The Insanity Of Medical Costs

[Wagtail]

"Pharmaceutical companies spend far more than any other industry to influence politicians. Drugmakers have poured close to $2.5bn into lobbying and funding members of Congress over the past decade."

That quote from an independent newspaper outside of the US:
How big pharma's money – and its politicians – feed the US opioid crisis | US news | The Guardian

Here's the Media Bias Fact/Check report on that newspaper:
The Guardian - Media Bias/Fact Check

Sorry but my major concern with your references is that it's "The Guardian". A very 'left wing' publication... I'm not saying that the articles are wrong, just that the publication has a noted 'slant'.

The vast majority of pharmaceuticals, in Australia, are covered by the Federal Government's "Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme" = no need to be on a medication 'plan'.

Whilst Aus does have a 'Universal Medical System' (Medicare) with public hospital & surgical care, we are encouraged to take out Private Medical Insurance. Yes, there are Private Hospitals and private cover does allow a holder to 'queue jump' WRT elective surgeries. Dental cover is also included in Private cover + 'other' stuff.

I sleep well at night (Navy Health - Not For Profit).

(I've been following the entire thread.)

 

[Cat_Driver]

Yep cost me $1,500 to stop a bloody nose that would not stop on its own. I bled for nearly an hour then went to the ER. He shoved a balloon up my nose five minutes later I was going home with a lighter wallet them when I arrived.

 

[Bird]

November 5, I had such back pain that I couldn't get up, kind of scary, so for the first time in my life, I called for an ambulance (provided by the Fire Department and located about a mile and a half from my house) and the ambulance took me to the hospital (nearly 2 miles from my house). Yesterday, I got the "Medicare Summary Notice for the month. Costs as below:

Ambulance charged $925.00, Medicare approved $389.85
EKG charged $116.00, approved $7.17
Doctor charged $1,516.00, approved $172.00
CT scan charged $1,317.00, approved $91.45
Radiology charged $1,585.00, approved $91.45
Hospital charged $19,114.80, approved $18,624.51

The hospital charges were broken down into a long, long list of items. I was in the hospital between 5 and 6 hours, was given one Rx for some muscle relaxant and a recommendation to see a spine specialist. Now if I'd had no insurance, how could I have afforded that? Of course with Medicare AND the Medicare Supplement I pay for, I wasn't out of pocket anything except for the Rx.

 

[Chris616]

"Pharmaceutical companies spend far more than any other industry to influence politicians. Drugmakers have poured close to $2.5bn into lobbying and funding members of Congress over the past decade."

That quote from an independent newspaper outside of the US:
How big pharma's money and its politicians feed the US opioid crisis | US news | The Guardian

Here's the Media Bias Fact/Check report on that newspaper:
The Guardian - Media Bias/Fact Check

Sorry but my major concern with your references is that it's "The Guardian". A very 'left wing' publication... I'm not saying that the articles are wrong, just that the publication has a noted 'slant'.

I included the "Media Bias/Fact Check" link in my post so that folks unfamiliar with the paper would know which way it leans (Left-Center Bias). But the website rates the paper as highly factual in its reporting.

The media sources rated on that website as "Least Biased" are surprisingly scarce. The two national newspapers in my country are rated "Right-Center Bias". All four of the newspapers available throughout the USA are rated with either right or left-center bias. At least in Australia you have one national paper that falls into the "Least Biased" category.

I usually check the "Media Bias/Fact Check" site before reading from a website that I don't know. Then I tend to ignore any that aren't in the range from "Left-Center Bias" to "Right-Center Bias" and have a "Factual Reporting" rating less than "High". That allows me to form my own opinions after reading the facts, minimizing how much someone else is influencing me. So that excludes Fox News and CNN, for example.

Sometimes, for a laugh, I take a look at the websites that Media Bias/Fact Check categorizes as "Conspiracy-Pseudoscience".

Chris

 

[Travelover]

We can argue about which news source is most trustworthy, but that ignores the pertinent fact. Congress is trying to correct the mistake of forbidding drug price negotiations by Medicare and half of Congress is resisting. Mitch McConnell said he won't even allow a vote in the Senate. Whatever your politics, I would hope you'd find that troubling. The VA negotiates drug prices as do all the major industrialized countries, so it is not like it is an unknown practice.

 

[hawkeye08]

We can argue about which news source is most trustworthy, but that ignores the pertinent fact. Congress is trying to correct the mistake of forbidding drug price negotiations by Medicare and half of Congress is resisting. Mitch McConnell said he won't even allow a vote in the Senate. Whatever your politics, I would hope you'd find that troubling. The VA negotiates drug prices as do all the major industrialized countries, so it is not like it is an unknown practice.

We usually only hear one side of the story... what else is in the bill? Since lowering drug prices was a Trump campaign promise, there is a reason the president and republicans are against it. While it has the Medicare can negotiate drug prices in it, what else is in it? Sorry, I don't trust Congress much.

Regarding ER visits, I had one a number of years ago, paid what I owed ($200 copay if I recall), 2 months later got a bill from ER doc that said it was separate from ER charges. I paid it too. Now my daughter is customer service agent for health insurance company, she told me not to pay that in future, but to direct ER doc to bill insurance as I had already paid my copays to them. Most of them never submit bill to insurance because they know the contract already paid what they will and they get folks like me before I was educated to pay it.

Total scam, they know it...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I don’t pay any medical bills until my insurance has approved and told me what I owe. I track it in a spreadsheet.

None have tried to bypass insurance, but one keeps trying to get me to prepay. I check with my insurance, if they haven’t done a pre authorization with insurance, I tell them to go pound sand.

 

[Travelover]

We usually only hear one side of the story... what else is in the bill? Since lowering drug prices was a Trump campaign promise, there is a reason the president and republicans are against it. While it has the Medicare can negotiate drug prices in it, what else is in it? Sorry, I don't trust Congress much.............

The Republican objection was stated as "government should not set prices, let free market decide". When the government is the customer, and it is a negotiation not a mandate, I don't see the problem. In the mean time, old drugs like insulin become unaffordable and tribal mistrust allows the bandits to rip all of us off.

 

[goeduck]

The Republican objection was stated as "government should not set prices, let free market decide". When the government is the customer, and it is a negotiation not a mandate, I don't see the problem. In the mean time, old drugs like insulin become unaffordable and tribal mistrust allows the bandits to rip all of us off.

I am lucky enough not to be on any expensive medication right now but this is one piece of legislation I would want to know more about. How are Medicare drug prices set now? I assume they want to be able to do what insurance companies do or to they want to set them artificially?

 

[Chris616]

I am lucky enough not to be on any expensive medication right now but this is one piece of legislation I would want to know more about. How are Medicare drug prices set now? I assume they want to be able to do what insurance companies do or to they want to set them artificially?

It seems crazy, but...

"In 2003, a Republican-majority Congress created Medicare Part D, which prevented Medicare, the country's largest single-payer health care system, from negotiating drug prices. In effect, drug manufacturers in the US were allowed to set their own prices resulting in the unregulated pricing variation for prescription drugs."

From this source:
Prescription drug prices in the United States - Wikipedia