Health insurance bill passes the house

[DGuller]

Who goes to the doctor once a month?

My grandma, if "to the doctor" means "to each of her doctors".

[DontSayBanana]

Running numbers differently, four times a year.  One sickness each season that goes through the entire household.  $400 for office visits (one cost-saving issue could be that doctors could see family members at the same time for related problems, BTW), about $1,000 to $1,200 for the household's labwork... assuming all four need medication for a mild illness during the season, expect about $800.  You're still looking at around $5,000 for mild illnesses like the flu or strep throat.

[Berkut]

Yep, you are right - I had the numbers mixed in my head - it is actually about $13,000/year. Same principle applies though.

Really?  An uninsured office visit is approximately $100.  If you have one office visit per month per person, then for a family of four, you're shelling out $4,800 before you get any testing or procedures done- $13,000/year sounds like a bargain in comparison.

Holy crap, once a month per person???

And what is the fair market price for an office visit, if in fact the market was determining the price?

[Berkut]

Running numbers differently, four times a year.  One sickness each season that goes through the entire household.  $400 for office visits (one cost-saving issue could be that doctors could see family members at the same time for related problems, BTW), about $1,000 to $1,200 for the household's labwork... assuming all four need medication for a mild illness during the season, expect about $800.  You're still looking at around $5,000 for mild illnesses like the flu or strep throat.

Why would it cost $1000 for lab work, for a minor illness? And $800 per person for medication? Huh? Generic drugs don't cost anywhere near that amount of money, and would likely cost even less if there was more competition in the market for them.

[DontSayBanana]

Holy crap, once a month per person???

And what is the fair market price for an office visit, if in fact the market was determining the price?

It wouldn't change much for office visits.  Billable time is expensive; consider that lawyers are bound to UCRs.

[Admiral Yi]

And what is the fair market price for an office visit, if in fact the market was determining the price?

I don't know how you'd even start to estimate that.

[DGuller]

All those prices of medical procedures remind me of the sticker on the door of my hotel room in Vegas.  It said that the maximum rate for the room I stayed in is $875 per night.  I stayed for $30 a night.  Maybe all those labs start with $875, and then agree on $30 with insurance companies.

[DontSayBanana]

I don't know how you'd even start to estimate that.

Usual and customary rates.

[Berkut]

And what is the fair market price for an office visit, if in fact the market was determining the price?

I don't know how you'd even start to estimate that.

Neither do I, really.

[Sheilbh]

Based on the research that I've been doing here in Europe, I'd venture that Americans tend to care a lot less about the state and its money that Europeans.  Patients talk here about not wanting to be on very expensive medications as they understand that it costs the government a lot of money.  I think, us Americans, are more likely to be give what you got, I want the best and I don't care how much it costs the state.

That's interesting.  I've never heard that view.  In the UK, in my experience, it's slightly different.  I think older people especially still have immense respect for their doctors, so they're not terribly likely to ask for a second opinion or demand an extra test.  Which is bad but they view the doctor as  their superior really (I think it's a class/deference thing in the older generation) and they don't want to make a fuss.

When my aunty was dying she refused to go into the hospital and stay there because she didn't want to cause a fuss.  What that meant was that they had to move a hospital bed into her small semi, get a twice-weekly visit from a nurse and a carer come in to help my uncle.  It is, of course, a lot more trouble than just going into hospital but she didn't want to cause a fuss.  I think it's perhaps different in the US.

[garbon]

That's interesting.  I've never heard that view.  In the UK, in my experience, it's slightly different.  I think older people especially still have immense respect for their doctors, so they're not terribly likely to ask for a second opinion or demand an extra test.  Which is bad but they view the doctor as  their superior really (I think it's a class/deference thing in the older generation) and they don't want to make a fuss.

When my aunty was dying she refused to go into the hospital and stay there because she didn't want to cause a fuss.  What that meant was that they had to move a hospital bed into her small semi, get a twice-weekly visit from a nurse and a carer come in to help my uncle.  It is, of course, a lot more trouble than just going into hospital but she didn't want to cause a fuss.  I think it's perhaps different in the US.

Oh we heard that in all the countries we did as well and then especially in the UK. Not so much in Germany.