First a little background. My wife and I work for two of the top tech giants in the Silicon Valley. Although the local cost of living is high, we are very comfortable and on a national average would be considered upper class. At our employers we each were given a choice of several health plans. The employee fee for these plans ranged from $25-$50 per month, while the employer costs for these plans are likely around $5,000 per month. The choice between $25 and $50 per month was essentially where the supposed capitalist health care system ended and the socialized medicine began.
Late last year we had our first child at one of the top hospitals in the country: Stanford Medical Center. This is the place youngsters are flown in to from around the West coast of the United States (including Hawaii) for their incredibly high level of care. Due to complications irrelevant to this blog, our total hospital bill for a two week stay was:
The Bill: $180,000
Of course, our insurance company easily negotiated that down and only paidInsurance Paid: $90,000.
Name one other capitalist system where you can receive goods or services from a company and some time later negotiate the bill in half for no reason other than internal corruption. How much did we pay? How much did we pay for this service? Remember that $25-$50/month medical plan decision a while back? We paid theWe Paid: $5,000
deductible and that was it.
Up until now you might be thinking: yeah, I get it, that's just how insurance works. Let me ask you this then: Who were our neighbors in this top hospital in the nation? Loads of illegal immigrants and uninsured. Who was "paying" their bill? We were, indirectly thru our insurance plans, via our employeers, and ultimately out of our pockets.
Why is it that in health care, the providers never mention costs until after you receive services? Why is it that you can't negotiate or shop around for care? Why was our bill for a two week stay without any particularly outrageous expenses (no surgery, just observation) carried a "bill" of $180,000, which was so easily negotiated down to $90,000?
The reality is that the US health care system is already socialist. We just have none of the good aspects of such as system. Anyone who is employed or pays for health insurance is already paying for all medical expenses of those who don't. And adding insult to injury, we do so thru a layer of insurance companies who skim anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of all health care dollars spent in the US, and whose main goal is to deny coverage wherever possible.
Another more recent case in point. My wife needed doctor prescribed medicine (nothing life threatening, but still important). At first, our insurance carrier denied covering it. Than they denied covering it and said to go thru their "approved" third-party pharmacy, where they would cover 50% of the cost. As it turns out, their third-party pharmacy was almost twice the cost of the cheapest nationally-known pharmacy (their price $500, natl pharmacy retail price $300). This is corruption and likely kick-backs at it's finest. In the long run we went with the insurance company's approved pharmacy, "paying" (us + insurance co) almost double for the same medicine as we could have in a true free market.
Politically, I'm in favor of limited government and conservative spending policies. However, our system is failing badly to provide sound care in a reasonable way. Many responsible families who are employed end up bankrupt even when they thought they had reasonable insurance, when a serious illness affects them. Those who are irresponsible or simply can't pay for coverage end up getting free care and have no assets for hospitals to go after. The ever shrinking middle class, and even those such as myself categorized by our government as upper class have little choice when it comes to how our health care dollars are spent. Our companies are already spending thousands per month to insurance middlemen, while we get to choose where our $25 per month go.
When it finally comes down to choosing a doctor, hospital, or otherwise, the middle and upper class have essentially no choices beyond what the uninsured have. Switching the US to an honest socialist health care system will immediately shave off at least 1/3 of all health care costs in the US. It will also liberate the 99% of us who earn < $1M per year from the fear of "losing coverage", having a "preexisting condition", or arguing over necessary medicine with middlemen whose goals are to deny care.
Up until now you might be thinking: yeah, I get it, that's just how insurance works. Let me ask you this then: Who were our neighbors in this top hospital in the nation? Loads of illegal immigrants and uninsured. Who was "paying" their bill? We were, indirectly thru our insurance plans, via our employeers, and ultimately out of our pockets.
Why is it that in health care, the providers never mention costs until after you receive services? Why is it that you can't negotiate or shop around for care? Why was our bill for a two week stay without any particularly outrageous expenses (no surgery, just observation) carried a "bill" of $180,000, which was so easily negotiated down to $90,000?
The reality is that the US health care system is already socialist. We just have none of the good aspects of such as system. Anyone who is employed or pays for health insurance is already paying for all medical expenses of those who don't. And adding insult to injury, we do so thru a layer of insurance companies who skim anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of all health care dollars spent in the US, and whose main goal is to deny coverage wherever possible.
Another more recent case in point. My wife needed doctor prescribed medicine (nothing life threatening, but still important). At first, our insurance carrier denied covering it. Than they denied covering it and said to go thru their "approved" third-party pharmacy, where they would cover 50% of the cost. As it turns out, their third-party pharmacy was almost twice the cost of the cheapest nationally-known pharmacy (their price $500, natl pharmacy retail price $300). This is corruption and likely kick-backs at it's finest. In the long run we went with the insurance company's approved pharmacy, "paying" (us + insurance co) almost double for the same medicine as we could have in a true free market.
Politically, I'm in favor of limited government and conservative spending policies. However, our system is failing badly to provide sound care in a reasonable way. Many responsible families who are employed end up bankrupt even when they thought they had reasonable insurance, when a serious illness affects them. Those who are irresponsible or simply can't pay for coverage end up getting free care and have no assets for hospitals to go after. The ever shrinking middle class, and even those such as myself categorized by our government as upper class have little choice when it comes to how our health care dollars are spent. Our companies are already spending thousands per month to insurance middlemen, while we get to choose where our $25 per month go.
When it finally comes down to choosing a doctor, hospital, or otherwise, the middle and upper class have essentially no choices beyond what the uninsured have. Switching the US to an honest socialist health care system will immediately shave off at least 1/3 of all health care costs in the US. It will also liberate the 99% of us who earn < $1M per year from the fear of "losing coverage", having a "preexisting condition", or arguing over necessary medicine with middlemen whose goals are to deny care.
