> The US government says that private insurers deny 20% of claims. Most insurers deny every claim. Hospitals employ pretty large teams (of nurses, mostly) who

> The US government says that private insurers deny 20% of claims. Most insurers deny every claim. Hospitals employ pretty large teams (of nurses, mostly) whose job it is to go through these denials and justify the medical care a patient received while in the hospital. If the insurance company doesn't think the treatment was necessary, they won't pay. If they can find a technicality, such as, a patient came in for a belly ache, but had a heart attack, they won't pay. I'm willing to bet this 20% figure only represent denied claims not absorbed mostly, or entirely by the hospital. I've been pushing the person whom I get this information from to write a book, because most Americans are completely ignorant about how fucked the health insurance scheme is in the US. That $6,000 asprin on your hospital bill is there to cover all the aspects of your treatment that the insurance company will successfully deny.