Health care question. When you have insurance or medicare the medical people and place?

Question

discount what the bill is to them. Like a small operation might cost someone without insurance $5,000, but if they had insurance then the insurance company has already worked it out with the medical people that they will only pay a total of $1,500. Seems like the average I ahave seen is about 70-75% discount.
Then the person pays like 10% copay or $150. Here's the deal when a person with no insurance goes in he/she is charged full price and then had a hugh burden to pay. Why not give the uninsured person a 70% discount, but add a $200 monthly one time charge for insurance? They charge $20 for rubber gloves, $100 for doctor robe. That's what happened t a friend. It just seems stupid to charge someone $60,000 and then sue to collect, when if they had a chance they might be abjout to come up withm $15,000 over thime or a loan
I know this is a why they make their money, but still it seems the Feds could step in and make it better for everyone and fair. What's the difference?

Answer 1

I agree, it would be great if hospitals could bill people reasonable rates for services rendered. I have often remarked on the same comments that you are making and feel this would be a great idea! Let me tell you something, that most patients don't know. A hospital on average only recovers about 27 cents on every healthcare dollar that is spent. The supply costs for hospitals are outrageous, for example, the cost of a single box of reagent (chemicals to perform tests) might be $1500 and only capable of performing 100 tests. The budget for chemicals for a medium size hospital laboratory is usually about 1.2 million dollars a year. Equipment CT scaners, MRI machines, Laboratory instrumentation, can range between $300,000 to several million dollars. The federal government reimburses hospitals for Medicare patients based on the diagnosis upon admission. The amount of money the hospital gets is a "flat fee" based on whats wrong with the patient. If the patient stays in the hospital longer than anticipated, the hospital looses money. If they are able to make the patient well and get them discharged quickly, the hospital makes a little money. Hospitals in the United States are in survival mode these days, trying to stay afloat financially. Doctors make good money, but they also went to school for 9-13 years and spent alot of money doing it. The cost of malpractice insurance is skyrocketing as people sue for every little thing in the hopes of making a profit.Our resources are being stressed by people who can not pay, people who simply won't pay, people who use the emergency room as a revolving clinic. We are in a healthcare crisis in the United States, however, I do not trust the idiots in Congress to be intelligent enough to find an answer. The answers need to come from within the healthcare industry itself and the government needs to listen to the people who know it best.

Answer 2

I will go along with D. Mc Coy but can we really trust the health care community to do it. I usually don't get involved with these type question and only answer Numismatic questions but since I am on your contact list decided to put in my 2 cents worth. Every one knows things are bad with health care but no one seems to do anything about it. Us little guys can complain and some die due to the system but it is either up to the industry to do something, if not the government needs to step in and you know how bad they screw things up. Seems there are more problems with less solutions lately. I am getting older and hope the problems are faced for if not the young people of today are in for a ruff ride.

Answer 3

You haven't figured out it's a big scam?