The Other Credit Crunch

I have no problem with doctors and hospitals making a good salary, but the rates hospitals charge are out of this world. I had an Essure sterilization procedure done 2 years ago. This procedure is outpatient and involves no incision. Three hours at the hospital, and they send me a bill for $11,000. That is ridiculous for something with no incision and where I had no complications. Once I went to the ER with what turned out to be pneumonia, and that hospital wanted $1,600 for putting an IV in me and prescribing some antibiotics. Thankfully, I have insurance, but so many people don't, or if they do, the coverage would leave them owing huge amounts.

Yes, doctors are talented and trained and do wonderful things, and I'm OK with them being well-paid. But the bills I've had from hospitals seem out of proportion for the work done, at least in my case. Regular capitalist market theory does not work on health care unless it's cosmetic surgery. If market forces worked, then every time a new doctor or hospital opened up, prices would go down and practices would try to keep their prices in line with the market norm. But health care keeps going up every year, regardless of how many doctors are in your town.

I'm wondering why we can find money to fight the war in Iraq and bail out the greedy banks, yet we can't fund national healthcare, at least basic services.

To: GAJohnson. Yes, hospitals regularly grossly overcharge the self-insured or those with only catastrophic insurance. Back in the old days before wide-spread insurance, patients could and did complain to the various state licensing boards about overcharging. Most patients don't realize it, but this is still an option. It is trivial that charges several-times what the hospital gets paid by (say) medicare are grossly-excessive. The last thing a hospital wants is to be publically-censured by the state medical board for overcharging.

Bailout..that's the new American way. How can you blame someone who does not have insurance because they believe nothing will happen to them?
If the Hospitals were smart they would turn the whole mess over to the Government...basically the Government dictates what will and will not be paid and how much will be paid. Everything hinges around Medicare limits and again...your Gov't sets those limits.

I agree that physicians are asked to share an unfair burden of the health care problem. It is a fact of life that if you want the brightest and the best in a certain field, then you must compensate them accordingly. There isn't a physician out there that I know who doesn't mind helping people out when they fall on hard times. However, the amount of uncompensated care that individual physicians are now facing are reaching ridiculous proportions. Emergency medicine physicians are the ones hit hardest by this. These days, many of the patients they see come to the ER for their non-urgent care b/c they know they do not have to pay. There is a lot of phsyician frustration out there, not only about the financial issues, but about the health care field in general. The article is correct. Most physicians I know A RE telling college students considering a career in medicine to seriously reconsider. It's not uncommon to hear them state that they would not re-enter the medical field if they had to do it over again. Is health care a right or is it a commodity? I like to use the grocery store analogy. If you're a refugee from Africa starving,with your ribs sticking out, and you walk into a restaurant and eat a meal without paying for it - no one with a heart could blame you. The restaurant would probably be more than happy to provide that meal. BUT did the restaurant HAVE to do that? I say that society WOULD have a moral obligation to feed that person....but it should not rest solely on the shoulders of the restaurant to feed every starving person that walks through that door - it rests on society as a whole to pay the bill. That means YOU and YOU and YOU. Same with hospitals and doctors. YOU need to help pay that other person's bill. Continuing the same analogy, if a person who is merely hungry walks in, or someone who doesn't feel like going home to eat, or someone isn't hungry now, but needs to eat b/c they know they'll be hungry later walks in to eat, then walks out without paying the bill, that would be considered outrageous and unacceptable. No one would blink an eye if the restaurant demanded that they pay the bill.The article demonizes the hospitals for trying to collect payment for their services. If you feel pity for the people who can't pay their bills, then open your checkbook. Don't demand that the bakery give out all their wares for free, then act surprised when the bakery and the baker go out of business or decide to go into the tire business instead.

