How much of my medical bill did you have to pay?
We ALL covered it for you - by paying higher prices. There's no such thing as a free lunch. You just passed the check to everyone else.
And then go around trying to preach "personal responsibility."
What a hypocrite.
Actually, you're wrong. Hospitals charge a much higher rate to those without insurance as a way to make up for what they lose to Medicare, Medicaid and deals with insurance companies. Even if he only paid $30K of the original $50K billed charges, he still payed a greater amount than an insurance company would have.
On average, HMOs pay 12 percent above what Medicare pays, according to the MedPAC Commission. But the uninsured receive artificially inflated bills that can be 200 to 1,100 percent more than what Medicare or insured patients pay.
Table 2: How Much Do Hospitals Charge Their Patients?
O'Connor Hospital
San Jose, CA St. Louise Regional (Catholic)
West Gilroy, CA Palm Beach Gardens Community Hospital
(Tenet Healthcare)
Palm Beach Gardens, CA
Operating Expense $1,631.42 $1,376.00 $1,501.37
Collected from Managed Care $1,940.00 $1,773.00 $1,774.41
Billed the Uninsured $5,951.00 $5,508.00 $7,414.08
Cost-to-Charge Ratio .258 .289 .205
Collection Rate from the Uninsured 97% 96% 32%
Investigative Report: Overcharging the Uninsured--Part 1 - by Randy Suttles and Merrill Matthews, Jr., PhD. - Health Care News
( the chart is available at the link )