[lit-ideas] Re: The flu
- From: "Veronica Caley" <vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 17:27:12 -0500
Why health care is so expensive?
30% to 40% goes to insurance company expenses, according to a relative who
is VP in charge of a health care system in a community near where I live.
The most efficient insurance scheme is Medicare. Beyond that, there is an
incredible amount of fraud in the system. This is by doctors, etc., etc.
It took me three months to get an insurance company to stop paying for my
expenses in a nursing home. I have never been in a nursing home, except as
a visitor.
Thirty or so years ago I had co-pay on medicines. The drug store kept
shorting me on the no. of pills. I called the insurance co. and they told
me to take it up with the drug store. In other words, go to the crook and
tell him to stop it. Fat chance.
The new Medicare Prescription Bill prohibits Medicare from negotiating with
pharmaceutical companies for lower prices. I could believe Pres. Bush won.
I thought retirees would vote against him by the zillions for this.
Veronica
> [Original Message]
> From: <JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 11/21/2004 8:42:43 AM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The flu
>
>
> <<But some pretty serious economic diddling went on in the early 1990s,
and
> suddenly I was among the 45 million Americans who were deemed
"uninsurable"
> because of an underlying health condition.>>
> Private insurance companies will do anything to avoid paying out. My
> husband had by-pass surgery a few years ago. His Blue Cross Blue Choice
insurance
> pre-approved the surgery. After it was done, when they were sent a
claim,
> they said it was a pre-existing condition and refused to pay. We'll be
paying
> the hospital bill long after our natural lives.
> <<But why have MDs raised their rates so dramatically? Why can't MDs
afford
> to
> maintain small private practices the way they used to--and as many still
> want?>>
> Most people would point to high medical malpractice insurance (more
> insurance .....it's all a con game, you see) which comes back to
egregious errors on
> the part of Dr's who are over-worked and working unbelievably long
shifts in
> hospitals. Our previous pediatrician cut her costs by refusing to bill
any
> insurance companies at all, requiring that her patients pay in cash up
front
> and try to recoup their losses directly from their insurance. Saved her
tons
> in man-hour secretarial/billing hours. I have some experience in
billing
> insurance companies and there are a hundred different hoops you have to
jump
> through for each one. The chance of an average patient successfully
billing
> one of them without spending hours reading up on the rules? Slim.
> Julie Krueger
>
>
> ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: The flu
Date:
> 11/21/04 1:56:10 AM Central Standard Time From: _carolkir@xxxxxxxxx
> (mailto:carolkir@xxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on:
> > The thing that I don't understand at all, is how you
> > can spend that much on healthcare and still not have
> > universal coverage?
>
> ck: I hope some thinktank is working on this one. In the meantime, I'll
> proffer a few guesses related to corrupt fat cats, lack of regulation,
and a
> astonishing amount of unchecked greed. For one thing, prescription drugs
in
> the US are more expensive than anywhere else in the world. (How much
more?
> Double, triple, etc. Depends on the drug.) Other factors are the
extremely
> well-nourished insuranceb(health and liability) and pharmaceutical
> industries themselves, which enter into the overall healthcare costs in
many
> studies.
>
> The issue of health insurance coverage used to be separate from actual
> healthcare in the US, to some extent. That distinction collapsed in the
> early 1980s, with the advent of health maintenance organizations. Many
> people used to pay out-of-pocket for a doctor's visit and prescription
> drugs. The wealthiest people in the US still do that, eschewing health
> insurance. (By contrast, my parents were middle-class, never had health
> insurance, and didn't seem to lack for health care as needed. I didn't
have
> health insurance either...)
>
> In pondering my answer to Teemu's question, I'm realizing that I really
> don't know why health care costs are so high. Paul Starr's book, "The
> Transformation of Modern Medicine," did a pretty good job of explaining
how
> medicine was practiced and paid for in the US, to the brink of the 1980s.
>
> But some pretty serious economic diddling went on in the early 1990s, and
> suddenly I was among the 45 million Americans who were deemed
"uninsurable"
> because of an underlying health condition. More to the point, a visit to
the
> doctor, with standard lab work, cost me $800--compared to the $50 to $100
> I'd been used to paying. And the costs have been uphill since then. (Same
> with dentistry, only more so. Nice-looking, functional teeth in middle
age
> will soon be a status symbol, if it isn't already.)
>
> But why have MDs raised their rates so dramatically? Why can't MDs
afford to
> maintain small private practices the way they used to--and as many still
> want? True, some technological advances are awfully expensive...Okay, why
> so? (Why should an in-office ultrasound cost a patient more than a few
> bucks, for instance?) What's really driving up US health costs, such
that
> unwealthy, uninsured people aren't fixed up for nominal costs--or at
> all--when they have lower-tech infections or broken bones? Somehow, I
don't
> think the real answers are all that fancy.
> Best,
> Carol
>
>
>
>
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