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agreed. How many times have you actually shopped out a procedure by making 10 doctors appointments for checkups and quotes, typically, when they need to operate
by johngrefe 13y ago
agreed. How many times have you actually shopped out a procedure by making 10 doctors appointments for checkups and quotes, typically, when they need to operate, you just go with what they say.
- mgkimsal 13y agoI don't go to the doctor much, but when I go I ask "how much will this cost?" and 99% of the time I get "hrmm... I dunno..." and a shrug.
- auctiontheory 13y agoMost doctors in rich (i.e. insured patients) hospitals have no idea. My ENT was quite surprised when I told him the charge (>$1000) for his quick look down my throat. And that was only after a lot of shopping around and negotiating on my part. And it didn't include any "treatment" - it was just to look and possibly diagnose.
- mgkimsal 13y agoI'm usually asking the receptionist or other office person - they handle most of the billing stuff, and the other response I sometimes get is "oh, we have to run it through insurance first". They just run a code, and get told what they'll get paid (apparently), not necessarily what my cost/price is. The system is so fundamentally out of whack, and not at all 'market driven' and yet somehow... my 'free market capitalist conservative republican' friends (I have a few) are really against "socializing" medicine/healthcare. As if, somehow, what we have now in the US is a bastion of free market enterprise. The cynic in me thinks that the conservative elite really really really enjoy having a dependent class, and ensuring people are at the mercy of private health insurance companies vs the federal or state government helps ensure that dependency in a way they can still control. But... I'm overly cynical, it's late, and my words aren't coming out exactly as I think they should. :/