Why does Health Care cost so much?

[_ajax18]

Health insurance is weird in that it is expected to cover all routine costs.

But you can't get medical savings dollars taken out pretax, you can only purchase health insurance pretax.

People will pay through the nose to prolong a healthy life.

I see people pay through the nose to prolong a very poor quality of life. I've also seen people who value their family estate to the point that they forego expensive cancer treatment and just let the disease take them down. That's a terribly difficult decision to make, but again a decision that I believe should be made by the individual and not the federal government.

[_subgenius]

I know this sounds overly simple, but it's because of this:

It takes a lot of resources to educate someone properly in the healthcare field, and we all pay for it one way or another.

If healthcare were as simple as making a hamburger it'd be cheap.

It's not.

It's very complicated, and requires employees who are smarter, more driven, and more disciplined than your average worker.

If you want cheap healthcare move to a s****y place in the world, accept whatever b***s*** the local medicine man or woman says, and wish for the best.

That's it in a nutshell.

- Doc

nuts is the only accurate measure of that reasoning. Education is typically paid for by the recipient. Lawyers require a small fraction of the resources for education and they garner similar fees. Architects spend more time in testing and education than Doctors yet make, on average, less money for services.

Healthcare costs are like any other commodity...influenced by supply and demand....except for one additional factor - liability. The incredible amount of risk involved. Ask any US doctor how much he/she pays in malpractice insurance.....ask a hospital admin. A colleague of mine has a wife who is a member of a team of lawyers that work solely for a hospital group. Their sole purpose is to travel around to mitigate the damage from various hospital incidents. They negotiate settlements or reveal fraud in order to prevent any court action. They are paid exceedingly well and have an incredibly busy schedule...they are a more cost effective solution than not having them.
It is the weakness, vulnerability, and greed of people in general that has healthcare costs so high.

[_Doctor Steuss]

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/print/

I am about a third of the way through this issue of Time (just started the article on the cost of medicine). The mark-up on some of the stuff is mind-blowing. I am really looking forward to finishing reading it. I'm still processing the little snipit about how much the president of the "non-profit" hospital was being paid.

I have a high-deductable plan, so I have to essentially pay all of my medical bills out of pocket (which, as an individual living with Bipolar Disorder, can be quite substantial... my mood stabilizing medication alone costs over $100 a month, and that’s only one piece of my medication combination). Currently, about a third of my income goes to my mental healthcare costs. Each time I look up to check the balance of my HSA, I will take a look at the bills. Even though I have to pay everything out of pocket, I have the advantage of paying the contracted rates that my insurance provides. Even though I am essentially paying “cash,” it is amazing to see the difference it would be if I didn’t have the negotiated contracted rates of my insurance, or if I were to have to go out-of-network.

Just one example: My last psychiatrist appointment cost me $60. If I didn’t have the reduced contracted rate, it would have cost me $210. Our appointments rarely last more than 5-10 minutes (our last appointment consisted of “Are you doing ok?,” after answering yes, he wrote me a refill prescription… probably took 3 minutes).

I am still paying off the bills from when I was hospitalized in a mental healthcare facility last year. They probably would have been almost triple if I didn't have my mediocre insurance.


Edited to add:

Not sure what others do, just die I suppose

I am glad you’re still here. I hope the final surgery goes well, and the long ordeal you’ve been through finally comes to a happy end.

[_ldsfaqs]

I just finished up chemo 9 treatments ... the cost is mostly in the drugs - $130,800. 6 weeks of radition was around $90,000, two surgeries was around $120,000 ... one more surgery to go expect about $90,000 based on the last two.

I was lucky and had very good coverage, with me having to only pony up with several thousand dollars.

Not sure what others do, just die I suppose

Nope, they don't just "die", they are taken care of and treated.

It's really simple folks, the reason health care costs so much is two fold, government being involved and people who can't pay being treated.

Take me for example. I just had my gallbladder removed, and I don't have money or insurance.
They have some plan where they can do a income adjusted payment, reduce the bill etc., but ultimately someone else is going to be paying this off, not really me.

Thus, this what happens, because there are many people like me being treated, they move the "cost" of healthcare to everyone else who "can pay", thus the actual cost of a simple treatment rises greatly. Bottom line, is we already have socialized health care in America, and the government getting even more involved is simply going to make it worse and even more costly.

50 years ago when government wasn't as involved people were able to afford themselves or be taken care of by family, church and community for most things, but not now.

[_cinepro]

This is a good podcast on the subject: Planet Money - Shopping for an MRI

I've been hearing more and more about insurance companies paying to send patients to other parts of the country (or world) to have procedures done in a lower-cost environment. It's an interesting example of the "market working", and it will be interesting to see how it develops in the future.

[_bcspace]

Medicare pays $20.83 for a chest X-ray. The same X-ray costs a private party $283 at a Houston Hospital.

Why? According to the Hospital:

"The issues related to health care finance are complex for patients, health care providers, payers and government entities alike … MD Anderson’s clinical billing and collection practices are similar to those of other major hospitals and academic medical centers.”

In other words, "F___ you."

It's only one of several reasons why it costs so much, but this case illustrates the underfunding of Medicare/Medicaid which forces doctors and hospitals to charge the difference to regular patients. But many of them are merciful as some of you know doubt know if you've ever paid out of pocket. In those cases, the charges are often also less.

What has happened is premium payers, and everyone who has a plan funded by employment, foot the bill. This is part of the plan to destroy the health care system and make everyone demand the government step in with a national program. But that is also a false hope as that distorts the market and makes things even more expensive and scarce. Simple economics destroys liberal "economics" every time.