Faryn Balyncd (944 posts) Wed Feb-18-09 01:05 AM
Original message
Why are Americans who are DENIED INSURANCE charged 250-600% more than insurance companies pay?
Edited on Wed Feb-18-09 01:18 AM by Faryn Balyncd
Who is responsible for our perverse medical pricing system?
An opaque system in which whatever prices a hospital will choose to charge for a particular diagnostic code is a protected proprietary secret?
A system where Americans who have been DENIED INSURANCE are then subjected to fantasy "normal rates" of 250% to 400% (or sometimes 600%) higher than the (still profitable) "discounted" rates charged to insurance companies?
Why have these fantasy "normal rates" only come into existence since insurance companies negotiated "discounts"?
Should Americans have to pay a 31% surcharge to insurance companies (for administrative costs, bonuses, etc), when they are not DENIED INSURANCE entirely, in order to avoid being charged 250% to 600% higher than those same insurance companies pay?
Is this justice?
Is this fair?
Is this really what free enterprise is all about?
Or is it PREDATORY MEDICINE . . . and a national embarrassment?
This extreme price gouging of the un-insured (many of whom are uninsured BECAUSE have been DENIED INSURANCE coverage) is a recent phenomenon . . . . .
While it may not be just, it does, from the point of view of an insurance CEO, provide strong incentive for Americans to purchase his overpriced policies (and it makes their 31% cut look like small potatoes).
But how did we come to this?
Insurance began as a noble attempt to distribute risk......
But today the health insurance industry now does everything possible to avoid writing policies for anyone other than cherry-picked low risk groups.
Have health insurance companies, like a few other corporations, become blood-sucking leaches we can no longer afford?
Can we afford universal healthcare while continuing to pay a 31% administrative surcharge to insurance companies?
Or do we need SINGLE PAYER INSURANCE FOR ALL?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5078876
One wonders why people are denied insurance to begin with... Could it be that they have preexisting medical costs or the company has a reasonable assumption of high future medical costs making them a liability ?
rpannier Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-18-09 01:06 AM
Response to Original message
1. Why do the rates of those insured go up when the company has never paid a dime in claims?
It's an f*cked up system
Why is a bottle of milk more expensive now than it was
n years ago.
DianeG5385 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-18-09 01:08 AM
Response to Original message
3. This is so unfair. It's why private health ins. makes no sense
Life isn't fair, and government won't make it better. Deal with it.
efhmc (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-18-09 01:10 AM
Response to Original message
4. This is wrong. Capitalism at its worse.
dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-18-09 01:31 AM
Response to Original message
6. been there, done that...
after i was dropped by my private insurer due to a chronic condition(ankylosing spondylitis), but before i had qualified for medicare, i made several 'full price' trips to the hospital. the current system couldn't be much more unfair.
if obama doesn't get us single-payer-universal healthcare, i'll consider his tenure as potus a failure- no matter what else is or isn't accomplished.
Translation : "If i don't get my Free Ponyâ„¢ I'm going to go and sulk in the corner and suck my thumb."
jfn302 (18 posts) Wed Feb-18-09 02:29 AM
Response to Reply #6
17. Universal Health Care is the wrong answer.
Take a look at every country in the world that has universal health care. Canada, England, France, Russia, etc.
Sure, your price is fixed or non-existent. But, you can't see a doctor.
The father of a guy I work with lives in England. He's had four heart attacks in the last four years and almost didn't survive the last one. He was stabilized at the ER room and then sent home. He's on a waiting list to see a heart doctor and after four years still has another eight months to wait. Is that what you want here?
I sure don't.
A doctor starts out making 20,741.00 pounds a year in England (in case you don't want to find a converter, it's $29,634.00). You can make as much becoming a teacher. Why would anyone be a doctor? You are asking for that here?
You sit in traffic for how long during rush hour? The government has been in charge of making our roads efficient for over 200 years, and they still can't get it right, and you want them to try and get your health right?
I don't understand how any of this sounds like a good idea?
Lousy Freeper Troll.
laundry_queen Donating Member (795 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Feb-18-09 02:50 AM
Response to Reply #17
25. Wow so much bullshit I don't know where to start.
I'm in Canada and have NEVER had to wait to see a doctor. I have more U.S. friends online who have to wait to see their family doc than I do!! LOL! Not to mention I can see any doctor I want to, anywhere in Canada. I don't have to worry about "gee, if I go to this doc or that doc is my insurance going to cover them?" NO! If they are a doctor in Canada, I can go to them! Imagine that!
Now, I don't know about the UK, but the waiting list talking point is phony baloney in most places in Canada. I personally haven't had to wait long to see any specialist and neither have my kids. My FIL had knee replacements with VERY little wait time. My dad had a hip replacement and waited a bit longer than he had to because he went to a doctor who came up with a radical new way of doing it, so he opted to wait to have it done in a more technologically advanced way. He wasn't in any pain at the time. And it was his choice. When I had my children, with 3 of them I had c-sections and got to stay in the hospital 4 days each. Didn't have to worry about anyone kicking me out after 48 hours (omg, I can't even imagine!).
Oh, plus doctors here make a hell of a lot more than $30,000. You should've seen my last dr's house.
And to sum up - if you knew anything about Universal Health care you would know the gov't doesn't make the decisions. They simply fund it. Like an insurance company. Except there's only one and they're not in it for profit. Why you would trust a large corporation looking to make a buck on your illness over the government is beyond me. :eyes:
Unless you're lost online or something....
Trust the government like a good little peasant.
jfn302 (18 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Feb-18-09 04:19 AM
Response to Reply #32
38. You don't understand profit do you?
You work for a profit right?
Your profit is what is left over after the taxes and other fees are paid.
If you count your bills, then your profit is your discresionary money left over after all the bills are paid.
If you don't make more than your bills, you find a way to increase your income. So, are you saying your income should be limited to the amount it takes for you to pay your bills?
Or, are you saying that doctors, nurses, and anyone else that works for a hospital should only be allowed to pay thier bills, but not have extra money in their pockets?
Granite slab on the way for you if you don't change your attitude. People that think outside lockstep groupthink aren't welcome on DU.
MrModerate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-18-09 01:58 AM
Response to Original message
12. Health insurance companies deliver no value, but suck up a large fraction . . .
Edited on Wed Feb-18-09 01:59 AM by MrModerate
Of every health care dollar.
They are purely a legalized protection racket. They should be nationalized for 10 cents on the dollar, their CEOs and boards tossed into the streets, and their bloated staffs downsized.
The cost of retraining every single paper pusher who might get laid off would be recovered in less than a year. You'd want to extend the same benefits to billing staffs in doctors' offices, since their function would be substantially reduced as well.
Yeah, sure, the government would just hire 10 times the number of people to do the same job in twice the time.
Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-18-09 02:40 AM
Response to Reply #18
21. Weird. Cubans never pay. But they have excellent health care. More clinics and hospitals every month
Been there. Seen it.
Cuba has many of the serious social ills resolved, housing, education, health care, and that's under a "dictatorship".
Just think what we could do if we had democratic representation as good as Cuba's "dictatorship"?
Liar.
