Just one more damning bit of evidence that the health care system in this country is an unmitigated disaster that isn't far off from imploding in on itself under the weight of it's own profit-driven greed:
The United States has long been known to have one of the most expensive hospital systems in the world, and now a new study indicates that hospitals are overcharging patients for medical services.
According to the study published Monday by National Nurses United, the largest nurses' organization in the United States, the price of many services has skyrocketed since the mid-'90s. Many hospitals have set charges at 10 times their cost. The 100 most expensive hospitals in the country, for example, in 2011 charged 765 percent of their costs, or $765 for every $100 of total costs.
Imagine that -- a 765% markup - perhaps for just a simple, life-saving procedure. Does anyone else see the perniciousness in such practices?
The article goes on to state:
The situation is even worse for the uninsured, who have to cough up the full medical bill. "Our nurses all the time see patients skipping medical care that is necessary for them because they can't afford the high cost of what they’re being charged" says Idelson. The Commonwealthstudy found that in 2013 more than one-third of US adults decided to forgo recommended care because of costs.
The high cost of health care got renewed attention at the beginning of the new year when a 20-year-old posted the bill for his appendectomy on Reddit. The total cost after insurance was more than $11,000.
The National Nurses United study also found that excessive costs is worst at private, for-profit hospitals, which, according to the American Hospital Association, account for the vast majority of hospitals in the United States. In contrast, government-run hospitals exercised more restraint in their pricing. "Public oversight and regulation seems to help constrain excessive pricing," says the study.
An appendectomy typically takes a competent surgeon just under an hour to perform. Let's say that the 20 year old dude who posted his $11k bill on Reddit - that his procedure took exactly one hour. That $11,000 bill was the out-of-pocket cost to the patient AFTER the insurance company paid their part. So one is left wondering then, how much was the total bill? Well, The Gadfly went searching for the answer and found it -- the total of that poor bastard's appendectomy bill was $55,000 dollars [ LINK HERE ].
Fifty Five Thousand Dollars!! - for a CT scan and an uncomplicated surgical procedure that typically takes less than an hour and has the patient home within a couple of days.
And some people (those who refuse to acknowledge the truth) still wonder why nearly two thirds of all personal bankruptcies in the United States have, as the root cause, unpaid medical bills?
Fifty Five Thousand Dollars - for one 20 year old kid's lousy little appendix. That's the cost of a modest little home in some parts of the country. Or the cost of a couple of brand new automobiles. Maybe that month long trip across Europe that you've always dreamed of taking. A college education for a couple of your kids?
It just boggles The Gadfly's mind how it is that we as a nation can smugly look at the rest of the industrialized world and brazenly claim that we have the best health care system in the world when getting sick or injured as an American carries the inherent risk of eventually landing your ass in bankruptcy court and in the Salvation Army food line.
The Gadfly is not going to shill on the pages of this shitty little blog for Obamacare dear readers. The Gadfly believes the ACA was a sellout to the insurance industry and the big pharmaceutical conglomerates. But it was one small step in the right direction, albeit with no chance of ever remedying the underlying problems which are endemic to our massively incompetent and inefficient healthcare system itself. And believe it or not dear readers, The Gadfly actually harbors a bit of apprehensive hope that Obamacare fails -- if for the sole reason that those of us who warned that it did not go nearly far enough, and were advocating loudly for a single-payer plan, can stand up and say to Obama and the Democrats --- we fucking told you so.
The whole goddamn sorry mess is just maddening to think about.
All The Gadfly knows is that if he ever has to have his appendix removed, those bastards had better dip that little worm-like chunk of giblet in molten gold and then mount it on a silver-plated plaque for him to take home from the hospital if they're going to charge The Gadfly Fifty Five Thousand fucking Dollars.
----TFG
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