deltadarlin wrote on Sep 25th, 2009 at 8:53am:I'm extremely happy with our health care/insurance. It is not cheap (over $300.00 a month for just the two of us and that's medical only) and we have a $500.00 deductible per person, then it kicks in and pays at 90% in system (we have a PPO-Preferred Provider Organization).
I have a wide range of physicians services that I can choose from. However, all those physicians/services have a contract with our provider that state how much they can charge for services. I
can use my last medical problems as an example. I injured my wrist/hand. The doctor billed $120.00 for the office visit, my insurance company excluded $77.81, covering $48.19, and given that I had met my deductible, I paid $4.82. *If* I didn't have insurance, I would have been stuck with the original amount.
That being said, *if* they/the doctors are willing to accept that amount from my insurance company (and most likely many others). Why not just charge that to begin with?
OTOH, my daughter has preexisting conditions, the only insurance we could get her cost $190.00 a month with a $2000.00 deductible and not much choice in doctors. We have used the charity system, both locally and out of town. I wouldn't send my dog to the local charity hospital, but the flagship teaching hospital is wonderful.
There's got to be a way to fix this problem. We keep ranting about the *poor* people we'll have to subsidize when there not the problem. It's those who fall between the cracks that make up the majority of those without health care. The working poor (or simply those who work and cannot afford astronomical prices for insurance).
This is yet another person who is personally happy with a system that is portrayed as totally broken
Those lower rates that the doctors accept are called negotiated rates. There are achieved through economies of scale, and are the perfect example of the free market actually providing monetary benefit to the average person (average being one of the 250+ million insured people, that is). Unlike Medicare, these rates are pretty much what they say they are, negotiated between the insurers and the doctors and hospitals. Like anything else, there are disputes and adjustments all the time. Contrast this with Medicare where the rates are IMPOSED, not negotiated.
And, I have to say, $190 a month is a fantastic rate. I was paying $2800 a month while between jobs on COBRA. Having a pre-existing condition naturally means she *will* cost more to the insurance company. How is it unfair to charge her more? Or I suppose I should pay for that, right? It's my civic duty, right?
And, of those who 'cannot afford' health insurance, I'd like to see what other things they are NOT sacrificing, like big screen TV and satellite bills, astronomical cell phone bills, drugs, hobbies, what have you. All of us make choices, some good and some bad. Why should I be made to pay for someone else's extremely bad choices, including what they budget for in their life?
Our system has big flaws. But why not fix it instead of destroying it? Socializing even more than we have already will destroy it, and will quite probably lead to many more deaths.
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