5 ms·
I had the same situation with multiple services: 1. ultrasound cost around $300 with insurance...$150 without 2. ER visit cost $4K with insurance....$900 with
by antjanus 8y ago
I had the same situation with multiple services:
1. ultrasound cost around $300 with insurance...$150 without
2. ER visit cost $4K with insurance....$900 without
3. specialist visit with insurance cost around $200...$150 without
And don't get me started on labs.
It's really a rip off to use insurance for anything other than:
1. general doctor visit (cheap co-pay, pretty expensive cash option)
2. really expensive shit (c-section w/o insurance runs $25-$30K -- cost me around $5K with insurance)
Anything in between seems to be cheaper when you pay individually.
As a disclaimer this is "gold-level" insurance coverage which costs around $1200-$1300/month for a family of 4.
- cosmie 8y agoOne thing to keep in mind when paying individually is that many insurance providers won't count the payments toward your deductible or maximum out of pocket expenses, since it wasn't processed through your insurance. If you're nowhere near hitting your deductible for the year, and don't anticipate hitting it, then looking for cash-only discounts make sense. But if you anticipate hitting your deductible anyway, sometimes it makes sense to pay the inflated price on that individual item, since you'll make up for it later when you hit your deductible and switch to only paying your coinsurance amount (or hitting your max OOP).
- sandworm101 8y agoWow. I used to live in the US but thank you for the reminder. I am very glad i now work a government job in a country with public health care. I went to the dentist last week. Walking out without paying anything, not a single form, feels like stealing. I cannot understand how anyone in the US can pay such costs. Simply staying alive seems a constant battle.
- maroonblazer 8y agoWhat dental services were performed? In the U.S. I frequently pay nothing nor fill out any forms for dental work.
- sandworm101 8y agoXrays, replaced a filling and got a night guard thing made. Took a couple hours.
- maroonblazer 8y agoYeah, I've paid nothing for x-rays and fillings. Haven't needed a night guard yet. I suspect that the chicanery in the U.S. is more severe in the non-dental sectors of healthcare as there's more volume/value there (from a provider/stakeholder POV).
- pfranz 8y agoMy wife missed a checkup (perhaps two) due to pregnancy. When she went back she needed a root canal. I happened to need a filling for the first time in 12 years. Before any of my work we had hit our insurance max for the year and had to pay cash for the excess--about $1000. This all happened in the same month or two so we didn't know until after.
- icantdrive55 8y ago1. We have let the wealthy control most legislation through lobbyists. 2. Too many Americans just care about themselfs, they are very egocentric. It kinda o.k. if it doesn't effect them, or their spawn. The wealthy really could care less about health care costs; they can afford good insurance. 3. We had it pretty good for years, and still believe most people/entities are fair. I hear people babble on about how the Insurance industry relies so much on actuarial tables, or defend doctors whom charge $350 for an office visit. (In CA, the most powerful lobby group in Sacramento is the Insurance industry. They burp, and get their way.) 4. Because we had it pretty good since WW2, we got very lazy. We seldom vote, or bother to even investigate important issues; it's much easier to yack about technology. When the draft was active---people seemed to care more? 5. It's o.k. now for some of you, but the party ended awhile ago for many of us. Many if you with the comfy tech jobs will soon know how unfair our system has become. 6. Americans have been brainwashed into believing our system is the best. After all, we are tiny versions of John Wayne? Spirituality is something to hide? I've been disillusioned with the US since the ninties. And yes, if I had a do over, most European countries, Australia, Canada, or GB would have suited me better.
- pjc50 8y agoIronically for all that everyone talks about healthcare in the UK being free, dentistry and optician services aren't - although there is a subsidised base service tier, all the service providers are independent private businesses. https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/dentists/understanding-nhs-dental-charges/ https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/dentists/under...
- Gustomaximus 8y agoThe simple/fast solution is healthcare providers have to 1) publish costs and 2) have fixed prices regardless of purchasers. And while I support universal healthcare, this is an easy solution that falls well into capitalism (no 'socialism' here for the far right) as governments role is to create open and level playing fields for both consumer and business to promote a free market. The fact no legislator has brought forward, let alone voted through, such a simple and effective improvement shows how deep the healthcare industry is in the corridors of power. Edit: spelling
- cascom 8y agoBoth of your proposed solutions are appealing - but Medicaid and Medicare create a large problem, as both programs pay way below listed rates (~10% and ~40%. Respectively) so your proposal while eloquent would create massive upheaval (perhaps well deserved) making the proposal much more radical than it seems on the surface
- Gustomaximus 8y agoNot an expert in this space so my comment comes with a shovel full of ignorance... So your comment implies that medicare/medicaid prices would go up? Is that true? Could the 'listed rate' drop 40%? I always hear listed rates are grossly inflated for those that dont have insurance and land in emergency etc When you see some of the inflated prices a >40% drop seems distinctly possible if a truly competitive market is created. Would that be fair?
- cascom 8y agoIt’s actually worse - a healthcare provider is typically paid 10%-40% of the cash pay rate for a Medicaid or Medicare patient so 60%-90% below the listed rate! I’m far from an expert as well, but my point is that a transparent everyone pays the same system is in direct conflict with the current system where certain patients pay multiples of the other patients for the exact same care/service etc.
- copenja 8y agoWhere do you work?
- kalleboo 8y ago> c-section w/o insurance runs $25-$30K -- cost me around $5K with insurance $30K without insurance is insane! I live in another developed country, where childbirth isn't covered by insurance (since it's elective, right?), but the whole C-section procedure + 12 days in a private room in hospital cost a bit over $5K. Almost $4K of that were then paid by the city government (nationwide program to help cover birth costs).
- cascom 8y agoExcept that essentially no one is paying $30k in any of the cases despite the “price tag”