If you think US Healthcare is anything other than an embarrassment, you're delusional

[radditsu]

Originally Posted by MrSparkle001 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To put it simply, health care costs way too much. It's not something that can easily be fixed.

In August I got a small but deep cut on my finger, deep enough that I thought it might need a stitch. It was late on a Saturday so the emergency room was my only choice. I put pressure on the cut so the bleeding stopped, washed it gently under the faucet, put some Neosporin and a bandaid on it and headed out.

The doctor removed the bandaid, said it didn't need a stitch, quickly cleaned off the Neosporin with some antiseptic liquid, put bacitracin on it and wrapped it in gauze.

Cost? About $1,200 for the emergency room and $400 for the doctor. Now think about what they did to charge that much: they replaced my Neosporin and bandaid with bacitracin and gauze. Fucking crooks. I was so pissed when I got the bill before leaving that we settled on $125 total, and I think even that was too much.

$1,600 to replace my bandaid? What the fuck?! They did what I did at home for free. I just went because I thought maybe it would need a stitch - a single stitch, it was a small cut. I'm definitely in the wrong business if people can get away with ridiculous charges like that. I'll do it for half price! What a bargain right? I'll give people bandaids for half price and I'll even use brand name antibiotic ointments! $800 per patient, I'll make a fortune.

My wife uses our insurance all the time. I always love seeing the costs of the bills they would charge if we were not on a plan. THEN show that they negotiated down to a next to nothing amount.

Baby doctor bill: 500 bucks
your insurance paid: 125
you paid:25(copay)
you owe:0

Why don't you just charge the 150 bucks for everyone? Why do insurance companies get to bargain, and some poor schlub who breaks his arm is fucked for the foreseeable future because A) his arm is broke, and B) no way to pay for it, so it will go to collections fucking up his credit so he can't get a bank loan for a house or a car or an idea to make him more financially stable?

I am almost sure that is how we get astronomical health care cost projections. It smells like a shitty insurance company/economist number game bullshit. I hate how actual facts are always skewed by SOMEONE playing a game on each side of the fence. There is no possible way that having my wife talk to a doctor for 20 minutes, get some weight, and take an ultrasound on a machine that is used 24/7(thus being profitable) costs 500 bucks. I am getting to the point trusting math is difficult.

And i fucking love math.

[MrSparkle001]

It's not even all on the insurance companies. Actually it sounds like they find these charges just as ridiculous and negotiate them down like I did.

I do have to say though that while $500 for an ultrasound test is ridiculous, it's not on the level of ridiculousness as my $1600+ small cut that required nothing more than a bandaid and some ointment. And that's on the hospital and doctor, not the insurance companies. They're stuck with those ridiculous bills too, they just have the power to negotiate them down (and so does a very pissed off patient who was raising his voice and growing angrier by the minute at the idea of being ripped off so much). Fuck them.

Where in this "affordable care" law does it prevent such gross overcharging?

[DrKvothe]

Read 'Bitter Pill' article in Time to better understand the ridiculousness of the prices some hospital charge.

[p99soundsok]

Originally Posted by radditsu [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why don't you just charge the 150 bucks for everyone? Why do insurance companies get to bargain, and some poor schlub who breaks his arm is fucked for the foreseeable future because A) his arm is broke, and B) no way to pay for it, so it will go to collections fucking up his credit so he can't get a bank loan for a house or a car or an idea to make him more financially stable?

I am almost sure that is how we get astronomical health care cost projections. It smells like a shitty insurance company/economist number game bullshit. I hate how actual facts are always skewed by SOMEONE playing a game on each side of the fence.

Most people don't know this but an uninsured patient can sometimes negotiate their bills to the hospital(s) they owe. This is no consolation to the terrible inflation that is involved with these gigantic CORPORATIONS that are our medical industry.

The truth is - there is no free market capitalism among those who select the pricing for medical fees. If you go to the obamacare website, you can easily see that only a select few companies were chosen to be the big winners of all this. It should also be noted that democrats and republicans alike will never resolve this. There are a few exceptions but the vast majority of our congressmen are just riding out the fucking gravy train and going in the direction of money and wind.

[radditsu]

One of the HUGE issues is that Hospitals will not post costs and average prices to normal consumers.


It's almost impossible to get a real quote on a non emergency medical procedure, such as a hip replacement.

[runlvlzero]

I won this argument like months ago in /off topic, and made a bunch of idiots (proles) mad.

Obomacare is a fuckin sham, the fact that people will still argue about it just shows how badly damaged and in need of refreshing our democracy is...

I'm not even talking about the central idea of socialized health care... That is fine and interesting to debate.

I'm talking about it's current implementation and future prospects. As well as the past, present, and future outlook of the medical industry as a whole.

Shits a bad move.

[radditsu]

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[runlvlzero]

You know what is really stupid, that retard above me thinks I was replying to him. Like I give a fuck.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by runlvlzero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You know what is really stupid, that retard above me thinks I was replying to him. Like I give a fuck.

Hey Radditsu, your a retard.

[MrSparkle001]

Originally Posted by DrKvothe [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Read 'Bitter Pill' article in Time to better understand the ridiculousness of the prices some hospital charge.

Omg I'm only a short way through it and I'm already so pissed. How is this not illegal? (it's more of a rhetorical question because I know the almighty dollar reigns supreme)

Obamacare does nothing to address the reasons why healthcare is too damned expensive in the first place. Nobody has the balls to address that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbnv6eHKjCQ is just as true today as it was then.