Originally posted by roguetoaster
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Here's an example of how jacked up medical care is in terms of costs. For the birth of our first child our insurer was billed ~$27,000. In the end we paid out ~$4500 OOP (deductible) and the insurer another ~$8000. WTF? $12500 for a natural child birth? GTFOH...
My parents paid $25 OOP through my Dad's military (Air Force officer) provider (TriCare at the time). And my sister, also paid <$50 for my niece because she was still a dependent at that time (though my dad was retired by that point). WTF! Just illustrating the ridiculously wide range of the spectrum for coverages/costs. It's funny he pays annually what we pay monthly, and he complains about that as it recently went up to that figure.
As long as care providers are allowed to charge whatever they want to, health care will cost the average citizen too much money to the insurer, and the insurer too much to the provider. You should not have to negotiate your care prices down with the provider... whether you do it or your insurance company on your behalf.
Example 2, I had walking pneumonia for a year without knowing it until one day I could not breathe. Went to the emergency room (lesson learned) because I've never had that experience before. We were there about 3 hours, seen by the doc about 20 minutes ($1200), radiologist for x-rays ($500), and charged for the room for the night by the hospital ($3000). The big kicker though... the doc wanted a CT with contrast to confirm his diagnosis of a bad pneumonia in the lungs. Cost? $8000! No FYI during the consult concerning cost. WTF? I've since read articles about hospital admins pushing for extra testing and such, especially when costly and dealing with an insured patient. I don't know that's what happened... but it didn't feel any better receiving that statement either way.
Now, I have quite a few friends in the medical field... very well regarded docs (VERY well off too obviously) and they all agree it's screwed up. A medical emergency, or child birth even, should not be able to bankrupt a family.
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