Health Care Thread

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AladainAF

AladainAF

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We have a $3,000 in-network family deductible we hit because I accidentally chiropractor for 3 months without realizing that insurance doesnt cover chiropractor on our plan (despite being in network for other plans). But it was the same year as my wife gave birth to our daughter so it didn't matter much as it had to be paid anyway.

But it sure was nice having her entire delivery, 3 days in the hospital, and entirety of her OBGYN visits cost us less than $1,000.
 
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scientia potentia est
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Here we go with the "YEA BUT CAN GERMANY REMOVE MY CANCER FOR $6k OUT OF POCKET??????" derail
 
chaos

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It is confusing because in DE you said you paid 900 for a single CT, and there's no way that's after insurance unless you have some bunk ass insurance.
 
A

a_skeleton_03

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chaos_sl said:
It is confusing because in DE you said you paid 900 for a single CT, and there's no way that's after insurance unless you have some bunk ass insurance.
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That was because people here complained that the cost of procedures was too high. That there is no way on Earth that a CT could cost as much as they charge here. They charge at cost over there and it's still that high.
 
Ninen

Ninen

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So I had this THING, and it cost me X, over time Y.

Therefor, it is irrefutably obvious that all THINGs, always cost X and take time Y. Anyone else who says different is just trying to cheat you!

Or they might be lizard people from Planet 9!
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Ninen_sl said:
So I had this THING, and it cost me X, over time Y.

Therefor, it is irrefutably obvious that all THINGs, always cost X and take time Y. Anyone else who says different is just trying to cheat you!

Or they might be lizard people from Planet 9!
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So I got this thing done and I know nothing about medicine or business or anything but I am going to have an opinion about the price of healthcare because I don't understand money or anything else.

Am I doing it right? Did I capture your stupidity well enough?
 
chaos

chaos

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a_skeleton_03_sl said:
That was because people here complained that the cost of procedures was too high. That there is no way on Earth that a CT could cost as much as they charge here. They charge at cost over there and it's still that high.
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I don't know anything about their system over there. I assume they have a system you have to be a part of in order to receive government funded care (ie an insurance group) and you were coming in outside of that and paying straight out of pocket? That's really no mystery, if that's the case, why you paid so much.

The comparison you used was the 900 for one procedure vs the 6k for your entire cancer treatment, ignoring the tens of thousands that insurance surely saved you. idk, seems like maybe anecdotes aren't the way to go on this.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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You are missing the point chaos.

Here a CT scan costs about $900 and people rant and rave that this is too much even with their insurance covering most of it and that the hospitals are taking us for all we are worth.

There they charge things AT COST with no profit if you are a cash payer and it is $900.

The price for a CT scan and all that is involved is acceptable, if you have ever actually worked in medicine or if you spend just a minute thinking about all of the real costs involved.

Yes insurance saved me about $500k from what I remember about the bills. To effectively cure somebody of cancer do you think that is too much money?

What is the acceptable price to cure somebody of two cancers at the same time?
 
Vaclav

Vaclav

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a_skeleton_03_sl said:
You are missing the point chaos.

Here a CT scan costs about $900 and people rant and rave that this is too much even with their insurance covering most of it and that the hospitals are taking us for all we are worth.

There they charge things AT COST with no profit if you are a cash payer and it is $900.
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Here's my bet if you ever posted the "at cost" bill it didn't include the costs in analyzing the scan whereas the US one did (as per the norms of medical coding in the US) - comparing two completely different systems with different coding is quite a challenge to do accurately. It's a problem that crops up quite often in any international comparisons. (i.e. look at infant mortality rate data - what gets counted varies by nation - so the US's abysmal rate could as easily be that we apply the term too easily compared to others vs. an actual difference in rate)

The price for a CT scan and all that is involved is acceptable, if you have ever actually worked in medicine or if you spend just a minute thinking about all of the real costs involved.
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For MRI I'd be inclined to agree - CT is a very inexpensive machine in comparison to an MRI - in both energy, machine cost and length the machine tends to last. And manpower costs should be pretty flat, with only 2 humans involved with the process - the tech (at around $60k/hr) doing the scan and the radiologist analyzing them (unsure, probably $200kish I'd presume like most lower tier hospital tied docs).

Yes insurance saved me about $500k from what I remember about the bills. To effectively cure somebody of cancer do you think that is too much money?

What is the acceptable price to cure somebody of two cancers at the same time?
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If you had two cancers, you should know that once cancer is in multiple locations and/or has spread rule of thumb is to be wary of recurrence for at least 5 yrs. So I'd be careful about being too confident.

Heck aren't you still in the 2 yrs you're supposed to be wary for a single cancer still?
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Lymphoma is one of the highest cure rates out there. That being said of course I am not "cured". I did say effectively once there but not the second time. I an only 35 and you never get rid of it you just shrink it so small.
 
K

Kedwyn

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First, if you have insurance you pay the contract rate the second they have your insurance card. So yes a CT scan might be $900 at the hospital.

Second, if you pay that and aren't in a critical care (does he have a brain bleed) then well you're dumb. My wife's CT scan we paid out of pocket for was $450 (with contrast) because we called a place that does CT scans for people with no insurance, paid cash and got it done. Then I sent the script, the bill and the payment to the insurance company and they took it off our deductible.

CT scans don't cost a grand here. They cost a grand because when you pay the inflated contract rate at a critical care facility that no one pays unless you're dying and you basically got fucked.

Our insurance system if completely broken and needs a complete rewrite.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Kedwyn_sl said:
First, if you have insurance you pay the contract rate the second they have your insurance card. So yes a CT scan might be $900 at the hospital.

Second, if you pay that and aren't in a critical care (does he have a brain bleed) then well you're dumb. My wife's CT scan we paid out of pocket for was $450 (with contrast) because we called a place that does CT scans for people with no insurance, paid cash and got it done. Then I sent the script, the bill and the payment to the insurance company and they took it off our deductible.

CT scans don't cost a grand here. They cost a grand because when you pay the inflated contract rate at a critical care facility that no one pays unless you're dying and you basically got fucked.

Our insurance system if completely broken and needs a complete rewrite.
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......

They cost $900 at COST over in ze Germany which is being touted as a bastion of amazing health care.

That is COST, with NO PROFIT. They don't accept our insurance ..... That is what they charge at EXACT COST to any person that isn't a citizen no matter what, critical or not.
 
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