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Comparative Performance of American Health Care - national disgrace
- Thread starter dddooo
- Start date
FWIW I had a similar situation once, I had a medical procedure preformed at a hospital's outpatient department, the hospital was in-network but the doctor and the medical office he worked for were not. My insurance company originally denied payment to that doctor (because he was not in-network) and I received a direct bill from him for the amount about twice as high as the in-network rate for that procedure.Quote from Woz2000:
One of the surgeons also trying to gouge us by claiming he is not network (working as asst to network doc), so he wants full fee for standing there (as backup to primary surgeon). Surgery was routine and 15 minutes, but he wants double the primary surgeon because he is not network. Its BS. Getting the benefits of a network but refusing the network rates.
One phone call to the insurance company straightened things out though, they acknowledged that as the hospital was in-network and I did not have any choice as to who would perfrom the procedure they would pay the doctor based on in-network rates. They also indicated that I was not going to be responsible for the balance and indeed I never got another bill from that doctor.
See if you can resolve this situation with your insurance.
Quote from SWScapital:
Congrats and hopefully they are healthy and happy.
My wife had a baby in May. Thank goodness we have fantastic coverage. But I still got copies of the bills. There was shit in there that is just plain criminal. $500.00 consultation for a Dr she never saw(was with her every second for 5 days). Stuff like that was all throughout the copies.
Also, I went to the emergency room last summer. I was not feeling right after I found a tick bite that was infected. The Dr looked at me. Sent me my way. No drugs, didn't even touch the infected spot. $600.00 bucks for walking in the door.
Our healthcare system is fucked with a stick. Big pharma baby!!!
This post shows a total lack of understanding about the American health care industry.
Wtf does "big pharma" have to do with your emergency room charge or a doctor's bill???????
ANSWER: NOTHING
The only way "big pharma" influences you is when you go to the pharmacy to get a script filled. It obviously affects your health insurance from a macro point of view, but has NOTHING to do with your ER or doctors visit bills.
Big pharma is in the business of selling drugs in order to make profits. They only do that if they are able to R&D and bring to market new drugs that have a high patient demand. This is a GOOD thing, because they are incentivised to bring forward new drugs that help you and I live a better/longer lives. I'm glad that there is someone out there trying like hell to bring new, innovative drugs to market.
Have you ever noticed that virtually ALL health care/pharmaceutical advances come from the one country that makes it profitable for companies to pioneer new technolgies/drugs?
So many communists on this thread! So many apologists who try to gain the favor of their corporate masters, by sucking up, maybe they will throw a few bones to you. Hey, you were 'just following orders'
All those top nazi scientists, afer WW2, guess what countries hired them to work for them? The system is rotten from way back.
The top elite that rule us set yearly quotas, for example that 1/2 of US tax dollars must be spent on weapons. The top elite reap the rewards.
the rest of the people must work 2 jobs or 60 hours per week just to afford a family or health care and a house.
What we have is communism, but the propaganda says that we are "free".
All those top nazi scientists, afer WW2, guess what countries hired them to work for them? The system is rotten from way back.
The top elite that rule us set yearly quotas, for example that 1/2 of US tax dollars must be spent on weapons. The top elite reap the rewards.
the rest of the people must work 2 jobs or 60 hours per week just to afford a family or health care and a house.
What we have is communism, but the propaganda says that we are "free".
the primary reason for our higher costs (in addition to lawsuits) is that the pharma companies make the bulk of their profits in the US, as other countries have price controls. in effect, the US subsidizes most of the Research and Development costs of drug companies, and the rest of the world gets a free ride. it's an enormous risk and extremely expensive to bring a new drug to market. throw in the litigation risk, and there has to be a commensurate reward for the risk taken, or the investors and pharma companies won't do it. why would they. Hundreds of drugs fail for each success, and the FDA trial and approval process is long and expensive. for example, i just read about a new cancer therapy that will target cancer cells (chemo kills both healthy and sick cells). however, it will cost a drug company $500 million - $750 million to go through the trials and FDA process to get approval. it will take 10 years as well.
if we we were to implement price controls (like australia does), money for RD into drugs would drop, and the world would be worse off. the worst thing is we wouldn't even see what breakthrough drugs that are not coming to market. if you cut their profits by instituting price controls, taking away their patents sooner and making more generics, are they going to on the enormous risk if the reward isn't there?
