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Question of the Day - Health Care
By JLP | November 2, 2006
I’m in the process of reading Health Care on Less Than You Think
I think that health insurance itself is responsible for a lot of the increased cost of health care because it takes the “cost” out of the hands of the consumer. When my wife and I first had health insurance I remember our co-pay for a doctor’s visit was $10. It made a doctor’s visit cheap and I’m sure we went more often than we would have had the co-pay been higher. Of course the downside of higher co-pays is that some people will not go to the doctor because they don’t want to pay the co-pay. Keep in mind that with a co-pay, you pay a portion and then the doctor sends a bill to the insurance company for the rest of payment (usually at a lower negotiated rate with the insurance provider). So, although you may only pay $10, the actual cost is something like $75 (or more).
Also, health insurance takes forever for payments to get settled. I took my son in March of this year for some x-rays of his arm after a fall. I JUST paid the balance on that bill last week! It took six months to get that bill settled.
Other factors that I can think of off the top of my head that have contributed to the increased cost of health care are:
1. Lawsuits. The book dismisses this but I think there’s no doubt that lawsuits have cause insurance carriers to raise the cost of malpractice insurance.
2. Overprescribed drugs. This is a big problem with older patients.
3. Personal choices. We eat processed foods and don’t exercise like we should. All of this adds up to poor health.
These are just a few that I can think of. What other factors am I missing? I would really like to hear your thoughts on this issue (let’s try to keep the politics out of this debate).
Topics: Question of the Day |
