Current Events > Is the cost of healthcare in America really as bad as people say?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is it?
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Depends.
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I mean it's the #1 cause of debt in the US.
Even minor shit is expensive as fuck if you don't have insurance. iirc @green_butter (Sorry if I got any details wrong or you're not the right poster lol.) was charged almost $2000 for a CT scan when he went to the hospital because his IBS was acting up and he had severe stomach pain. And his insurance only covered like $1000 or something like that.
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my company pays $6,043 a year for my medical insurance, it is pretty good and my company is large enough I gets among the best deals possible. I go out of pocket a few hundred a year. A private market policy like mine at my age (34) would probably be closer to $10k because its kind of a Cadillac of plans.
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Number one reason for bankruptcy in the US are medical expenses,
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Kazi1212 posted...

Number one reason for bankruptcy in the US are medical expenses,

The solution is less regulation and oversight. If things are expensive, having less rules will make it less expensive. There's no reason powerful people would lie and swindle you- for money.
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Gamer99z posted...

I mean it's the #1 cause of debt in the US.
Even minor shit is expensive as fuck if you don't have insurance. iirc @green_butter (Sorry if I got any details wrong or you're not the right poster lol.) was charged almost $2000 for a CT scan when he went to the hospital because his IBS was acting up and he had severe stomach pain. And his insurance only covered like $1000 or something like that.

ya it was close to 2k

getting a referral alone cost $300+ and that was just to speak with a doctor for maybe 2 minutes (not exaggerating).

and then my insurance said they only paid X amount of the claim for checkup procedures like CT scans, endoscopies, etc. the rationale being that different places charge different rates for say, an endoscopy, so they do like $500 flat for these procedures and you have to pay the rest
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It's much higher than most people believe. Huge amounts of your paycheck are taken for healthcare related stuff. Then you have the high premiums and high deductibles of many plans right now. Drugs, health supplies, and services cost more than they do elsewhere. You can have an surgery that costs 10k in one place and 80k in another for no reason. Hospital prices for goods and services are almost pulled out of thin air and always increasing, and they serve as the starting point for negotiations with insurance companies, so that means inflated prices for everyone.

It's an absolute mess.
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It's bad enough that if you see someone dying on the street they might tell you to stop calling that ambulance because they can't afford the ride.
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I would have had to pay about 5 grand on an emergency room bill because of a single blood test and some anti nausea pills.

My appendectomy would have been around 25 grand. The prices are insane. I was lucky to be covered by my parent's insurance.
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Well: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/total-spending-per-capita.png
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Antifar posted...

Well: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/total-spending-per-capita.png

That's off by quite a bit, or just outdated.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/new-peak-us-health-care-spending-10345-per-person/

It's worse than people say it is imo.
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spanky1 posted...

It's worse than people say it is imo.

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I had to get major kidney surgery for a stone too large to pass normally a few years back and the nominal bill was around 200k

I was on the hook for my max deductible (5k, which I had plenty of cash saved up so didn't have any problems floating that cost) and the insurance ended up paying out around 30k. Don't ask me what happened to the difference. Healthcare costs have to be some of the most arcane works of finance in the world

Absolutely. It's actually fucking stupid.
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Pitlord_Special posted...

Don't ask me what happened to the difference.

When you only get paid 17.5% of what you ask, start charging 571.43%

If you're middle class and poor and you have a condition that causes you to need some kinda drug for the rest of your life then yeah. Especially if you can't afford insurance. But if you can't afford insurance, I guess people would say that's on you.
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I remember an old episode of Judge Judy where she ordered someone to pay out a $5000 medical bill for a chipped tooth
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It costs $10,000 minimum just to give birth.
It's fucking ridiculous, especially if you can't afford insurance.
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it costs a stack to even see a doctor don't even get me started on treatment
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fenderbender321 posted...

Yes. And here are the top 3 reasons why it costs so much:

1. Regulations
2. Overall health of average American
3. Tax incentives

Ban every third-party payer, apart from maybe catastrophic insurance and charities, and prices will collapse drastically and quickly.

Yes. I once paid $50 to have a nurse bark at me from across the room that I had ringworm (I didn't). Then she wrote me a prescription for a $100 cream that I could only get mixed up at their attached pharmacy.

