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> the way people online lie exaggerate it's not surprising that so many non-Americans believe that every American is one hangnail away from bankruptcy. Peo

> the way people online ~~lie~~ exaggerate it's not surprising that so many non-Americans believe that every American is one hangnail away from bankruptcy. People exaggerating online certainly don't cause more confusion than the routine lies of medical providers, sending bills with completely-fictitious humongous numbers claiming to be the price. And then even if you do have "insurance" (which isn't actually insurance, but rather more of an anticompetitive protection racket), the provider and the "insurance" company both continue to keep the actual prices obfuscated with those fictitious numbers and a whole bunch of "adjustments", rather than ever just plainly stating prices. There are certainly a lot of overly simplistic narratives about US healthcare, like every political topic. But the entire system is death by a thousand cuts of patently absurd behavior (like the above), that would be plainly illegal with any sort of sane regulation. Like imagine going to the grocery store, paying the cashier, and then getting shaken down months later by food distributors claiming that you only paid the cashier to bag and that you owe them money.

friendzis 3y ago
> the provider and the "insurance" company both continue to keep the actual prices obfuscated with those fictitious numbers and a whole bunch of "adjustments", rather than ever just plainly stating prices. That's the name of the game, not unique to USofA. Once you have majority/monopoly payer (be that private insurance or tax-supported state health fund) it becomes a game of cat and mouse. Health providers try to extract as much per case as possible, insurance providers try to cut per-case payment to the minimum. Inflating list prices on provider's end, establishing various per-item limits and per-case adjustments on payer's end are the low hanging fruit towards the goal. State insurance systems just have this less visible as the patient is usually not involved in the invoicing process, but nevertheless it is there. The sad reality is that there is very little to none incentive for list prices to remain low or reflective of actual cost.

> the way people online ~~lie~~ exaggerate it's not surprising that so many non-Americans believe that every American is one hangnail away from bankruptcy. Peo

friendzis 3y ago

> the provider and the "insurance" company both continue to keep the actual prices obfuscated with those fictitious numbers and a whole bunch of "adjustments", rather than ever just plainly stating prices. That's the name of the game, not unique to USofA. Once you have majority/monopoly payer (be that private insurance or tax-supported state health fund) it becomes a game of cat and mouse. Health providers try to extract as much per case as possible, insurance providers try to cut per-case payment to the minimum. Inflating list prices on provider's end, establishing various per-item limits and per-case adjustments on payer's end are the low hanging fruit towards the goal. State insurance systems just have this less visible as the patient is usually not involved in the invoicing process, but nevertheless it is there. The sad reality is that there is very little to none incentive for list prices to remain low or reflective of actual cost.