[geeks] healthcare was: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro

[wa2egp at att.net]

> Instead, you're subject to the whims of some accountant who doesn't even 
> have an MD.  And if the accountant doesn't think you need that 
> treatment, you'll pay a "full price" that no-one else does.
> 
> I personally think most of the healthcare problems in this country could 
> be solved simply by requiring the hospitals to charge everyone the same 
> rate.  That room that you want to charge me $1000 a day for, but my 
> medical insurance company can get it for $75 a day?  Charge me $75 a day 
> for it, and cut out the middleman.
> 
> If they can stay in business while charging my insurance company 
> "contracted rate", then they can stay in business while charging me the 
> same rate.  And if everyone was charged the "contracted rate" that 
> medical insurance companies get to pay, most people would never need to 
> have medical insurance at all, because they could afford their own 
> medical care.  The medical insurance business as it now exists is 
> little, if anything, more than a way for a bunch of accountants and 
> speculators to stand in between the patients and the caregivers and 
> siphon off a fat share of the money.  Let's face it - if they weren't 
> making a profit off the business, they wouldn't be IN the business.  The 
> hospitals are complicit in the scheme by agreeing to charge insurers 
> anywhere from five to twenty times less than they charge uninsured 
> private petients.
> 
One of the problems is that they have to treat everybody, insurance or not.  I was in the hospital a little over a year ago.  They tried one procedure to solve my problem, didn't work.   A few days later tried something else, didn't work.  Another few days, another attempt, no go.  So a few more days they had me in surgery, problem solved.  A week in physical therapy and kicked my out.  The bill was 118,000, the insurance company chewed them down to 38,000.  Why?  Those days between procedures were considered wasted time and they weren't going to pay for it.  (I agree)  Then the hospital tried to bill me for the rest.  Can't on contracted payment.  They could have done things faster and made it 38,000 but they wasted time.  Now they are closing done, can't make a profit.  Go figure.

Bob