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That still doesn't explain how prices of medical services in many other countries turn out several order of magnitudes smaller than commonly encountered prices
by feanaro 8y ago
That still doesn't explain how prices of medical services in many other countries turn out several order of magnitudes smaller than commonly encountered prices in the US.
- peteretep 8y agoAre the prices that Medicare pay orders of magnitude different? ISTR that Medicare and the VA both pay about $10k per patient per year, which I think is comparable with the NHS. No sources as this is half-remembered.
- philtar 8y agoWe would also need to know the average number of visits per patient before this data means anything otherwise it's just data without context or meaning.
- TwoHeadedBeast 8y agoNHS spending is £2892 per person/year, that's quite a bit lower.
- peteretep 8y agoHuh, that's much lower than I thought.
- DanBC 8y agoThere's a bit of complication because we're comparing one system with not much insurance with a different system that has a lot of insurance. Here's a nice run through of the numbers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42950587 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42950587
- bboreham 8y agoInteresting, this paper gives £2256 (table 2) https://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/AutumnBudgetWhatItMeans.pdf https://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/AutumnBudgetWh... This page gives $4246: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/ https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...
- bbddg 8y agoPeople on Medicare are over 65 and people in the VA have been in the military. Both of those groups of people are going to have much higher medical needs than the general population.
- neffy 8y agoUS health spending in aggregate is between 2-3% more than comparable European countries. Life expectancy is several years lower.
- setr 8y agoI've discussed this before, but I think there's quite a bit of funny money in hospital bills -- a 10k bill rarely actually materializes in 10k transferred across all parties involved. Doctors bill $10k to your insurance, the insurance decides its too much, lawyers are on-hire to negotiate and take a 30% cut of the outcome, and finally 2k is paid out; the absurd bill naturally accounts for the absurd process, and I don't think anyone except the consumer ever expects 10k to really be 10k. And ofc, the insured consumer only ever pays $500 of it from his deductible. This was basically Shkreli's defense as well -- the insured patient doesn't pay anything close to the bill given; and I'm pretty sure, neither does the insurance. If you want to raise the price be $10, you add $1000 to the bill.
- StudentStuff 8y agoThis type of billing practice causes a mess of winners and losers, essentially unless your insurer has good pricing with wherever you end up getting treatment (often not a choice you get to make in an emergency), you can end up holding the bag for the cash price, usually half of the $10k number you mention. Quite ridiculous when other insurers are paying less than half that price, smells of a scam.
- conductr 8y agoMy conspiracy theory is it was designed this way over time so that people “needed” insurance (before it was required).
- SlowRobotAhead 8y agoNot too much of a conspiracy theory. What’s ironic (?) is that by mismanaging a scheme to get everyone on private insurance they’re really working towards socialized insurance. Which good or bad, there is no going away from once you have it.
- tertius 8y agoAgreed, providers are not as willing to negotiate with you as they are with insurance companies. Probably because they've already negotiated... Just go all cash with an HSA.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoBecause doctors in the US can easily make $300k+.