When I had some pains in my chest my internist decided I should have a stress test. It sounded like a good idea to me. I enjoy living and am not the least bit interested in the alternative.
This was more than an ordinary stress test like running on a treadmill. I was walking quickly on an elevated treadmill while undergoing some nuclear profusion imaging to reconstruct tomographic SPECT images.
Apparently the shots they gave me lit me up inside so the physician and nuclear technician could see how I was reacting to the stress.
While I am probably leaving something important out and do not understand the technical terms involved, I was readily able to recognize the cost of the procedure. Try $2,485. All of this took about 4 hours and the physician was involved for all of probably 20 minutes.
I had insurance but still will end up paying $593. My insurance company will pay $813. It is not difficult for me to understand why people wonder if they have medical insurance or not.
An article in USA Today on March 22 had this headline: Even the insured have trouble paying bills.
Well, duh. I would hardly be exaggerating if I suggested that medical insurance coverage in America is totally out of control.
We have millions of citizens working without any medical insurance, others are paying through the nose for coverage they do have, we have millions of children without any medical coverage whatsoever, and very few of us seem to be getting our medical obligations paid with our insurance in force.
Businesses and organizations keep reducing our medical coverage to lower their premiums, and the insurance providers keep reducing our benefits and raising our deductibles and co-pays for office visits and prescription drugs.
Workers and consumers are getting it from both sides while health care providers and insurance providers claim each is gouging the other. It makes you wonder who is really profiting.
A fleet of 400-dollar-an-hour attorneys with 17 months of legal investigation could not figure it out in their most sober effort, nor would they want to as the pay is too good.
To say no one is really profiting is nonsense as medical costs have routinely exceeded the increase in inflation during recent years.
In the USA Today article, a senior policy analyst says "Shifting more costs onto patients has significant health access and financial consequences."
Well duh. Trust me when I say it does not take a senior policy analyst to tell consumers they are getting the short end of the stick as well as paying more for less medical coverage and less medical service.
Someone far brighter than a senior policy analyst needs to figure out how health care coverage in American can be less expensive and more effective.
Things are so bad you cannot even get detail on your bill, and even if you did it is so poorly explained that you cannot understand the charges.
It is like insurance companies lying, cheating and stealing in their policies with consumers, getting caught, paying multi-million dollar fines for their indiscretions, and then acting like it is no big deal when these major corporations are actually common criminals that are never prosecuted.
Is it possible that a nation that has produced so many great thinkers cannot come up with one great thinker that can see through this health care maze and produce a positive plan that benefits the few moneymakers enough to benefit all of us who need more affordable coverage?
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
Ed Bagley's Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.
Read my articles on Borrowing and Credit Card Companies, including "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", and my 3-part series on "Your Credit Score - How It Can Cost You Thousands More on Your Mortgage - Part 1; Six Actions You Can Take to Improve Your Contract Terms - Part 2; and FICO Plans to Eliminate Authorized Credit Card User Accounts - Part 3".
Find my Blog at:
[http://www.edbagleyblog.com/LessonsinLife.html]
No comments:
Post a Comment