Adam Ruins Everything - Real Reason Hospitals Are So Costly

American healthcare might not be the best world, but it is the most expensive.

*** It's true, ask for an itemized bill sometime. I had a panic attack a few months ago and ended up in the hospital. Since it was emergency, I had to pay a deductible portion. They said I was low on potassium when they did my bloodwork, so they gave me a potassium electrolyte drink. Basically like a sports drink. 8 oz ended up costing 125 dollars. By the time it was all said and done, 7k to insurance and I paid 500 out of pocket.
Spacedog79says...

Fine ideas but it seems US healthcare is so insanely profitable there is no incentive to change.

bobknight33said:

A good start would to make facilities post their cost for services.

Another would be to only allow x% profit on a good or service.

spawnflaggersays...

Here's another one - make it illegal for a Health Insurance company to own hospitals (some own many many hospitals).

Prices aren't going to go down until they have lower priced competition - i.e. single-payer "public option". Maybe in another 3.5 years it might be possible, but not anytime soon.

HugeJerksays...

I worked in a doctors office for awhile... and I asked one of the doctors about the costs. He told me pretty much what they say in this video, but there was another thing. Labs used to run a panel of tests for one set price. But insurance companies wanted each test separated out into their own billing. It made a single test cost something like a dollar less than the panel of tests.

The problem being the majority of the work was in prepping the sample for the tests. Separating it out made it so the labs had to add that prep work cost to each test. Since most doctors usually order several tests, it drove the cost way up.

JiggaJonsonsays...

Careful, if @bobknight33 sees you saying that he'll respond with some pretty harsh criticism. I'll pull quotes from his profile to simulate what he would say.

"Cuba citizens live as long and pay less? That Communism is better? That Cubans live shit life's but have live as long? Sign me up for that stuff... Then I 'll build a boat out of trash bans and float 90miles to tot the USA for a worse life. Sign me up for that stuff.

Every group that a has money at stake are trying to influence the people / governments one way or another in their favor.

All those hard line [prices] are only starting negotiating positions.

Trump is punking the shit out of liberals. Too funny. No real evidence or facts. just "sources" for liberal media false hype to continue its 24/7 anti Trump narrative."

bobknight33said:

A good start would to make facilities post their cost for services.

Another would be to only allow x% profit on a good or service.

Stormsingersays...

I find that claim a bit hard to swallow. Changing the way tests are -billed- doesn't require any change in way samples are prepped. What I suspect really happened was that the lab saw an opportunity to charge multiple times for work that was only done once.

HugeJerksaid:

I worked in a doctors office for awhile... and I asked one of the doctors about the costs. He told me pretty much what they say in this video, but there was another thing. Labs used to run a panel of tests for one set price. But insurance companies wanted each test separated out into their own billing. It made a single test cost something like a dollar less than the panel of tests.

The problem being the majority of the work was in prepping the sample for the tests. Separating it out made it so the labs had to add that prep work cost to each test. Since most doctors usually order several tests, it drove the cost way up.

HugeJerksays...

That's what I was saying... sorry if it wasn't clear. Because the insurance companies wanted a single billing for each test, the labs had to set their rates for each test to include the prep... even when a sample had already been prepared for another test that had been ordered.

They could have billed separately for prep, and for the test. But they hadn't been doing that before, so they didn't change it.

Stormsingersaid:

I find that claim a bit hard to swallow. Changing the way tests are -billed- doesn't require any change in way samples are prepped. What I suspect really happened was that the lab saw an opportunity to charge multiple times for work that was only done once.

Send this Article to a Friend



Separate multiple emails with a comma (,); limit 5 recipients






Your email has been sent successfully!

Manage this Video in Your Playlists




notify when someone comments
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
  
Learn More