In today's Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/06/2254083/prescription-for-healthcare-shopping.html#storylink=misearch John Dorschner points out a painful truth: healthcare consumers are being ripped off every day by healthcare service providers.
According to Alan Sager, a healthcare policy expert at Boston University, “Anytime I’ve read reports of patients or journalists seeking comparison pricing, they’ve encountered the same inconsistency, confusion, frustration and often misleading information,” he said. “When we go into a big supermarket, we all pay the same price for a gallon of milk. In healthcare, there are multiple prices in the same place.”
I myself have a hard time to find out the REAL costs of my own healthcare needs. Recently my daughter had to do undergo laboratory testing for which I was charged a $900 co-pay. I tried to appeal and as a result my case was immediately referred to a collection department. I barely saved my credit rating and paid. Its outrageous! The profit margins are beyond belief exceeding 1000 percent!! The so-called "free-market" argument is a joke!! An article in today's Wall Street Journal points out that in a survey of 1,000 British Medical Association members - all doctors - 80% of those surveyed were "mostly or very unwelcoming" towards the idea of privatization of the National Health Service. Meanwhile, American doctors and politicians continue to support the private health care market model. There is NO health care market but an aggregation of monopolies suffocating the average health care consumers.
Its time to fight back! We should demand a single-payer system with uniform and transparent pricing structure.
Yours
Bernd
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2 comments:
What difference does a meaningless credit rating have when there is no credit. Banks lend nothing yet the credit bureaus have overreach into every aspect of our lives. We have no control over our employment and business future. Given that all the banks have failed depending on a government bail out why not assert your rights. All the major banks took a taxpayer bailout. We get the bill and the abuse. This is the beginning of the end of a nation.
Being a realtor in Florida since 1987, I watched while credit scoring was introduced. I just finished a The Nation contest, and that was the most serious issue I addressed for the 21st century.
We have to kill the banking bear, or the whole USA will be a Walmart nation i wages. Real estate will stay flat, because housing sales are predicated on the ability for the buyer to PAY MORE, And we all know that is not occuring.
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