The True Cost of Healthcare

[SlyPokerDog]

http://truecostofhealthcare.net/introduction/

 

[SlyPokerDog]

 

[bodyman5000 and 1]

I tried to read the first article and all I got was that this guy shouldn't be a doctor if he is so dumb he has no notion of what things cost.

Then I realized he is lying so I stopped reading.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I tried to read the first article and all I got was that this guy shouldn't be a doctor if he is so dumb he has no notion of what things cost.

Then I realized he is lying so I stopped reading.

The video is pretty good. Just watch that.

 

[isonoob]

Yeah the costs are ridiculous. Here in Canada we have free health care but it's not sustainable long term. The less people working, equals less people paying taxes. Plus our waiting rooms are horrible. I remember seeing a video where a guy on a motorcycle got badly injured and he refuses an ambulance. Some dude in a pick up truck came and put him and his bike in the back of the truck. It's sad when an ambulance ride ruins your financial situation.

 

[bodyman5000 and 1]

The video is pretty good. Just watch that.

Don't wanna

 

[Denny Crane]

Health care didn't get expensive until government got involved.

Doctors used to do house calls and would charge what the patient can bear. They even would take livestock in lieu of cash.

I went 10 years without insurance and saved $100,000+ in premiums. My wife was hospitalized for a week, went to the hospital in an ambulance. The bill was over $100K, but when they found out we had no insurance, they offered payments on $16,000, which we paid off in installments.

When I went to a clinic for care, they charged me $65, or about what a plumber charges. For lab tests, I was charged $150.

The entire cost of my daughter's birth in the early '80s was $2800. That was for the deluxe birthing suite.

When patients are empowered, they will choose care they can afford. Why pay $50 for a flu shot from one doctor when another charges $30? Competition drives costs down (see auto insurance ads on tv), and drives innovation (to maximize profits).

 

[isonoob]

Health care didn't get expensive until government got involved.

Doctors used to do house calls and would charge what the patient can bear. They even would take livestock in lieu of cash.

I went 10 years without insurance and saved $100,000+ in premiums. My wife was hospitalized for a week, went to the hospital in an ambulance. The bill was over $100K, but when they found out we had no insurance, they offered payments on $16,000, which we paid off in installments.

When I went to a clinic for care, they charged me $65, or about what a plumber charges. For lab tests, I was charged $150.

The entire cost of my daughter's birth in the early '80s was $2800. That was for the deluxe birthing suite.

When patients are empowered, they will choose care they can afford. Why pay $50 for a flu shot from one doctor when another charges $30? Competition drives costs down (see auto insurance ads on tv), and drives innovation (to maximize profits).

Just curious, but are you a Libertarian?

 

[Denny Crane]

Just curious, but are you a Libertarian?

And a realist.

It's rather obvious that whatever government gets involved in gets really expensive. Be it $900 hammers to higher education to health care.

When the payer has deep pockets and an obligation to pay, the billers are going to bill as much as they can. It only makes sense they would.

This is true of insurance companies, too. They have deep pockets, though nowhere near as deep as the government's.

 

[isonoob]

And a realist.

It's rather obvious that whatever government gets involved in gets really expensive. Be it $900 hammers to higher education to health care.

When the payer has deep pockets and an obligation to pay, the billers are going to bill as much as they can. It only makes sense they would.

This is true of insurance companies, too. They have deep pockets, though nowhere near as deep as the government's.

Yeah, I agree with that. Though the cost of medicine can be set by those who own it, right? So maybe it isn't just the governemnt at fault for the high prices when pharmaceutical companies control the price of drugs that are needed by millions.

 

[Denny Crane]

Yeah, I agree with that. Though the cost of medicine can be set by those who own it, right? So maybe it isn't just the governemnt at fault for the high prices when pharmaceutical companies control the price of drugs that are needed by millions.

What's the point in setting the cost so high nobody can afford it. It was never that way before government got involved.

Prices go up because drug companies can get more from those with deep pockets: government and insurance companies. Again, take them out of the equation and they can only charge what the market can pay.

Distorted markets don't work so well.