Health billing - is cost fair?

[Lamb]

When you get billed for anything health related, do you feel that the amount is fair?

The first time I got a cat scan, it cost $3,300. I don't think a lot of people can afford to have proper health care. We had to pay that in full because I hadn't met my deductible yet.

 

[tango]

The amount seems to be "think of a number and double it".

When so many healthcare plans have huge deductibles and so many Americans have less than $500 in spare cash to meet an emergency, many people are functionally uninsured. It's great that the insurance will kick in once you pay the first $6500 or whatever figure it is but unless you can come up with that kind of money you have to seriously think twice about whether to go and see the doctor at all.

The eternal problem is that demand for healthcare will always outstrip supply, which will naturally drive prices upwards. The existence of insurance companies sitting in the middle simply drives up the prices further. The private insurance marketplace does nothing to keep prices down and although a system of publicly funded medicine as seen in Europe (and Canada, if I recall) gives people the assurance of knowing they won't be presented with an enormous bill at the end of a course of treatment all it does is forces rationing by some other means. In the UK that takes the form of waiting lists. I knew an older couple who spent their life's savings on going private for heart surgery because the husband was told that without the surgery he had about six months to live. The NHS would pay for it, but the estimated waiting list was 9-10 months.

 

[Ammi]

I'm in Canada so my health care is covered. Until this year, dental wasn't. Then they began Senior Dental Care. I applied for it but I had an emergency on 1 tooth before I was approved. So I paid out of my pocket. 1 filling and cleaning was over $700! I was glad I had it. From what they were saying, they probably would've worked something out with me. They know I just switched from a disability pension to Old Age Security.
I don't usually have that much in the bank. But lately I've been reminded of how the Lord takes care of me, not even wanting me to get in debt. He is so faithful. He hasn't healed me, but He's always with me.
"Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you." - Isaiah 46:4

 

[NewCreation435]

I think it is hard on both patients and doctors that insurance companies have so much say over medical care.
I don't think the charges are fair, but I have also noticed that there almost always seems to be big adjustments on my bills when I get them. It may depend on if someone is used who is in network or not.

 

[Lamb]

I think it is hard on both patients and doctors that insurance companies have so much say over medical care.
I don't think the charges are fair, but I have also noticed that there almost always seems to be big adjustments on my bills when I get them. It may depend on if someone is used who is in network or not.

Being in network definitely makes a difference in getting those costs lowered. If people don't have insurance, sometimes the doctors won't charge as much as they would if someone had insurance.

 

[tango]

Being in network definitely makes a difference in getting those costs lowered. If people don't have insurance, sometimes the doctors won't charge as much as they would if someone had insurance.

I needed to get a prescription at a time I didn't have any insurance. The cost was going to be just shy of $80 and when I said I didn't have insurance and I'd just pay cash the assistant visibly grimaced, then went to her terminal and tapped out something very briefly, then came back and the price mysteriously dropped to something in the low $30s. I can only assume dealing with an insurance company literally doubles the price.