Defeating the bogeyman of single payer healthcare

No cash will earn you a discount on the billed amount but it will not even be close to the discount that a major insurance company will get. And you had better do the negotiation prior to the procedure.

IF you do decide to negotiate ask the person in the billing dept how much a major insurance company would actually pay for the same procedure. That will open your eyes.

 

I know of no country in the world that uses this market based system effectively

 

You did good. You got the bill down to what a big insurance company would have paid. I was never that successful.

 

Comparison shopping is impossible in medical care except for the most simple and optional proceedures. Anyone who has ever been admitted to a hospital for a medical emergency knows that once admitted a lot or even most of what happens is out of your control.

 

Completely true. The model just does not apply when your life is on the line

 

Consider that the attending physician is the customer.. Patients don't order up tests, medications and procedures from a menu.

 

Good point.

 

That's commonly done. The "retail" prices are somewhat meaningless and can be negotiated down significantly. That is what insurance companies do when they set up networks.

 

That is no way to run a healthcare system

 

Neither do I. But that is what insurance companies do for their customers.

 

Why not ??

 

Show me where it is done successfully

 

Free market healthcare is a failure

 

US - best healthcare in the world.

 

You claimed it's never been tried.

 

It is not currently being done successfully anywhere. Why?

 

If you are rich. Not so much for everyone else

 

There's no such thing as freemarket healthcare. Doctors order tests, procedures and medications NOT the patient.

 

If its so successful why this frantic effort by both parties to change it?

 

Kaizen.

 

The Doctor recommends tests and procedures. The patient should ask how much does it cost and is it absolutely necessary - not is it covered. Patients should act like consumers purchasing a product.

 

Have you given up?

 

Have you shopped for an angioplasty or appendectomy lately?

 

So you think Soviet Style assembly line medicine is the answer? Are you so dependent on big daddy government for everything?

 

But patients aren't consumers purchasing a product. Which is why healthcare is not and can not be a commodity and function in a free market.