Hospital Prices Are About To Go Public in the US (ajc.com)

Prices hospitals charge for their services will all go online Jan. 1 under a new federal requirement, but patient advocates say the realities of medical-industry pricing will make it difficult for consumers to get much out of the new data. From a report: A federal rule requires all hospitals to post online a master list of prices for the services they provide so consumers can review them starting Jan. 1. The health care industry nationally has a reputation for having little price transparency, which can make it difficult for consumers to price compare. But the hospital's master list prices, sometimes called a chargemaster, is also not a complete look, consumer advocates say. That's because the final bill a patient receives is almost never the same as the sticker price for the services they received. Insurance companies negotiate discounts on the sticker prices. Co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles also add other layers of complexity that bring discounts or increased costs before a final charge is determined.

Comments

how do you manage?

[pereric]

As an outsider (living in Sweden, Europe) I am a bit curious, but mostly alarmed how the US have got such a seemingly malfunctioning health care system. Most other 1:st world countries (in Europe, Japan, South Korea ...) have some variation on a single-payer system, where hospital visits and drugs are in most part paid by everyone via taxes, without what seems like the bureaucracy of private or employer-paid insurance.

In Sweden, a visit to a doctor, district nurse, psychologist or physiotherapist always cost $10-$20 (free for children below 18 years old and the elderly). A hospital visit is $20-$40, regardless of what procedures are administrated. (hospitals also seems to base the procedures applied based on medical need, rather than what can be billed). On top of that, there is a yearly cap so no citizen need paying more than $150 each year in hospital fees, and no more than $150 each year for prescription drugs.

And, to the point, the average EU citizen pay much less (including paid via taxes) for equal 1:st world class health care than the US citizen.

For example, the British spend around half the US amount on health care per capita, despite having by several measures higher quality:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42...

Re:how do you manage?

[I75BJC]

Please don't state Your Opinion as if it were a Fact! From personal experience and from MSM news articles, the UK healthcare system is overworked, underfunded, inefficient and, in the case of persistent news articles, Unable to Perform Necessary and Usual Procedures/Surgery to save lives -- particularly, the lives of the senior/aged patients and the youngest patients. These 2 groups are the vulnerable people in UK society and are being sacrificed because the UK won't or can't spend the monies that the USA will and can.

Re:how do you manage?

[DarkOx]

It might be that those companies are simply dipping their fingers into every honey jar. Build a complex in Sweden where you can take advantage of the tax situation, public education etc..then drive a ton of revenue from the American market where you can charge whatever you want to large pool of patients outside medicare etc.

The geographic location the research is done does not change where the revenue to support it ultimately comes from and that is mostly from America and other countries where price controls are largely absent.

Re:how do you manage?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, since you asked...

The American Health Care System is:

