All this talk about "Death Panels" - I would bet that ANYONE that refers to "death panels" has NEVER had health insurance through an HMO? With an HMO you have to get 'pre-certified' for almost every procedure - your procedure is pre-certified by someone sitting in an office in 'San Diego' comparing your doctor's request to a 'standardized' list of requirements. How is pre-certification NOT the same thing?
Excellent points - when I was a kid, my parents (my dad was a school administrator and my mom a stay-at-home mom) could only afford major-medical insurance - with a $1000 deductible. The idea was to have insurance for that UNEXPECTED problem. But in today's world, since the 'Invention' of the HMO (Health Management Organization), our society expects 'Insurance' to pay the WHOLE THING. They pay $35 on that $100 doctor visit and then require the doctor to carry 3500 patients to spread out those $35 payments and make it cost effective for the doctor.
Its not the government that's paying the small %, its the insurance companies - go read up on how Medicare works.
Except that the 45000 they wrote off for our procedures was NOT Medicare! We both work and have insurance provided by our employers. This isn't an 'Obama' issue or a government 'owned and operated' issue. This is an issue with the way health care is paid for, PERIOD! From what I've read in places, Medicare DOES pay a 'reasonable' amount and then secondary insurance picks up some. BUT, if secondary insurance is being provided by the big insurance companies and THAT is only paying 10% of what is owed, THEN who is paying the rest?
When will they stop accepting new patients that are insured by companies like Aetna? I was in the hospital for 4 days two years ago and my wife was in for 4 days a couple months ago. According to the statements we received from the hospital, the total bill was for over $50,000, yet Aetna only paid about 10% of that total - $5,000. What happened to the other $45,000? If its so costly to treat patients, why is our insurance not paying the bill? According to the statement from the hospital, this was a 'negotiated' amount.
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