Health Reform Fattens Big Insurance and Taxes the Young

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burhfordel of ID 3:34PM November 09, 2009

The implication to the below is that if we knew how much a colonoscopy or heart operation we can skip the procedure and take our chances. I would guess the outcome to be DEATH in the majority of the cases.
Consumers’ ignorance of what services truly cost blurs the connection between their rising insurance premiums and prices, setting the stage for those prices to soar ever higher
Colonoscopy: When paid by Medicare, the fee is roughly $450. Insurance companies secretly
negotiate a maze of different prices, generally two to five times that. But as the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans recently reported, patients who have to pay their own bill, because they are uninsured, are seeking care outside of their insurer’s network, or their insurer has denied their claim, can face retail charges as shameless as $10,000. And how can it be that Medicare pays $40,000, prix fixe, for the same heart operation, by
the same doctor, at the same hospital, that costs patients paying privately $80,000 to $120,000

Adam Selene of AR 11:21PM September 11, 2009

Before malpractice reform we need doctors that did not cheat there way or pay there way through medical school.
I mean does any doctor actually study any more or just pay there way through.
I have not had A Doctor that I could trust for over thirty years, I am 50 and I do not want to see what kind of flunkies you have nowadays. I would do better with a witch Doctor.
Of course there is a lot of waist in health care. I bet if they were brave enough to do a study you would find the average American takes at least 6 pills or more a day. That makes the drug lords (pharmaceutical companies) very happy. But if we pass health care reform they might get caught so they are fighting it tooth and nail so things will not change and they can still sale there drugs to you.
I have epilepsy and the best thing that ever happened to me is I did not get help and I could not afford my medication after about 6 months I never felt better I was 16 at the time and still had seizers but more if I ended up in a hospital so I avoid hospitals like the plague because if you ever had one you know it is not no fun. I am going on four years now not seeing a doctor except to see them with my step dad for my step dad. And I feel to healthy to ever trust them flunkies again.
Don D. Brock

Don D. Brock of AZ 10:13PM September 10, 2009

Doctors just raise their rates? That reflects your embarrasing level of ignorance. Doctors haven't raised their rates in over 20 years my friend. Because they can't. Doctors "negotiate" fees with insurance companies, which means the insurance company tells the doctor how much they are willing to pay. If you are an independent solo practitioner, you are easy prey and will get less than what the government or medicare pays. Now, if you are a large hospital, you will get more money, but this money does not trickle down to the doctor, no, the doctor gets a fixed salary, and more and more patients to see. The hospital CEO keeps a large amount. Nurses and other staff get next to nothing. The doctor then gets sued, and life savings go out the window. That is at least one thing nurses have no concern over, even though many times, it is their malpractice that gets the doctor in a lawsuit. They have little incentive to do anything right, I've rarely heard of a nurse losing her license or getting sued...well not much money there. Thats what this is all about. Its a little hard to work in peace with that kind of sword of damocles hanging over your neck each day. And it is no concern to anyone that this doctor's income is what pays for his kids school, family's home or otherwise.

cris of FL 10:08AM August 26, 2009

Wow, talk about venom. If you didn't know better, you might think "Dr. Healy" has a beef with insurance companies.
Listen lady - every time insurance premiums go UP it's because doctors - like you - keep raising their rates, or keep ordering more and more needless tests, etc.
Insurance companies do not set the prices - they just pay the bills.
Oh, my house burned down yesterday. Do you think the insurance company should be forced to write a policy on me now?
That's called a pre-existing condition.
Got something already wrong? NO problem - just go buy some insurance. Let someone else pay the bill.
Nothing like the mass of people like this so called expert who have absolutely no concept of what insurance is all about. It's about modifying one's risk - NOT paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims in exchange for a one month premium of $300 or so, for someone who has had cancer for 7 months when he finally decides to go buy some insurance and let someone else pay the bills.

CD Richard, JD, MSBA of AZ 11:43PM August 21, 2009

I think that she is right on in that we need vigorous competition among insurance companies. The patient is not the customer--whoever pays the bill is the real customer in health care. Here is a lengthy and thoughtful essay in The Atlantic by someone who doesn't have a liberal agenda or a conservative agenda, but who wants to fix the health care system after his father was killed by hospital-acquired infections: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200909/health-care.

Dan H. of AZ 10:41PM August 21, 2009

Through all this healthcare debate, no one even hints of some of the obvious ways to save BILLIONS of dollars in unreimbursed healthcare costs! There are YOUTUBE videos of hospital administrators in primarily border states that are basically being bankrupted due to unreimbursed care they have to provide to illegal immigrants. There are thousands of pregnant illegal immigrant Mexican women crossing the border to have their babies here in the U.S. for FREE, plus get all the benefits of having an anchor baby that is a citizen! Who amongst us would allow our own house to burn down while putting out a fire for our neighbor!? We, as a country, had better wake up and smell the coffee and start looking out for ourselves, FIRST! The constitution needs to be amended to deny birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. Denying birthright citizenship would lessen the incentive for these illegal immigrants to break into our country and exploit our system. Maybe we should send medical bills to the government of Mexico for reimburesment! I had to pay for the birth of my children. I have to pay for my insurance. I have to pay for medical care. I and YOU have to pay MORE because our politicians are inept on policy and cowards to do ANYTHING about illegal immigration and the financial burden it places on us.

Willie of TN 5:50PM August 21, 2009

Dr. Healy is nothing less than a functionary of the Republican agenda. If one took a few moments to research her past affiliations, they would see that all of those lauded political appointments came from Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. She was also a Republican candidate for public office. These appointments and obvious political alliance do not negate her message as much as the inaccurate "facts" upon which she bases her assertions. Shame on US News for printing something they know to be untrue, with the goal to muddy the waters. You have a responsibility to provide truth, and in this you have failed.

M. Glickman of KY 5:43PM August 21, 2009

What this anti-reform article leaves out is that community rating averages cost over a liftime. The old population already is subsidized through Medicare, otherwise there would be no health care after 65 except for the very wealthy. A national pool with lifetime averages is what Obama wants, and all other industrialized nations already have in place. Physicians have been and continue to be greedy.

George Conklin of NC 3:41PM August 21, 2009