REAL solution for the Health-Care crisis
2009/07/02
When I lost my job on June 9, I also lost my health insurance. Yes, I know that COBRA should apply, but I haven’t filed the 941 yet due to the premiums being THRU THE F***ING ROOF. I can’t afford $629/mo without a job. Restaurants have already been cut out, daycare for the kids ends tomorrow until I get sufficient work again. But I have to breathe.
This morning’s doctor’s appointment was set back before Memorial Day, and since I knew everyone would scramble to get July 3 off, I scheduled off for a half-day for AM July 2 to make sure I get in. Turns out that was irrelevant, but …
Appointment was at 9:30. I got there at 9:10 in case any new paperwork needed to be filled out concerning the loss of insurance. One piece of paper was all. See the doctor, tell him what happened, check-up, renew prescription of Symbicort and Proventil.
Doc gave me a coupon for Proventil, $15 off PER REFILL for 2009. On the back were eligibility terms, and #2 was “Coupon is void if a third-party payor reimburses or pays any amount of the prescription price.” In other words, if you have health insurance, you’re not eligible. Hmm. He also asked me check the AstraZeneca (patent holder for Symbicort) site to see if I qualify for a discount.
We wrap up the meeting, and I make the dreaded walk up to the counter to pay for the appointment. The bill was $45.00. Let me repeat that, $45.00. MY INSURANCE CO-PAY HAD BEEN $50! In other words, I paid LESS because I had no insurance.
I asked if that was all, just $45. They said yes. I mentioned about the $50 co-pay with the insurance. The response: ”We make more off your $45 than we did of your $50 co-pay AND the $47 more we billed to your insurance. With cash customers, we don’t have to pay the insurance vampires (her words!!), just the doctor and the office operations.”
“Let me get this straight,” I said in disbelief. ”It costs more to file with insurance than the doctor gets?” She said yes. I asked why. ”Insurance department has their own inflated overhead, the insurance companies don’t pay on time or sometimes not at all, we have collection people who call no one but insurance companies, there is insurance regulations that have to be met, statistics kept, and all sorts of other things that cost money involved in taking insurance. There are more insurance people than health-care providers in the whole System, and that’s if you include me (the receptionist) as a health-care provider.”
It’s been an hour. I’m still shocked. Is this were over half of our health-care dollars go? Insurance processing?
I’ll have to wait and see if the prescription drug insurance is as big a scam as the health-care insurance, somehow suspect it is. I have my AZ stuff filled out and am about to put it in the mail.
So here’s my radical solution for the health-care crisis, one that I’ve heard from no one else: OUTLAW HEALTH INSURANCE! That’s right, make it illegal. Or at least only allow major medical health insurance (cancer, car wrecks, etc.). Health-care providers could halve their prices and still come out ahead. Let the free-market actually dictate the prices instead of a bureaucracy so bloated it makes the government look lean. Doctor’s fee would drop, drug prices would drop, all thanks to NOT having to pay unnecessary overhead.
Ideas?
I had the same experience with auto insurance. I had to replace a windshield and the company will charge you less if you don’t have insurance. Even though I did, I didn’t want to report this to my insurance because a rock had hit the window (and no cars beside me, so it wasn’t vandalism) when it was parked outside. I figured I would bite the bullet and pay for the whole thing myself, but it was cheaper!
I agree there are issues with insurance companies, but don’t blame it all on them. As a medical bill transcriptionist I see all sorts of weird charges such as $60 for a new patient form. Doctors jack up prices because they can make money and nobody sees it because the insurance company will just pay for it.
I like your idea to save health insurance for actual emergencies and not for routine check-ups, and as an addition I would like to add that doctors should post their prices for everyone to see, especially for those who have to use insurance for routine check-ups.
Sorry about the job loss. Good luck to you.
But many of us have known that the Insurance companies are the main impediment to affordable health care. They’ve got a gold plated strangle-hold on the medical profession and they aren’t going down without a fight. That’s why they spend so much of their (your) dollars on lobbyists and ad campaigns trying to convince the great unwashed that government backed healthcare options are Socialism.
I agree with you but even if we eliminated health insurance, doctors’ prices would still be sky high. We need a reform on both and not government controlled health care which is the epitome of socialism. Socialism is control by the government, how is this not socialism?
From Wikipedia:
How is outlawing “health insurance” socialism? Is outlawing ‘protection rackets’ socialism? How about outlawing murder? Isn’t that a form of governmental control? And yes, those still happen but nowhere near as frequently as without.
You say we need reform. So how are you going to change health-care prices without governmental intervention? Lawsuit under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 or its descendents? Become a doctor yourself?
Outlawing health insurance kills the biggest parasite in the health-care industry. Forcing doctors to compete will drive down prices, as they will no longer have either Medicare or the health-insurance mob subsidizing outrageous prices. Isn’t that captialism?