you do realize that's not the doctor himself sending debt collectors after you, right?
CoVID-19
Oh yes, he was, I know where the check went. He was a contractor, not an employee, with no insurance contract. Dude was on a hunt.
that sounds fishy as shit. ER billing is handled through the hospital, regardless of whether or not the care provider was an employee or a contractor.
I get billed separately for hospital fees and physician fees.
I could understand insurance malpractice having a single digit effect on expenditures... but the difference in spending is about 2x the average of the next 10 european countries.
Its far too large to be attributed to insurance malpractice, plus... having much less coverage than Europe and 20% less MDs per capita.... it would be logical to assume the "amount" of medical services delivered in the US is probably less than the amount delivered in Europe, which would skew even higher the $/amount of medical services actually delivered.
My father had pancreatic cancer some years ago.
This was his 2nd primary cancer (first was skin cancer), and his private insurance didnt cover this 2nd round.
We had to go a large public hospital for his surgery/treatment, which had one of the best whipple-surgery statistics in the country.
He had a whipple done (no complications) and a 30 days hospital stay. The bill was $60.
I wish that was true.
Exactly. The hospital was in my network (receptionist spending an hour with paperwork while I was bleeding from a deep flesh wound), I paid the co-pay for ER and thought that was it. No one told me that the physician was not an employee, out of network. The debt collectors found me a year later, I had no energy to fight the asshole when they came for $300.
Our region has released some new postal codes which are deemed to be "high priority" and if you're 35+, can register to get a vaccine.
Both myself* and the girlfriend's work addresses are included in these areas, so we're FINALLY eligible. Will attempt to book tonight.
*Though that said, my pay cheque has the head office address on it, which is the one in the high priority area. I physically sit and work at a building outside of the prescribed high priority area. I will feel slightly dishonest registering, but HR said go for it, so on we go. All they require is a pay stub or business card with the proper postal code on it when you go to get jabbed, so whatever....
Both myself* and the girlfriend's work addresses are included in these areas, so we're FINALLY eligible. Will attempt to book tonight.
*Though that said, my pay cheque has the head office address on it, which is the one in the high priority area. I physically sit and work at a building outside of the prescribed high priority area. I will feel slightly dishonest registering, but HR said go for it, so on we go. All they require is a pay stub or business card with the proper postal code on it when you go to get jabbed, so whatever....
I have the receipt for my birth. $7.50 which included two nights in the hospital for me and my mother.
This is the main issue I see here. There is virtually no conscent when you go for urgent medical care.
Either you are unconscious, under distress or just have no clue what is going on.
Without a fixed price list, or a single payer system (which would presume the negotiation of a fixed price list for most common issues), I dont see how can you argue there is legal conscent.
International physician compensation report
Out of pocket cost for my parents to have the 4 of us kids was ~$200. My wife and I will probably pay 15x that for a single kid.
And we wonder why people are delaying having children and not having as many when they do.
And US infant/maternal death rates are near 3rd world.
But let's be clear that this isn't because we have third world care. Some of us have 1st world care and the rest have none.
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Funny thing is, other industries dealing with consumers are massively regulated here, and charging a cent over disclosed amount gets you in hot water and legal troubles - financial industry and residential real estate being good examples. Healthcare services are wild west - anything goes, literally. It is impossible to get a price list from hospitals. They will happily charge you $10 for a single ibuprofen capsule or $10,000 for "room services" for a 1 hr outpatient surgery without any form of disclosure. If car dealerships utilized similar business practices, the nation would be up in arms.
~10% of spending goes to physician salaries. 20% but that's not just to the docs but the whole practice, admin and overhead and all.
Health Care Costs in the United States: Are Physician Salaries Really the Problem?
Decreasing physicians' salaries will not improve the cost of health care in the United States, but it may discourage individuals from entering the healthcare field.
www.medicalbag.com
My take away from that article:~10% of spending goes to physician salaries. 20% but that's not just to the docs but the whole practice, admin and overhead and all.
Health Care Costs in the United States: Are Physician Salaries Really the Problem?
Decreasing physicians' salaries will not improve the cost of health care in the United States, but it may discourage individuals from entering the healthcare field.
Physicians salaries in the US are high to compensate for the high cost of medical school. Physicians in other countries don't need to be paid as much because their education is largely publicly subsidized.
I realize that this is slight hyperbole, but my surgery last month was scheduled at 3:30, and I was home by 6:45. Part of the bill I got yesterday was almost 2000 dollars for "recovery room". I couldn't really tell you how long I was in it, but it obviously wasn't that long.
Publicly funded education? Get out of here with that godless commie talk, fucking freedom hater.
they learned this kind of spending from the pentagon
Correlation is not causation
An American teacher's education costs a hell of a lot more than a German teacher
two other aspects to consider here:
-it's illegal to deny someone medical care at the ER, regardless of whether or not they are incapacitated
-given the large # of people in the US who lack insurance, they often put off preventative medical care until their condition worsens to the point they have to seek emergency medical care.
My take away was a summary of the argument that author is putting forth. I can neither confirm nor deny his assertion that cost of education is the primary driver of the difference in physician's salaries.
