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Those are list prices I believe. The whole system is screwed up because of insurance. Insurers negotiate discounted rates, so if you have insurance, even if you
by fulladder 3y ago
Those are list prices I believe. The whole system is screwed up because of insurance. Insurers negotiate discounted rates, so if you have insurance, even if your insurance does not pay anything, you'll still get the group negotiated rate. The price you'll pay will be 1/10 of those numbers.
It's a broken system because for a person who does have insurance, they will really try to charge you the full $30k. But there's a reason for this too. Most people who don't have insurance are too poor to pay anything, and once the hospital has documented that, they can put their costs to a government "uninsured patient" fund.
It's a classic case of government intervention that is well intentioned but misguided and ends up messing up all the economic incentives. There are also a lot of really slimey and manipulative people floating around in the system, exploiting its brokenness.
- pauljurczak 3y agoI think that the more fundamental problem is price opacity. Insurance contracts make price discovery technically more complex, but not impractical. A medical service provider can legally tell you (in many or most states) that they will not disclose the price of the procedure they will perform on you. That kills free market mechanisms, which could drive the costs down. Most people don't even care, thinking "insurance will pay for it".
- sharemywin 3y agoprice discovery is irrelevant in medical procedures. who wants to go to the cheapest doctor to get heart surgery. the whole concept of pricing in a medical setting is perverse. Doctors are supposed to help the most in need first not based on who can pay more. the hypocritic oath doesn't say anything about pricing.
- pauljurczak 3y agoWell, yes. In a better parallel universe. In our real world, the healthcare industry in the USA is a for-profit business with few partial exceptions. The costs are ruinous and the trend is not sustainable. It is naive not to think about costs, unless you are wealthy. The cost of blood tests done at a local hospital's lab will almost always be much higher than at a large national network like Labcorp or Quest. Even after insurance contract repricing. Quality is the same. Why would you pay more? The doctor belonging to a local hospital network will be inclined to send your blood work there and use "Hippocratic Oath doesn't say anything about pricing" as an excuse...