- Posting this as an anonymous cowards so that Google data whorebots don't match my medical history to my e-mail address.
- Having a birthday in May and losing my parents health care coverage before my first full-time job with benefits starts in August.
- Calling an insurance company in April and being offered a decent plan for $85/month until my full-time job starts.
- Finding out 10 years later that this plan was only a "short-term" plan, and that full-coverage plans were about 4x the cost.
- Visiting my friend in the hospital after he fell off a roof, and seeing him with a smile on his face. Asking him why he had a smile on his face, and him telling me that the ambulance driver asked him the same question. Asking him why he had a smile on his face after he fell off the roof, and him saying that he had already been to the hospital once this year, that he met his deductible, and that everything now was free.
- Going to my first union meeting and finding out that the new contract had a 0% raise, "but they'll still covering single-payer health care 100%".
- Thinking after my first union meeting that I'd rather get a raise.
- Finding out at my second union meeting that health costs were $405/month, and thinking, "I could earn 40% more a paycheck if it wasn't for health care."
- Thinking for five years that the old people in our union were holding down my salary.
- Finding blood in my stool after five years of work and thinking, "What the hell is wrong with me?"
- Choosing to Google my medical issue rather than going to a doctor, and finding out that I probably have an "Anal Fissure".
- Going to a doctor anyways, because an anal fissure is literally a pain in the ass, and having the doctor tell me, "Let's schedule a colonoscopy."
- The doctor justifying that a colonoscopy is necessary at the age of 28, because I may have this unpronounceable disease that affects about one-in-a-million people, and it's better to be safe than sorry.
- Going to have a colonoscopy done, then having the surgeon telling me post-op that my long intestine was "clean as a whistle", then showing me a photo of an anal fissure he found.
- Receiving a bill for $850 and saying to myself, "So this is what everyone complains about."
- Finding out five years later that most hospitals charge far more than $850 for a colonoscopy.
- Getting sick repeatedly and refusing to go to the doctor to avoid a $200 bill.
- Reluctantly going to the doctor after being sick for four days, getting x-rayed and three vials of blood drawn, testing negative for pneumonia, mono, the flu, and who knows what else, and getting three different bills (doctor, lab, and x-ray) totaling $600, and saying to myself, "I should have stayed home."
- Having a baby five years later, and finding that I had to quickly shop for a new health insurance policy for an unborn baby, because the moment he popped out of the womb, he would be billed $12,000 for services rendered.
- Finding out that the most affordable insurance for the newborn was a high-deductible plan with a $6,000 deductible.
- Finding out that, between the wife's deductible and the newborn's deductible, I owed $9,000 for a newborn. Thinking, "no wonder people wait later in life to have children."
- Being told by the hospital that I could pay as little as $50 a month towards the $9,000 bill, because even that was a better deal for the hospital than selling the bill to a collections agency.
- Finding out that I had cancer at the age of 32 and saying to myself, "Fuck my deductible. I want to live."
- The doctor telling me during my cancer screening that most doctors graduate from medical school with $250,000 - $350,000 in debt, and that his house payment is lower than his loan payment. And he lived in a $300,000 house.
- Finding out that my total bill for cancer surgery and radiation treatment cost $24,000, and that I only owed a $500 deductible.
- Seeing my final bill and understandin

Re:how do you manage?

[gawbl]

...To say that illegal immigration is killing the state is spot on. Citation: https://www.sacbee.com/news/lo...

Excerpted from your link (https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article160786554.html):

"A large majority – 83 percent – of Medi-Cal enrollees are U.S. citizens, according to data from June 2014. The second largest proportion of enrollees, at 10 percent, are qualified noncitizens, a term for permanent residents, refugees, people granted asylum and others. Both citizens and qualified noncitizens are able to access the full scope of Medi-Cal benefits and services. Another 7 percent are undocumented and can only access emergency and pregnancy-related resources. "

"Americans pay anywhere from 2 to 6 times more..."

[Futurepower(R)]

Quote from the parent comment: "... start with letting American purchasers buy FDA-approved compounds on the world market, ..." Why pharmaceuticals are cheaper outside the United States. (Sept. 28, 2015)

Quoting:

"According to the International Federation of Health Plans, Americans pay anywhere from two to six times more than the rest of the world for brand name prescription drugs."

Compare drug prices among reputable online pharmacies. ("Prices collected March 2018")

Discount Drugs from Canada

Re:Insanity

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, non-insured folks get billed $7800, which they often just don't pay.

The bill gets sold to a 3rd party for $10, which buys in a hope they can recover something from the individual (``we'll ruin your credit history if you don't respond!'' letters). The $7800 then gets subtracted from the revenues of everyone involved as a "loss", and is used to offset $7800 in profits that they don't have to pay taxes on now.

Re:Extra charges

[Shotgun]

Better yet, tax the health insurance "benefit" just like any other pay. The government playing favorites with "tax this, but not that" is what screws the market.

Re:OMG WTF!!

[fluffernutter]

Yeah, canadian here, I can see a doctor just fine. I've had *multiple* serious health issues in my family and I can attest to the fact that i was always seen right when I needed to be.

Re:All the same a good government requirement

[Anonymous Coward]

PSA: OP's source is a white supremacist organisation.