Is there any association that is working on fixing the medical insurance problem?

Question

We pay more now than we did when we did not have insurance. The only thing is if we are hospitalized we would save a great deal but still our portion would be very hard to pay. reciently I had to take my wife to the emergency room of our local in network hospital now I get a bill for 200 for the phycician who does not belong to our insurance plan and a bill from the hospital for our portion of $3300 whiich is $600. When we went to the same hospital emergency room without insurance our total bill was $800. both times we where only there for 2 hrs of which 1and a half was spent waiting. There is something terribly wrong with this system.

Answer 1

America has a horrible health system unless you are rich. America is one of only two industrialized nations that does not offer universal health care. As a result our infant mortality rate is not even in the top 30 countries in the world. We spend around $5,000 per capita on health care yet get far less than most of Europe who spend half what we do. Our paperwork alone costs three times what they spend in Canada.

The system is unfair, inefficient, too expensive, not inclusive, and needs a major overhaul. Sadly too many people are content to just assume that this is as good as it gets. The people with the power to change things are rich enough not to care and probably have amazing health coverage too.

Answer 2

There is no fixing this problem. Socialized medicine has its drawbacks as well. It is terribly unfortunate that health care costs are so outrageous. But it is also ridiculous that people take their child to the ER for a cold rather than wait and go to the doctor during office hours. My mother once called an ambulance for chest pains, tied up a cardiac treatment room in the ER for 7 hours when all she had was a pulled muscle from yard work done the previous day. The bill for that was enormous due to all the cardiac testing done and I discovered the true problem after I got there by just asking a few pertinent questions.
We are also paying the bill for all those who do not have insurance. It is one reason a hospital will charge you $8.00 for 1 Tylenol.

Answer 3

I disagree. Health insurance is a wise and prudent thing to have. I am in favor of health insurance policies with large deductibles, say $5,000 per person. Insurance is supposed to be there to protect against catastrophic loss. Ordinary health maintenance expenses should be your own. You have a deductible on your auto insurance and on your homeowners insurance policies to keep them from being maintenance contracts.
Health insurance has become a maintenance contract. In your case, you should have the hospital bill audited. You may have been overcharged for something. It happens on almost every bill.
There is nothing wrong with the system. It works. You needed a hospital and doctor. Both were there for you. A two hour wait is nothing compared to not having an ER, or as in some countries, a two week wait for a near-emergency.

Answer 4

I don't think anyone will be able to fix it. we just got to suffer through it. But hey, you're doing better on the ER wait time. Last month I had to take my daughter to the ER and she has tumors around her heart spine, and kidney and we told them this....we waited 11 hours in the wait area and was out of there in 13 hours (the CT test was only 20 min.). So really the whole system is totally messed up!