Or the time I had an abscess and the nurses refused to do anything about it other than give me a weak antibiotic (about $75 for that visit). Three days later and I HAD to go back and have it lanced/drained and put on an antibiotic that put me at extreme risk for C. dif (about $150 that time).

The worst thing to me is that doctor's offices will not tell you how much procedures are beforehand. I've had friends get hit with $900 bills after being refused a quote.

_Rinku_ posted...

The worst thing to me is that doctor's offices will not tell you how much procedures are beforehand. I've had friends get hit with $900 bills after being refused a quote.

There's a lot of vampires in the industry.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/15/john-oliver-on-kidney-dialysis-taco-bell-and-death/

Healthcare prices would drop if you just implemented uhc
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Antifar posted...

Well: http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/total-spending-per-capita.png

That's off by quite a bit, or just outdated.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/new-peak-us-health-care-spending-10345-per-person/

Probably just outdated. But the sentiment is true. The US pays the most per capita but gets middling results. On average.
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w/o insurance a routine checkup can still cost hundreds of dollars and all the doctor does is make sure your heart is still beating and you can still breath over the course of like 15 minutes.
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Twinmold posted...

Kazi1212 posted...

Number one reason for bankruptcy in the US are medical expenses,

The solution is less regulation and oversight. If things are expensive, having less rules will make it less expensive. There's no reason powerful people would lie and swindle you- for money.

Less regulation means insurance drops anyone who gets sick. The people who are healthy rejoice as they have low premiums but then they get sick and quit rejoicing.
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When I broke my wrist 2 years ago the final cost was over $30,000. Luckily I have good insurance so I didn't pay anything

My friend is going through some stuff right now. He has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and was recently air lifted 59 miles to a hospital. I don't think insurance covers air lifts so he's looking at atleast $60,000-$80,000 worth of debt from these past 2 weeks alone.

He honestly might be in debt for the rest of his life because of this
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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

The people who are healthy rejoice as they have low premiums

which is also a weird reason to rejoice because they're paying for something they aren't using. Insurance is a scam and is really only worth a damn if everyone is paying in so that everyone can get care when they need it.
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bullshit that we have to pay for shit that is outta our control.
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KILBOTz posted...

my company pays $6,043 a year for my medical insurance, it is pretty good and my company is large enough I gets among the best deals possible. I go out of pocket a few hundred a year. A private market policy like mine at my age (34) would probably be closer to $10k because its kind of a Cadillac of plans.

The insurance they pay is deductible too, it's basically a subsidy... but only for people who earn a certain amount.

Yay socialism
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DyingPancake posted...

When I broke my wrist 2 years ago the final cost was over $30,000. Luckily I have good insurance so I didn't pay anything

My friend is going through some stuff right now. He has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and was recently air lifted 59 miles to a hospital. I don't think insurance covers air lifts so he's looking at atleast $60,000-$80,000 worth of debt from these past 2 weeks alone.

He honestly might be in debt for the rest of his life because of this

O_O
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DyingPancake posted...

When I broke my wrist 2 years ago the final cost was over $30,000. Luckily I have good insurance so I didn't pay anything

My friend is going through some stuff right now. He has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and was recently air lifted 59 miles to a hospital. I don't think insurance covers air lifts so he's looking at atleast $60,000-$80,000 worth of debt from these past 2 weeks alone.

He honestly might be in debt for the rest of his life because of this

Its things like this why i say america is a terrible place to live
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Bushs trillions in unpaid for tax cuts could have paid for universal healthcare.

Just saying.
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ReignFury posted...

Bushs trillions in unpaid for tax cuts could have paid for universal healthcare.

Just saying.

[citation needed]

Rika_Furude posted...

DyingPancake posted...

When I broke my wrist 2 years ago the final cost was over $30,000. Luckily I have good insurance so I didn't pay anything

My friend is going through some stuff right now. He has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and was recently air lifted 59 miles to a hospital. I don't think insurance covers air lifts so he's looking at atleast $60,000-$80,000 worth of debt from these past 2 weeks alone.

He honestly might be in debt for the rest of his life because of this

Its things like this why i say america is a terrible place to live

I love America and honestly wouldn't want to live anywhere else

There are things that we need to change though and this is one of them
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Since they added the ACA, it's a lot worse on the open market. The new mandatory minimums have killed affordable plans and replaced them with more expensive versions (and now you're penalized for going without, which is a double slap in the face). Employer plans have also gone up in cost, but it's not as drastic.