no easy solutions really. although govt controlled healthcare in the form of a medicare/medicaid system is the absolute last thing we want. that program wastes 10s if not 100s of billions a year. they simply overpay medicare bills by $20 billion min. imagine if that were expanded nationwide? i'm actually trying to get business for a company to recover overpayments and find fraud.
also, most of those countries are much smaller, and more manageable. australia is offering private insurance these days due to complaints with gov healthcare. so, it's not really fair to compare them to us. although we should look at some of the policies that the successful countries have, and see which are scalable. price controls aren't the answer though. it would be only fair to implement policies that force the rest of the world to share the burden of the costs to drug companies.
if we we were to implement price controls (like australia does), money for RD into drugs would drop, and the world would be worse off. the worst thing is we wouldn't even see what breakthrough drugs that are not coming to market. if you cut their profits by instituting price controls, taking away their patents sooner and making more generics, are they going to on the enormous risk if the reward isn't there?
no easy solutions really. although govt controlled healthcare in the form of a medicare/medicaid system is the absolute last thing we want. that program wastes 10s if not 100s of billions a year. they simply overpay medicare bills by $20 billion min. imagine if that were expanded nationwide? i'm actually trying to get business for a company to recover overpayments and find fraud.
also, most of those countries are much smaller, and more manageable. australia is offering private insurance these days due to complaints with gov healthcare. so, it's not really fair to compare them to us. although we should look at some of the policies that the successful countries have, and see which are scalable. price controls aren't the answer though. it would be only fair to implement policies that force the rest of the world to share the burden of the costs to drug companies.
These national comparisons are always suspect. Clearly, they are done by people with an agenda. The US health care system is far from perfect, but for 95% of patients it works pretty well. I wonder how our system would rank if we could exclude the effects of all the illegal immigrants our system is forced to treat for free. All the hospitals that have been bankrupted by them. All the unecessary tests and procedures done to protect against lawsuits. The wedge driven between patients and doctors by the malpractice crisis. All the urban underclass with their addictions, pathologies, violence and lack of responsibility. The US is not really comparable to those other countries.
I do sympathize with those who have had to navigate the provider/insurance company morass. It is unconscionable, but it reflects teh massive cross subsidies that have been forced upon the sytem. Wwhen you get a $600 bill for an ER doctor seeing you, you are paying for your self, and the 12 illegal immigrants he saw that day, none of whom will pay a dime. Is this a great country or what? We already have socialized medicine for them.
I do sympathize with those who have had to navigate the provider/insurance company morass. It is unconscionable, but it reflects teh massive cross subsidies that have been forced upon the sytem. Wwhen you get a $600 bill for an ER doctor seeing you, you are paying for your self, and the 12 illegal immigrants he saw that day, none of whom will pay a dime. Is this a great country or what? We already have socialized medicine for them.
Quote from TorontoTrader2:
for sure, if I was in dire need I'd go somewhere else and pay - USA, or even places like India do great work for cheap.
but so far in my life I have never had to fork over hard cash for healthcare. But you are talking about cancer.
In the case of immediate need:
If I drop now and need a quadruple bypass, I would be done ASAP for free. If my appendix busts, it will be done now for free.
and birthing a kid will not bankrupt a family here, it's free.
If I am in a car accident, yep again instant free care.
Shit Canadians get all this for free? That's perfect. My question is who pays for it if Canadians don't have to?? Who pays for doctors,nurses and all other expenses?
Canada must be a true socialist paradise. I knew they get the defense for free but healthcare too???
What can happen if you don't have insurance and can't pay the bill?
What can happen if you don't have insurance, have money, but just decide that you won't pay the bill?
I'm hoping the doctor or hospital can't seize your assets or garnish your wages? I assume they would have to take you to court to have 1 of those 2 things happen?
I'm hoping all that can happen is that it gets sent to collections, you still refuse to pay, and it just affects your credit score?
Anyone know?
What can happen if you don't have insurance, have money, but just decide that you won't pay the bill?
I'm hoping the doctor or hospital can't seize your assets or garnish your wages? I assume they would have to take you to court to have 1 of those 2 things happen?
I'm hoping all that can happen is that it gets sent to collections, you still refuse to pay, and it just affects your credit score?
Anyone know?