Text 27012, 66 rader
Skriven 2009-01-30 14:38:38 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 26984 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: Health Insurance (was: The first of many to)
====================================================
29 Jan 09 04:23, Bob Ackley wrote to Roy Witt:

 BA> Replying to a message of Roy Witt to Robert Bashe:

 RW>> The cost-vs-pay ratio is what counts. When a hospital stay with the
 RW>> use of the surgery bay costs $25k for a 5 day stay and your
 RW>> insurance only pays them $5k and you have no out of pocket costs,
 RW>> that's pretty good in my book. Somebody's getting screwed, but it
 RW>> ain't you is even better.

 BA> In my particular case the hospital ate about $40,000.  Providers
 BA> can't do that sort of thing forever, eventually they are going to
 BA> close and you won't be able to get treatment for your problem at any
 BA> price.

I doubt that the hospitals go out of business because they don't get paid
enough. The surgeon I had didn't seem to me to be a pauper.

 BA> In some states - notably CA - some hospitals have closed completely
 BA> and others have closed their emergency departments.

I'm familiar with that. They closed their ER because CA laws have made it
impossible to keep one open and make any money. Tri-County Hosp in
Escondido was one of the first victims of that law.

 BA> Which, of course, shifts the burden of unpaid costs to the remaining
 BA> providers - and that will accelerate their decline into bankruptcy
 BA> and closure.

CA is a special case, where illegal immigrants are serviced for free at
the expense of the paying customer/insurance company. Therin lies the
problem, having to serve the public without any compensation and the
number of illegal immigrants is more than the system can take.

 BA> Except, of course, for tax supported hospitals that can shift their
 BA> losses onto Joe Taxpayer, private hospitals (the overwhelming
 BA> majority of hospitals in the US, most of which are run by religious
 BA> organizations) can't do that.

None of the private hospitals I've ever seen have an ER. Nor do they
service just anybody who comes in the door. Most are doctor admitted.

 RB>>> I'm not aware of any European doctors who donate their services to
 RB>>> the community, as is common in the States.

 RW>> US doctors volunteer their services across the border in Mexico.
 RW>> Those special cases are brought back to the states for care.

 WD>>>> Someone I know here had his daughter with AFS stay a full year in
 WD>>>> the US at a highschool there. She needed dental work done ... it
 WD>>>> was cheaper to fly her to Belgium for a couple of days and fly her
 WD>>>> back (to Texas) than to have it done overthere.

 BA> Some folks in the US travel to India for some procedures.  The whole
 BA> trip, including the hospital stay, costs less than the cost of the
 BA> procedure in this country.  I read an article about that about a year
 BA> ago.

Interesting...I don't think I'd take advantage of that.

                R\%/itt



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