Gamer99z posted...

I mean it's the #1 cause of debt in the US.

Except it's actually not. In fact, it's ranked #6
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/debt/top-10-causes-of-debt-1.aspx

Honestly, I'm not even sure how you could think that was true in the first place given the more obvious and more common causes. Granted, you may have based your opinion on viral memes declaring that it's the leading cause of bankruptcies but, as Snopes notes, that's almost impossible to substantiate
http://www.snopes.com/643000-bankruptcies-in-the-u-s-every-year-due-to-medical-bills/
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Zeus posted...

Since they added the ACA, it's a lot worse on the open market. The new mandatory minimums have killed affordable plans and replaced them with more expensive versions (and now you're penalized for going without, which is a double slap in the face). Employer plans have also gone up in cost, but it's not as drastic.

Plus deductibles are so jacked that you're paying a pile of money for insurance you can't afford to actually use.

fenderbender321 posted...

Right now I pay $120 a month for my premium, and my employer pays the other 75%. I'd rather have that extra $480 a month in my pocket, and so would A LOT of people. T

If we revised the tax code, employers would just pocket the $360. Maybe toss you a bone and give you $100 or so, but no way you'll really get the full benefit.

lilORANG posted...

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

The people who are healthy rejoice as they have low premiums

which is also a weird reason to rejoice because they're paying for something they aren't using. Insurance is a scam and is really only worth a damn if everyone is paying in so that everyone can get care when they need it.

I read a good write up once that explained how health insurance will always fail because of the nature of insurance.

Insurance only works when a sizable portion of the insured will never need it. There are many car drivers out there, home owners, boat owners that will never have to call in a claim on their insured property. This makes the system sustainable.

But everyone is going to need health insurance at some point. Even if you're super healthy, things will happen to you, or you'll get older. The whole system collapses under the weight of this fact and expenses just go through the roof.

Health insurance should be abolished, and replaced with a different system.
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spanky1 posted...

lilORANG posted...

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

The people who are healthy rejoice as they have low premiums

which is also a weird reason to rejoice because they're paying for something they aren't using. Insurance is a scam and is really only worth a damn if everyone is paying in so that everyone can get care when they need it.

I read a good write up once that explained how health insurance will always fail because of the nature of insurance.

Insurance only works when a sizable portion of the insured will never need it. There are many car drivers out there, home owners, boat owners that will never have to call in a claim on their insured property. This makes the system sustainable.

But everyone is going to need health insurance at some point. Even if you're super healthy, things will happen to you, or you'll get older. The whole system collapses under the weight of this fact and expenses just go through the roof.

Health insurance should be abolished, and replaced with a different system.

I've never understood the ferocious opposition to single-payer.

You'd pay less in taxes for it than what you put towards your current health insurance. You wouldn't have to worry about being bankrupted by something completely out of your control. It wouldn't cost $10k just to start a family. No one would die because they don't have money.

Funny, because my "health care plan" is simply taking care of myself and not getting sick. $0 for that insurance premium. But keep eating your triple bacon deluxe from Wendy's and then running to the ER.
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REMercsChamp posted...

Funny, because my "health care plan" is simply taking care of myself and not getting sick. $0 for that insurance premium. But keep eating your triple bacon deluxe from Wendy's and then running to the ER.

is this a real post

Twinmold posted...

The solution is less regulation and oversight

You have no idea why Healthcare is expensive here.

One large part is the symbiotic relationship that insurance and hospitals have created that result in ridiculous cost. Insurances than pay a fraction of it. Leaving uninsured and under insured screwed.

Your next large problem is lack of international patent protection. Meaning these American companies creating the majority of new medicine need to get their R&D cost back in America.
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Not only do you pay way more but outcomes are generally shitty too.

It's bad enough that if you see someone dying on the street they might tell you to stop calling that ambulance because they can't afford the ride.

Saw this yesterday.
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wah_wah_wah posted...

Not only do you pay way more but outcomes are generally shitty too.

Not really. There's a reason why the super wealthy fly to America for care. We have the best doctors and technology.

Since it can be cost prohibitive to the average person, we ignore preemptive care
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