Intuitively though, it makes sense that our absurd personal cost of education contributes to higher salaries for the occupation. Don't know whether that's a main contributor, but it has to be baked into the numbers somewhere.
The presentation wasn't addressing cost of healthcare but metrics comparing how good/bad doctors in various countries have it.
It may be a contributing factor but I'd say that having a 'free market' healthcare system has a hell of a lot more to do with it.
One could argue that the cost of education is high because of the potential income and not the other way around. I paid for an expensive private engineering degree because I thought it would provide me better opportunities in the future and possibly a higher income to cover the costs. And to a certain extent I was correct.
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Kaiser FTW! So far, 16 months into owning a child our total healthcare expenditure from conception to the last urgent care visit for an ear infection is $30. At 18 months I think we have to start paying co-pays for regular doctor visits, a whole $10.
Not all private health care is overpriced bullshit, the HMO system is great IMHO because they're on the hook for your care, so they emphasize preventative care, and when you do need something more expensive, like getting a nut removed for cancerous reasons, they're paying the doctor's salary direct, rather than through some wacky mark-up.
I could understand insurance malpractice having a single digit effect on expenditures... but the difference in spending is about 2x the average of the next 10 european countries.
Its far too large to be attributed to insurance malpractice, plus... having much less coverage than Europe and 20% less MDs per capita.... it would be logical to assume the "amount" of medical services delivered in the US is probably less than the amount delivered in Europe, which would skew even higher the $/amount of medical services actually delivered.
I wonder how that chart would shift around if it included RNs and NPs. I have an HMO, so it may be different in other situations, but I rarely, if ever deal with an actual MD. They use the RNs for everything possible, because their salaries are much lower than an MD's would be.
I don't doubt that the amount of medical care rendered to Americans is lower, but not as a result of us having fewer MDs, we just don't go to the doctor, pretty much ever. That fucks the whole system because instead of needing a nutritionist to help us lose weight and maybe an exercise class, we need an ambulance ride to the hospital, a whole ER team, then a quadruple bypass, long term recovery, etc, etc, etc.
We have far more ICU beds per capita than any other country. Why? Because we don't do shit for our health until it requires an ICU bed. Instead of changing the oil, we put it off and change the whole engine. Sorta almost worked out for us though with Covid, if we weren't all morbidly obese we may have actually been okay.
International comparisons of intensive care: informing outcomes and improving standards
Interest in international comparisons of critical illness is growing, but the utility of these studies is questionable. This review examines the challenges of international comparisons and highlights areas where international data provide information ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The presentation you linked differs from what I originally quoted in @Toshi's post. I do believe we are discussing different, yet semi-related things.
And yes, I'd wager the "free market" contributes oodles to the cost of healthcare, and yet we'll probably never know exactly how much because those responsible for said costs are the same profiting off of them. Costs that other countries have deemed unnecessary, and yet they still somehow manage to deliver better healthcare cheaper. Funny thing that free market.
I paid for that fancy private engineering education too. Verdict is still out on the ROI. Probably should have gone to med school so I could afford multiple houses.
Math only really works out for (sub)specialists like me, especially since I went to my state med school. Then again, my wife also has her NYU masters that I'm paying for as well, so hmph
Over here, there's a massive shortage of primary care physicians. I finally found one after years without having one - and he's gone again, found a job in dermatology IIRC.
I 100% agree that the RNs are the unsung heroes. During that trip to ER, a RN stitched me up and took a good care of me. Whenever we see a specialist, RNs handle 90% of the work. Cheers to them!
It could have been worse - you could have become a lawyer!
Yes, thats not the source of the additional expense.~10% of spending goes to physician salaries. 20% but that's not just to the docs but the whole practice, admin and overhead and all.
Health Care Costs in the United States: Are Physician Salaries Really the Problem?
Decreasing physicians' salaries will not improve the cost of health care in the United States, but it may discourage individuals from entering the healthcare field.
Just like malpractice insurance (which is like 3% of that 10%) isnt
Yeah, it's everyone who has their fingers in the cookie jar. Each doctor practice having separate billing, scheduling and all that shit departments.~10% of spending goes to physician salaries. 20% but that's not just to the docs but the whole practice, admin and overhead and all.
Health Care Costs in the United States: Are Physician Salaries Really the Problem?
Decreasing physicians' salaries will not improve the cost of health care in the United States, but it may discourage individuals from entering the healthcare field.
This.
I know a lot of docs who have given up on private practice/private group offices to work for big conglomerates for just that.
Cool: Biden says he plans to back WTO IP waiver for COVID-19 vaccines
https://reut.rs/3h5DN2z
https://reut.rs/3h5DN2z
My wife is back in person teaching, a total of 2 students showed up yesterday and 4 today. Seems as though social distancing in the classroom may not be much of an issue.
25-30% is a somewhat constant number I have seen thrown around for antivaxxers in the US
Vaccine Refusal May Put Herd Immunity At Risk, Researchers Warn
One in four Americans say they won't get a coronavirus vaccine. Researchers say it could keep the nation from reaching a critical tipping point.
www.npr.org
Your low carb friends are posibly offset by the higher educated nature of your doctor circle.
Crazy times we are living in
then they're as much of a bunch of selfish asshats as the trumpers. and combined it's not a good looking picture. fuck both sides of the spectrum.