plans are introduced. Also, many contracts are just reupped, without consideration of cost, product, service, etc.
but really, there's so many outside influences on the health care system, to call it a "free market" is just not accurate
You guys know I'm a little off compared to the rest of you, right? Well, what I can't understand is that insurance companies do nothing in terms of actual treatment. Why should they mske money for doing nothing then be able to tell the folks that actually do the stuff what they will and won't pay for. I mean, I keep my end of the deal. Why can they pick and choose their end of the deal?
Healthcare is so expensive because almost nobody pays for healthcare. They pay for insurance or just don't pay. Once health insurance is treated like every other kind of insurance and people have to pay stuff out of pocket (not co-pays) you'd see costs plummet. At that point you'd actually have something that resembles a free market.
As you mentioned, you may have the same product and service but half the price, but access to some places (such as UT or Vanderbilt hospitals) is so difficult and political in some areas, its far from a free market.
I have a HUGE beef with insurance companies. Being blunt and straightforward, if things don't change in the next couple of weeks, they're gonna have another lawsuit to deal with, and I'm more than prepared to burn as much down as I can. I hate to be that way; I really do. I've never even contemplated suing anyone. However, I don't know of any other way to get the sum[itch bay]es to live up to their end of the deal we BOTH agreed to. They don't get to change the rules midstream.
I pay private pay @ $600/mo. We only go to routine checkups, generally, but I also have "riders" on my back, knee and shoulder. So, when I recently tore my rotator cuff, they denied even the first visit and xrays and left me with a $1000 bill. I have to wait 2 years to get it fixed, or if I were to go work for a company and get group insurance, I could do it immediately. How jacked up is that. And it's BCBS, and I read a few days later that they have $2B in reserves.
I was in trauma for a few years and weekends were spent watching resident surgeons put titanium plates and screws by the 100's and rods in uninsured and poor patients all weekend. Maybe 10% were insured or could pay a bill. Somebody has to pay for that and it's us.
I hear you. And I realize it's not cheap and I have to pay pretty well to be insured, but don't deny my once in 5 years dr visit. Quick story: We had our 3rd child via Medicaid. I had started my own company, so we switched to private pay insurance. She became pregnant right around the time we changed, and they called it a preexisting condition, so we would not be covered by our insurance. Fortunately, tn had a law that stated no mother goes without coverage, so you guys paid for my 3rd child to be born, though I had insurance. We didn't have a choice. If something were to go wrong and without insurance, we would've been paying till death.
It appears you know nothing about the system. There is no market. Mini monopolies drive the whole thing because complicit regulators and lawmakers made it so. Regulations are primarily to drive another economic model. None protect consumers.
I'm all about learning new things, so serious questions; There's numerous instances where shortly after a previously regulated industry is deregulated where that industry suffers a collapse of some sort. Why is that? I totally agree with your mini monopoly statement. That does nothing but drive up prices. That being agreed upon, who is supposed to prevent said monopolies? My previous question goes beyond health care. Let me say that I don't think govt should be in total control of private industry. I also don't think that private industry should be left to do whatever they want. It may be a bit of a Goldilocks view, but there's a balance to be had. Now I feel differently about health insurance. I've been screwed over so many times that I will freely admit my bias in that area. BPV, I also admit that I do not have an intimate knowledge of much of the financial sector, but I know what my eyes and ears tell me. What I see and hear often is that large corporations, left to their own devices, rarely make decisions that are beneficial to the consumer; thus, I believe in some measures, not complete control, from somewhere to prevent the consumer from being skull ****ed.
Kick them in the butt for me as well. Been fighting them since April over the babys delivery charges. They're not wanting to pay anything even though our coverage has never lapsed. I called and got our midwife delivery approved before we even visited for our first prenatal. They are trying to deny our 2500 dollar bill versus a 30000 dollar hospital bill they would have paid with no questions. We pay out the butt for insurance, rarely ever use or need it, then get denied over something we went through the trouble of getting pre approved. Buncha crap right there
Come join me. The water's great. I hope it doesn't come to that, but after all I've been through with insurance, I don't give a shit anymore. I'm prepared to do whatever it takes.
