The cost of the US healthcare system

[MillCreek]

Yeah but the medical industry generally refuses to even quote the rate for a non-complication procedure.

And if a contractor busts a window, or a mechanic drops a screw down the intake, he has to pay for the extra repair costs, not me 

I would point out that in recent years, the Feds and the private insurers have taken the approach that if certain 'never events' occur in healthcare, the facility/providers have to eat the costs associated with those events.  The Feds or the insurers will not pay for them.  So it is a start.

http://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer.aspx?primerID=3

[tokugawa]

Look, this is a cartel set up to benefit the industry. Name another business where it is legal to not disclose prices, charge different prices based on who you are "serving" etc.
 

[MillCreek]

Look, this is a cartel set up to benefit the industry. Name another business where it is legal to not disclose prices, charge different prices based on who you are "serving" etc.
 

The practice of law.

[geronimotwo]

i'm glad i have insurance.  the plate in my wrist cost over 50k.   granted about 7.5k of that was for cat-scans to check for internal injuries.  a friend of mine slipped and fell in costa-rica and broke her wrist.  the total cost of surgery, doctors, hospital, etc was $450.00 usd.  figure that out. 

[Monkeyleg]

Do you have any idea how many goats you can buy in Costa Rica for $450?

When I had my inner ear surgery in 2005, it was to remove a cholesteatoma, a skin-like growth. Once the doc had things opened up, he found that the two tiny bones that transmit sound--the malleus and the incus--had disintegrated to almost nothing. He rebuilt them using artificial bone.

If I'd just gotten a quote from him for the cholesteatoma, what should he have done when he saw the condition of those two bones? Just asked me after I'd come out of the anesthetics if I wanted to have another surgery to rebuild those bones?

When my dad had bypass surgery, they found other things that needed repair.

It's not like replacing shock absorbers or putting caps on teeth.

[White Horseradish]

Oh, I don't know. It's not uncommon to go replacing brake pads and run into bad rotors, bearings, or a ton of other unexpected things.

[grampster]

Part of the cost problem with medicine is the same thing that is wrong with education.  Buildings that house them are grand edifices rather than utilitarian buildings to serve the sick and injured.

Somehow, I think at some point, the statists who have rallied for the last 6 decades for the government to be our caretaker are going to discover that they should have been much less aggressive as the unintended consequences are going to be glaringly obvious.  

The present global "high alert" may just be the straw man for rationalizing more loss of freedom.  Government gets more control every time they scare the sheep.  Healthcare falls into that category as well.