Insurers' Survey Points To Big Bills As Health Care Problem

nytimes.com:

A patient in Illinois was charged $12,712 for cataract surgery. Medicare pays $675 for the same procedure. In California, a patient was charged $20,120 for a knee operation that Medicare pays $584 for. And a New Jersey patient was charged $72,000 for a spinal fusion procedure that Medicare covers for $1,629.

The charges came out of a survey sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans in which insurers were asked for some of the highest bills submitted to them in 2008.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[capitaldysfunction]

02:30 AM on 08/13/2009

The overview to be gathered here is simply that capitalism and health care don't mix well. The private health insurers have runaway CEO salaries in the millions (the average CEO salary of the top ten insurers is 11.9 million). In addition, the top ten private health insurers have annual profits in excess of 400 BILLION. The doctors' excessive charges is a further indication that capitalism and health care cost containment is futile.
A single payer system with low administrative costs like Medicare (which is, of course, a single payer government run system) is the prescription not being discussed. Why is it not being discussed? Because K street lobbyists and the bought-and-paid-for Republican party and blue dog conservitive Democrats have been told to railroad a single payer system outside the realm of public debate and discussion.
One last point: Isn't it remarkable how easy it is for conservitives to cover their corruption under the guise of remaining true to their conservitive principles?

[schatsie]

09:02 AM on 08/14/2009

I don't know about the profits of 400 billion, that is more like the excessive overhead in this system.... which includes profits, excessive compensation, and excessive administration on both the prover and insurer side... and which is NOT SPENT on providing care for the 50 million without insurance.

[AbsolutionDouble0]

07:22 PM on 08/12/2009

The smallest increase posted here is nearly 2000%...no, we don't need reform. We just need 2000% pay raises.

[aofh]

04:56 PM on 08/12/2009

$5,700 for stitches!

[Texas Aggie]

02:12 PM on 08/12/2009

This article brings into question a whole lot of the whackjobs' arguments against the health reform. One of their main complaints is that they won't be able to choose their own doctor, although there is nothing in the various bills that would preclude that. Then we see in this article that people are getting socked for exorbitant charges because they go to a doctor that is outside the ones allowed by their insurance companies. The insurance companies themselves state that they restrict the doctors that you may see and refuse to pay when you go outside their stable of approved doctors.

What are these people using as grey matter?

[schatsie]

09:03 AM on 08/14/2009

texas aggie, the insurance companies and the providers are both at fault for charging too much money.....The patient does not have access to this information on any reasonable basis....

[rxvette]

01:10 PM on 08/12/2009

While insurers are one of the biggest problems with our current health care system in the U.S. we also need to focus on what we can do individually to prevent costs from rising.

We do by enlarge ignore the biggest key to our success in bringing down long term costs when it comes to health care in America. And this would be a large cultural shift in our diet and lifestyles. To put it bluntly America is fat and sick. We have the individual choice to eat whatever we want and also the choice to exercise if we want. So why aren't we making better choices?

Because we are stubborn for one thing. But there does need to be a change in the political and media circles in this country. They help support the industries who give them campaign money. These industries include the dairy and meat industries. There is considerable unbiased scientific research out there that proves a high protein and high fat diet from animal based foods leads to almost all of the chronic diseases we suffer here in America. If this info is wrong then why are so many people in America fat and sick? Our government also loves to subsidize those who make highly processed foods with high fructose corn syrup in everything - read the farm bill.

I'm a medical professional and have researched how to best achieve universal care in America and here is my well referenced article regarding this - http://bit.ly/9QLV8

[schatsie]

09:04 AM on 08/14/2009

Isn't this a repeat?