To Thinkade,
No, the hospital doesn't "get" $1667 per hour - they "charge" you that much. No contractual insurer pays such ridiculous rates. So, when the hospitals claim they lose $36 billion in uncompensated care, they are waiving a flag that doesn't exist. For such care, they never would have received that amount of money if people were insured, because they would not be permitted to charge $50 for an aspirin. The insurance companies won't pay it, and they don't have to, because they contracted up front and said they wouldn't do it. Only if you don't have insurance will hospitals take advantage of you and screw you for these absurd rates.

The system must change, and the providers must not be allowed to charge unreasonable amounts to anyone. Massachusetts, I believe, used to require that providers not be permitted to charge in excess of what they would have received from Blue Cross. That, at least, cuts down on billing fraud.

A week ago today the hospital where my husband worked security called him and told him you no longer have a job,you cant imagine the shock we felt.He was part of there cost reduction,now we worry if we will be able to keep our home.

These stories all sound just like the situation I am in I have probably 20,000 thousands dollars in medical bills and of course they are on my credit , that is all that is on my credit , I was never offer any financial assistant in the home town where I live which is Tappahannock Virginia. I work on a job for thirteen years and the job shut down and it seem like that's when I my medical problems started. I had not insurance and needed surgery, the hospital never offer me financial assistance no one never talk to me about any help at all.Then it was one medical thing after another and then when I finally got a job wit health insurance it still seem like I didn't have health insurance. My medical problems went on for the next 5 to 6 years and still not one offer financial assistant. I am a single mother with two children and I want to buy a home for me and my childrens and I can't get anyone to even consider giving me a loan for a home because of all the medical bills I have. I have apply for loans to consolidate all the medical bill all I get is a door slam in my face so I went to the hospital to the business office to discuss all the medical bills I have and to see if I could get some kind of discount and set up payment plan, I was in her office for about five minutes before she sent me on my way , gave me some phone number and said it was out of her hands it was nothing she could do, she wouldn't even look at some of the medical bills to see if maybe she could work out some of the recent ones.Well after leaving her office upset, I call the number she gave me to discuss what could I do to make this right , like setting up payment plan, if they could offer some kind of discount and I was told flat out no, it was nothing that they could do.I am considering bankruptcy but guess what if I do that then it will take me probably five years before anyone would even consider giving me a loan for a home. I don't have a high paying job. I am leaving pay check to pay check. I work about an hour and 20 minutes away from my job. I mean what do you do . I tried to do the right thing but not one want to help me. I even went to social service to apply for medicaid and the first question they ask was I expecting a baby, when I told them no that I had medical problems they said it's nothing we can do to help you. I have been working since I was about sixteen years old and I am 45 and alot of tax money has went into social service but when I need them to reach out to help me they slap the door in my face so what do you do?????

American internists make between 50 to 75 dollars per hours. A locum tenans in Ireland makes 167 Euros per hour. With the exchange at 1.28 for the Euro, you do the math. I'd rather get paid in Euros and be appreciated!

Its Ok for auto workers and football players to get paid more than nurses and oher health care workers. Why are people from Canada coming to America for their surgery or Cardiac cath? Because there is not a 6 month wait to have a MRI for a brain tumor or a Cath for chest pain. Socialized medicine will not be tolerated by the U.S. citizens who demand immediate services..My mother comes from Belgium and once you get old they don't consider it cost worthy to use expensive medicines.Taxes are high and doctors do get paid well!! You get what you pay for.

My wife and I own two long term care facilities. We write off about 150K anually to help the elderly in our community. The Govt. puts stipulations on EVERYTHING and force us to spend many tens of thousands of dollars to satisfy their needs rather than the needs of our elderly. Attourneys force us to spend 5% of our gross revenues to keep them in a job while we (my wife and I included) go without health insurance. I understand these folks issues including the Doctors. We all have the same concerns. We need the government and Lawyers out of healthcare to make this work. If we continue down this path, we will rely on govt. caregivers to make the decisions for us all. Just imagine asking the same people who created this mess to treat your cancer or operate on your Grandmother or even deliver your child!!!!

Did you know that every single collection agency in America working for hospitals is operated by a member of the Republican party?