Do you think health insurance was common throughout history?
No. I'm quite aware of employers offering their employees health insurance post-WWII in lieu of salary increases.
I'm also aware that the original insurers were nonprofit, and that costs didn't begin to skyrocket until the for-profit insurers entered the market.
No, we muddled along just fine without it through most of human existence. And beleive it or not, there were car accidents way back then.
Amazing how we could handle the expense prior to the establishment of health insurance and the SKYROCKETING COSTS IT CREATED.
For-profit insurers. That modifier is pivotal.
And if you think a government mandate to abolish insurance will by some Randian "free market" magic drive costs down, you'll have to show how.
Never mind that many of your elected officials are on the boards of these
for-profit insurers and are hardly about to bite the hand that feeds them their honoraria every year, or the fact that the insurers have some very powerful lobbyists...but how would you dismantle the health insurance industry and, even if you could, how would that magically make prices go down?
While you're pondering that (and avoiding the consequences of the hypothetical motor vehicle accident), let's return to the scene of the accident and see what happens next:
You’ve lost enough blood to merit a unit of plasma in the ambulance. Cost: $150-190.
Cost of EMTs’ services: $500-1,000.
Both paid upfront, of course or, in your no-insurance scenario, the EMTs would legally be allowed to dump you out of the ambulance to die on the roadside.
But you pay, and you’re brought to the ER.
Cost of x-rays: $425+ each for the ankle and the ribs.
Cost of an MRI to rule out a ruptured spleen from the rib fracture: $525-900.
Blood draws: $44-107 each.
Again, keep that checkbook handy, because the ER staff is now legally allowed to refuse you services for which you cannot or will not pay.
But, hey, you’re in luck! Your spleen is only mildly bruised, not ruptured, so you won’t need a splenectomy, which would have run you $1,664-2,064.
However, setting the ribs, aside from being excruciating, will cost up to $12,000.
And the x-ray shows that your ankle is broken. Surgery will cost you $9,719-17,634.
You’ll also need to stay in the hospital overnight, to the tune of $1,200-2,000.
Before you can leave the hospital, you’ll be billed for every medication, surgical dressing, the crutches you’ll need until the ankle heals. One Vicodin can set you back $22…maybe Rush can hook you up.
So, tell us again how you’d be able to pay for all that out of pocket.
