Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Interjection

Non-profit health care
TB — (archived)

Go to this page and read the three links.

You might be surprised. Especially by the first one.

I saw the bill for my birth once. A few days in the hospital, and services. A few hundred bucks. Not an insignificant amount in those days, but something that could be managed. I don't remember if insurance was involved or not.

My wife just got the bill for her back surgery.

Balance billed: 117,764.00
Total Adjustments: 100,210.79
Total Insurance Payments: 17,177.72
Patient Responsibility: 376.28

As they say on South Park, "This is really f****d up right here."

Sure the insurance paid a lot. Damn well better--my wife pays four figures a month out of her check for it. But what's that "adjustment" crap? I have yet to get a straight answer out of a doctor on it, and I have the creeping fear some of them have no more idea than I do.

It's not like the hospital can cut insured people a break because they'll get rich off some other people paying the full cost. Rich people have health insurance, too, and poor uninsured people will either be covered by the government or charities in emergencies, or just not get the surgery if it's elective. NOBODY'S going to be writing that check for 118 grand. So what's the point?

Health insurance used to be for hospitalization and dire emergencies. Everything else we just paid for. The reasons this changed are complicated, but regulations figured prominently. Try to buy a competing health insurance policy out of state.

When my wife was going to school for a while, and I was still self-employed, I bought insurance "off the rack," and it was maybe $300 a month. A similar policy is a lot more expensive now, but it depends on what you ask for. This website has a calculator that shows a lot of options. For my family, it ranges from a rock-bottom policy for about $340 (things like $1,500 deductibles) to a full-bore solid gold PPO for like $1,500.

My family has a glitch, though. My wife has MS, a "pre-existing condition" by anyone's definition, which made it very hard to find insurance off the open market. Fortunately, California, like about 40 other states, has a "high risk pool" program.

I had to pay a lot more for her individual policy than for mine or the kids, but at least it was there. I am well aware that this was still some form of government subsidy.

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