Forum Post: Health Insurance is not the end all solution, it has caused medical bills to sky rocket
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 20, 2011, 8:36 p.m. EST by RonPaulisWINNING
(36)
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The problem with our health care is simple, health insurance never covers the whole bill leaving you on the hook for the rest. when these left over balances go to collections the next person to go use the ER has to pay for it. This results in a self perpetuating cycle where prices are so high people can no longer afford the co pay and more and more bills go to collections. The insurance companies are responsible for the failing health care system.
single payer!
But the health care industry is still reaping record setting multi-billion dollar profits. This is true even after you account for every unpaid bill. They also seek funds for Research and Development under the guise of 'good will'. The health care industry is still one of the three most profitable industries in the world. No excuses. Their charges are way too high.
Health care workers themselves deserve what they earn. It is the private insurance companies and the insane bureaucracy of Medicare/Medicaid that really make the cost so high.
The health care industry profits much more than the insurance industry. Billions more every year. Health care professionals are among the most common of those reaping mid six figure incomes each year. Most doctors are members of the 1% club.
Society wants doctors to be smart people. A lot of smart people wouldn't put off starting a career and starting a family for years and years of schooling only to graduate with a mountain of debt unless there were financial rewards in the end. Some would, most wouldn't.
It's not their knowledge I question. It's their character. Strong financial ties with drug companies. Paid educational/vacational seminars held at fancy resorts. $150 charges for 5 minutes of attention. Multi-million dollar billing scams.
It's not their knowledge I question. It's their character.
I'm a dentist so I don't really know what it is like in medicine, but my relationship with the drug companies is really one sided. Yes, they give me all kinds of free crap and bring me lunch at my office. It in no way though influences a single decision I make. I am sure that there are corrupt relationships and billing scams but those are not the normal. Any group with a lot of people in it is going to have some assholes.
If you are strong enough to resist the influence those drug companies are trying to have on you, that's great. I don't hate the concept of commercial health care. Its vital. But I do hate what it's become. I've seen it up close again and again. I don't distrust all doctors. But certainly a good number of them. At least half. This is based not only on what I've read. But what I've seen for myself.
Find one that you trust and use him as a resource. In most places, everyone knows everyone as far as doctors go and they will know who is honest and who isn't.
i agree if people put the money they spend on insurance into a savings fund they would end up spending less money on health care and prices would adjust
All countries have cheaper healthcare than the US and only a few of them have universal coverage.
There is something fishy going on alright.
For me, health care is free. Since I'm poor and can't afford health insurance, when I get sick I go to the ER, where my bill goes unpaid. People who do have health insurance have their rates go up to cover my unpaid bill. The fewer people with health insurance, the higher the premiums for people who do. It's been escalating like this for years, with no end in site.
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The problem is that since not everybody has it, the risk is not spread out enough and only unhealthy people buy it.
It's a process called adverse selection and its the reason Obama is mandating that everybody have care.
I was recently charged 12 hundred dollars for a clavicle x ray, my insurance paid 850 dollars and the hospital refused to negotiate the balance leaving me in debt. 1200 dollars is not a market price for an x ray
Where do you live, RPW?
this was in Mammoth Lakes CA, i had what i suspected to be a broken clavicle and went in for an x ray. Later to be billed for 1200 dollars
That's unreal. What gets to me is that in different parts of the US that x-ray would have cost less and probably more.