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You're missing the whole point. It's not the insurance companies. At least not to any great extent. Their margins are usually under 2% (though their marketing a
by pkulak 14y ago
You're missing the whole point. It's not the insurance companies. At least not to any great extent. Their margins are usually under 2% (though their marketing and administrative budgets can be quite large). Hospitals' margins are ten times that. I see the bills that my insurance company pays and they are usually an order of magnitude higher than the Medicare rates.
As an aside, what you need to look up Medicare rates are the HCPCPS codes (call them "hick pick" codes on the phone so you sound like you know what you're doing). Just call your hospital and ask for them. They'll give them to you; they just mail you a new form separate from your actual bill. Then, just plug those codes in here:
http://www.cms.gov/apps/physician-fee-schedule/search/search-criteria.aspx http://www.cms.gov/apps/physician-fee-schedule/search/search...
(use a "specific locality" to get the rates in your area). Then you're ready to negotiate! But... good luck with that...
- rogerbinns 14y ago> It's not the insurance companies. At least not to any great extent. Their margins are usually under 2% I'm with Anthem Blue Cross in California. In 2011 they spent 79.9% of premiums on actual medical expenses and due to law changes had to issue a refund for 0.1% This year they raised premiums by 22%. Various administrative expenses are hidden all over the place. eg the cost of an appendectomy also includes the cost of recovering the money charged. The problem with the US healthcare system isn't any one part. Every single part is broken in some way, with the interoperations between them compounding to make the problem worse.
- yen223 14y agoI suspect that the main reason the single-payer healthcare system is so efficient is simply that there are less players involved.
- GFischer 14y agoI work for a non-health insurance company. I believe that removing insurance companies from the equation would definitely make things more efficient - at the very least my company doesn't have the motivation to really cut down on expenses, most managers are more worried about internal power struggles, I've seen so much waste I'd start my own company in a heartbeat if only it wasn't so capital-intensive to start, and a papework and political minefield (which of course lets the old boys get by with a lot of leeway in terms of actual efficiency improvements).
- joe_the_user 14y agoNo, is the insurance companies. Not the insurance companies as the entity which takes all that money, no, everyone here knows that. It is the insurance companies in the sense that the insurance companies are in no way brake on costs, they are an accelerator. They take a cut of the whole and have an incentive to keep the whole high.