Aside from actual costs to manage a medical facility, the invention of insurance has generated additional costs that have nothing to do with treating or preventing illness/childbirth.
Health care fees has become grossly inflated with expenses that have nothing to do with actual health: Cost of insurance coverage added to salaries and our taxes to cover national leaders completely: salaries and benefit packages for non-medical CEO and CFO鈥檚 and other personnel such as employees that specialize in filling out medical forms, applying for benefits, filing all the information, collections of payments; insurance company pays for fraud investigators, employees to find technicalities to not pay benefits, their CEO and CFO and all other employees.
My elderly dog needed jaw surgery: half was removed and it was wired. She stayed at the clinic getting IV fluid and medications for four days. Her bill was $395 (including tax and medications brought home). Had this been my mom, the hospital would be investigating the possibility of getting her home somehow in addition to charging her insurance, and any others she is eligible for them to sign up for, charging initially more than $20,000.00. You are absolutly rught ! yes my husband lost his insurance went to the same doctor same treatment and the bill was cheaper then with the insurance the doctor charged the insurance way more then him so I guess that's why insurance cost so much No, I believe there are several factors, but insurance has to pick up the inequities of the system...they try to control costs, not inflate them.
First, the privatisation of drug companies is largely to blame. I understand that the cost of medicine helps to pay for research and development, but the CEOs are deeply lining their pockets to further their own agendas and to protect themselves against lawsuits (see my thought on that below). One of my patients had an itemized bill from her chemotherapy treatments. ONE little 500ml bag of her chemo cost $17,000....and she received six of them. One of my father's monthly prescriptions for Advair cost $400 a month. He is on SS disability and only receives about $1,000 month and his prescription plan does not cover it...he simply goes without. Most of these medications are made for pennies on the dollar...or in some cases, even less.
Secondly, litigation in the US is out of control. "Vicitms" of accidents and injuries, etc clog the system because they are told by their lawyers that they ARE vicitims and SHOULD be hurting and seeking medical care. "Whiplash" victims spend needless amounts of time seeking medical care because they've been told they will have lifelong condition of pain and suffering and they buy into it. Their own bodies perpetuate the problem. Do you know how often we see the person who causes the car accident seeking medical care? Almost none (aside from very obvious injuries of broken bones, etc). In countries where one cannot sue for personal injury, health care costs are almost one tenth of what they are in the US. I can certainly understand paying for medical expenses and time off work...but let's cut the ability to sue for "pain and suffering"...how does money solve the problem anyway? People are motivate by the system to say they are hurt and keep seeking medical care. In countries where one cannot sue for personal injury, whiplash is almost non-exisist...sure, people get the typical sprain/strain, but they get better quickly because they are motivated to return to work, etc.
Thirdly is the overuse of MRI. Doctors made diagnoses long before MRI and in some countries, they still do. Health care practicioners need to continue to develop their assessment skills and only use MRI when the evaluation is inconclusive. It should not be used to confirm what we already suspect unless surgery is thought to be the only option. I can't tell you how many patients come to PT with an MRI already in hand...I only choose to look at it if the results of my exam are inconclusive....9 times out of ten, I can tell them what MRI will show if the results of the exam are positive. At $3-5,000 a pop for an MRI, I often fix in 6 visits for a cost of $1,000. That's a wasted $2-4000 on about 90% of the back pain patients.
If you want to control the costs, start with the drug companies, lawsuits and guidelines for expensive technology. Insurance as an idea is not responsible for the increasing
costs. However, in an attempt
to contain costs 40 years ago, PPO's and HMO's were established that are now a big part of the cost. Red tape, paperwork and the like. So yes, this part of insurance
is a major source of increased cost. The other source of increased cost is the new technologies that get overused,
just becouse "someone else" is paying for the procedure.
Litigation is only a small percentage of the health cost in
the USA. |
