Health care increasingly out of reach for millions of Americans

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I think his point is that consumers (here, you and your hubby) are able to get procedures done for less if you have to worry about the cost - i.e. if you don't have insurance covering it. Some truth to that. I used to have regular medical insurance with fixed co-pays for doc visits. Didn't matter to me whether I took my daughter to the after-hour care at her pediatrician's office from a cost point of view. Same co-pay applied. Insurance shelled out more for it, though. Now that I have a HD plan and pay the HD out of an HSA, I rather take her in during regular hours - costs me half as much.

Well, that's all true but that wasn't my point

My point was that blood work can be done for a whole lot less than what our local hospital is charging.

And I wonder if insurance wasn't paying, would cost be lower across the board.

I think it would help, but because the product is in high demand, I think the cost would be higher than what the local lab is charging now.

In other words, I don't trust the free market.

[mawilson 2,133]

You hit a good point! Any system will be used more responsibly if there is some incentive to discourage irresponsible utilization. It is observed often where I work that patients with no financial incentive otherwise will grossly abuse the system. Calling for an ambulance for insomnia! Coming to the ER to get meds filled because they couldn't be bothered to get the prescription they already had filled in a pharmacy! Etc.! I have often thought that medicaid would save a large amount of money if they required a time of service co-pay of $2 for a doctor's office visit, $10 for the ER, and $20 for an ambulance. The money raised would be insignificant but the money saved from more responsible utilization would be impressive. Just an idea!

It was my point all along, one which you have poo-pooed repeatedly.

[james&olya 1,121]

It was my point all along, one which you have poo-pooed repeatedly.

It is one thing to rail against obvious problems as justification to take extreme actions and make things immeasurably worse, quite another to offer constructive solutions that potentially 'fine-tune' necessary programs.

[james&olya 1,121]

My point was that blood work can be done for a whole lot less than what our local hospital is charging.

And I wonder if insurance wasn't paying, would cost be lower across the board.

The opposite might be true. Your hospital, if it is like most in this country, is barely hanging on financially. You are being over-charged on whatever they can find they can get away with to make up the huge losses they sustain on 'un-reimbursed' care. Some people cannot or will not pay their medical bills. This can sometimes hit as much as 50% of a hospital's business! But hospitals have a moral as well as a legel obligation to provide emergency care to all regardless of ability to pay or prior payment history! If you eliminate the hospitals ability to make up that short-fall somewhere they will be out of business. Simple arithmetic! You, and many others, can continue to ignore this issue if you like but it is very real and very large. Universal care (with an individual mandate if need be) addresses this issue and then you might see more reasonable charges for many items.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Your hospital, if it is like most in this country, is barely hanging on financially. You are being over-charged on whatever they can find they can get away with to make up the huge losses they sustain on 'un-reimbursed' care.

And we have a winner. Fact is that there are too many freeloaders in this country that expect everyone else to pay for their medical care while they run around at tea party events talking about personal responsibility and all. Yeah, right.