US Hospital Bill Goes Viral: This Is What Childbirth Costs Without A National Health Service

[SierraSonic]

Good luck providing free healthcare for a nation of 314 million people with 12% unemployment and an immigration problem....

 

The NUMBER ONE PROBLEM is how stupidly out of control the healthcare prices are.  Until somebody directly addresses that, there is absolutely no way in hell the entire population can have free healthcare.  This is a capitalist nation, which is now divided by hostile politics, so it's really not going to get any better anytime soon.

 

What us citizens can do as a nation is get a job and stop blaming all our damn problems on other people.  Hard work and personal responsibility is becoming extinct.

Wouldn't be free, would be tax supported at around the same cost if not less than current insurance rates.

 

Cant control prices in a free market unless you want to make it socialist....oh wait.... it's only socialist if the government does it instead of many companies.  :p

 

Hard work and responsibility has stayed the same, actually Americans are working harder than ever, but prices are constantly rising, and wages aren't even keeping up with inflation.

 

Your remarks seem to blame the bad minority (less than 3-4% of the people) rather than realizing the average American is in a worse state than ever as is having a harder time to do whatever their parents did for the same amount of effort/pay/time/etc. Technology is supposed to make things easier and cheaper to acquire, yet the opposite is happening as we are removing labor for technology so removing income without offering alternatives.

[Defcon]

Biggest problem in this country are Americans and their belief systems.

 

1. The majority of the country bases their life on a fictional book and expects their rulers to do the same

2. 'Socialism' and welfare are evil words. People still believe they are living in a fantasy cold war where its ok to spend trillions to fight illegal wars against poor nations to help make the rich richer, but its not ok to spend any money at all to help people in society, esp those who need help

3. The belief that 'America is the best' which has no basis in any reality

4. Greed Greed Greed - this country is based on cheating other people out of money to grow richer

 

Seriously, a nation of people that truly believe universal health care is bad because 'its not the American way', 'we have the best healthcare' etc is just too stupid and deserves what they get. Republican policies and supporters are to blame for most of this.

[DocM]

The US also ranks among the lowest of all industrialised nations when it comes to maternal mortality rates, something is very wrong.

What's wrong is that a lot of drug addicted, young and other high risk women do not partake of the many health care options that are available to pregnant women and new parents From local, state and federal programs. The number is staggering, and these tend to concentrate in the inner cities.

Horse, water etc.

[spenser.d]

Good luck providing free healthcare for a nation of 314 million people with 12% unemployment and an immigration problem....

The NUMBER ONE PROBLEM is how stupidly out of control the healthcare prices are. Until somebody directly addresses that, there is absolutely no way in hell the entire population can have free healthcare. This is a capitalist nation, which is now divided by hostile politics, so it's really not going to get any better anytime soon.

What us citizens can do as a nation is get a job and stop blaming all our damn problems on other people. Hard work and personal responsibility is becoming extinct.

Medicare already does this though for pretty cheap. They just tell hospitals that they're only going to reimburse the actual cost of care and since so many people are on Medicare, hospitals have no choice. Its not perfect, but its a hell of a lot closer to where we should be than where privatized insurance has gotten us.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

No they don't. The hospital "charges" the same amount to everyone (they actually do price everything out in what's called a chargemaster). You get to pay less if you can properly negotiate with them, like insurance companies do. That's precisely why chargemaster rates are so high, so that when they're negotiated lower, they still come out making a few hundred percent more than what it actually costs to them. They'll negotiate with low income people because a little bit of money is better than no money as well, but generally speaking, they have prices set for everything and those prices far exceed the actual cost of care.

No, they don't charge the same rate to everyone. The "chargemaster" (as you call it) is nothing more than an MSRP. Sure they may quote that rate in a few cases, but they don't expect anyone to actually pay that rate. It exists primarily to push back on "non-contracted insurance". For instance, I have a PPO insurance plan meaning I can see any doctor at any hospital I want anywhere in the US on my own choosing. My insurance company will pay X at "in-network" hospitals (aka contracted with hospitals) and Y at "out of network" hospitals (aka non-contracted hospitals). If they made the MSRP artificially low they would lose money from insurance companies like mine and undermine their ability to argue higher contracted rates.

 

They can, and do, backdoor this by offering deep discounts to people without insurance or financial ability to pay. I have had this done many many times and takes no more than a simple phone call to the hospital when you get the bill or letting them know you lack money and insurance when you walk in.

 

This is a lot like college. Almost no one pays the "sticker" price at college. Colleges make heavy user of scholarships and grants to bring the cost of tuition back to normal levels while maintaining their sky high "published" tuition rates...

[DocM]

It's fairly routine for US hospitals & clinics to deeply discount services to those who pay cash or for foreign customers like Canadian patients. The latter can he 30% or so.

For example, the cash price for an MRI can be as low as $250-$450, but if insurance or a government program is involved it may run >$3,000, perhaps $5,000.

Much of the difference is the MASSIVE amount of regulation, paperwork & documentation involved in insurance or government program claims. Not to mention carrying costs - it may take 3-6 months, or more, for the govt. to pay a Medicare, Medicaid etc. bill. Meanwhile, the staff and suppliers expect their checks on time.

ER charges are particularly high to cover the cost the above, higher malpractice insurance costs for trauma docs, making up for no-pays, and those same govt care programs that also often pay less than it costs to deliver the service.

There are entire hospital departments which do nothing but play "billing badminton" with Medicare, Medicaid etc., which in itself is another cost driver.