Old people already well aware of what a ripoff the healthcare system is, but more and more young people are finding out just how expensive healthcare in the U.S. can be. He stayed in the hospital for 24 hours, then received a bill for $55,029.31. “Fortunately” his insurance company paid $43,909.78, leaving this 20 year-old with a bill for “just” $11,119.53.
Just the cost for “room and board” for one night was $4,878, and this doesn’t include medical supplies, which was another $6,428.75.
This should surprise no one. The American healthcare system is specifically designed to be expensive from the ground up. This is true of any system where the provider knows the end-using customer will not be paying for most of the cost. Any system that knows some distant massive government or gigantic faceless insurance company is going to pay most of what they charge is eventually going to charge as much as humanly possible.
This is why a bottle a pills in the U.S. can be $85 while just crossing the border into Mexico can get you the exact same bottle with the exact same pills from the exact same company (not a knock-off) for $6. Because the entire U.S. healthcare system is a scam.
The simple, non-thinking answer everyone jumps to is “THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD PAY FOR IT THEN!”. But these folks forget that in the 1960s, the U.S. healthcare system was not only the best in the world, but was one of the least expensive. The grand total cost of the average surgery back then was the equivalent of five paychecks (instead of several years of paychecks), and the doctor came to your house(!).
All we have to do is un-do what we do now and started doing in the late 60s with our healthcare system, then everything will be nice and cheap again. (I’ll give you a hint…it involves removing giant government and giant insurance companies from the equation as much as possible).
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Good solution, but it isn’t going to happen in the near future.
There’s a malfunction in your system (probably due to it being new and all): it says you posted the comment that I posted.
This is the real Caleb…yeah, it looks pretty funny. I will get it fixed.
And you’re right…it won’t happen any time soon, if ever.
The problem with “just pay the doctor yourself” healthcare is that as soon as a young or poor person gets an illness that requires a very expensive treatment, such as cancer or open heartsurgery or stuff like that, then that person is very likely not going to be able to afford it. Even if the prices were down, some things would still cost a lot because of how specialized they are.
That’s why you need insurance companies to cover LARGE medical expenditures, like when you have cancer. But other than that, they do nothing.
Hi! Love your 3 blogs. Where can I find more info on the claim about the old American healthcare system being so effcient? My brother works on health policy research and I would love to have something to bring up next time I see him.