Because people with (too much) insurance don't give a shit what their health care costs.Why donāt doctors and dentists post their prices? This industry needs to be regulated and modernized and integrated into how the private market works. Show us your prices. How come they donāt show us their prices for things they do?I took my daughter to get her arm looked at --she twisted it or somethingincreased taxes--you were taxed if you didn't get healthcare
used tax $$$$ to advertise it !!!!!!
spent millions $$$$$$ for people to sit around
Whistleblower: Obamacare Processing Center Workers Paid To Do Nothing
Employees: No work at Obamacare processing centers, and bosses knew
this is the classic ''looks good on paper'' crap
let's increase taxes and then spend it on crap!!!!!
6 Reasons Healthcare Is So Expensive in the U.S.
1. Administrative Costs
2. Drug Costs
3. Defensive Medicine
Yet another big driver of the higher U.S. health insurance bill is the practice of defensive medicine. Doctors are afraid that they will get sued, so they order multiple tests even when they are certain they know what the diagnosis is. A Gallup survey estimated that $650 billion annually could be attributed to defensive medicine. Everyone pays the bill on this with higher insurance premiums, co-pays and out-of-pocket costs, as well as taxes that go toward paying for governmental healthcare programs.
4. Expensive Mix of Treatments
U.S. medical practitioners also tend to use a more expensive mix of treatments. When compared with other developed countries, for example, the U.S. uses three times as many mammograms, two-and-a-half times the number of MRIs and 31% more Caesarean sections. This results in more being spent on technology in more locations. Another key part of the mix is that more people in the U.S. are treated by specialists, whose fees are higher than primary-care doctors, when the same types of treatments are done at the primary-care level in other countries. Specialists command higher pay, which drives the costs up in the U.S. for everyone.
5. Wages and Work Rules
Wages and staffing drive costs up in healthcare. Specialists are commanding high reimbursements and the overutilization of specialists through the current process of referral decision-making drives health costs even higher. The National Commission on Physician Payment Reform was the first step in fixing the problem; based on its 2013 report, the commission adopted 12 recommendations for changes to get control over physician pay. Now it is working with Congress to find a way to implement some of these recommendations.
6. Branding
āThere is no such thing as a legitimate price for anything in healthcare,ā says George Halvorson, the former chairman of health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente. āPrices are made up depending on who the payer is.ā
The Bottom Line
Most other developed countries control costs, in part, by having the government play a stronger role in negotiating prices for healthcare. Their healthcare systems donāt require the high administrative costs that drive up pricing in the U.S. As the global overseers of their country's systems, these governments have the ability to negotiate lower drug, medical equipment and hospital costs. They can influence the mix of treatments used and patientsā ability to go to specialists or seek more expensive treatments.
So far in the U.S., there has been a lack of political support for the government taking a larger role in controlling healthcare costs. The most recent legislation, the Affordable Care Act, focused on ensuring access to healthcare, but maintained the status quo to encourage competition among insurers and healthcare providers. This means there will be multiple payers for the services and less powerful control over negotiated pricing from providers of healthcare services.
Read more: 6 Reasons Healthcare Is So Expensive in the U.S. | Investopedia 6 Reasons Healthcare Is So Expensive in the U.S.
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the doctor could not have talked to us for more than 5 minutes
overall charge: $200
and the arm wasn't broken or anything....