The price of insurance versus cash pay
Several of you commented yesterday about health insurance needing to end. I do not disagree. Health insurance is why the price of healthcare is so bloated and ridiculously high. And it isn’t healthcare providers making the money off of that, it is corporate CEO’s making the fat stacks of cash. Insurance is why you wait for 2 hours to see a provider. They are required to see a certain number of people each day, per their contract with the facility they work for. It is why independent providers usually don’t have a large wait time. We aren’t double or triple booking patients.
I have a good friend who does not have health insurance. A year ago, they had a sudden issue with some gallbladder pain. They tried to ride it out for a week or so, but it became bad enough that they could not eat without feeling horrible, so they went to the ER. Drew labs, started fluids, ultrasound, and decided to admit overnight for “more testing and labs”. Did a HIDA scan, IV antibiotics, diagnosis was choleangitis, or inflamed/infection in the gallbladder. Of course they wanted to remove the gallbladder, my friend said nope, I have no gallstones, just an infection, give me an antibiotic and send me on my way. They reluctantly complied with the request. A year later, no other issues with the gallbladder. Problem resolved.
Here is where it gets interesting though. They knew this was a cash pay patient, not an insured patient. They received 2 bills while at the hospital. One was for insured patients, the other was for cash pay patients.
The insured patient price for that 24 hours of testing and whatnot? $17,300
The non-insured cash pay price for that 24 hours of testing? $4,600
See how much bloat is from insurance? I reviewed the insurance priced one. One bag of normal saline was $325. Labs were over a grand. Absolutely ridiculous.
Don’t believe the scam that insurance makes it cheaper. It does not. And this is a pretty extreme example of a healthcare visit, as it was an ER visit and a hospital admit. Not just a clinic walk in visit. The price tag was nearly $13 GRAND MORE for the insured patient. And arguing with insurance about deductibles and out of network providers and prior auths for a procedure and yada yada.
Is health insurance really needed? Is it really a benefit? We have been spoon fed to believe it is. But I do not think it truly is.
I have insurance from my employer but the deductible is $5,000 so I pay cash and have found the situation to be exactly as you described. In fact, before covid shut down my favorite urgent care, they used to upfront tell you the cash vs insurance costs. Unfortunately in Sept 2021 I had a kitchen accident and went to an urgent care that used my insurance and it eventually cost me $2,000+ for a pain blocker and 3 stitches. I had my regular cash natural path remove the stitches and he charged me $35. Had I gone back to the urgent care as they requested I probably would have had to pay another $1,000. The only thing insurance offers is ‘free’ check ups at allopathic doctors I don’t use. I use a local compounding pharmacy and often they even beat the insurance prescription cost or it is very close, not making insurance worthwhile. I wouldn't have it if it wasn't provided. What I am doing is maxing out the HSA contributions so I have a large balance accrued to pay medical expenses. A much better way to go if you manage your health.
Growing up, my parents had "major medical" insurance. For "major" events such as serious injury. All the other stuff? Either my mother took care of us -- or we went to our doctor and paid him cash. Now, in the land of the free and home of the brave, we are not allowed to buy just "major medical" because it no longer exists.
Thanks to Barry Soetoro, the loser Mitt Romney, and our intrepid legislatures, including the one at the crime syndicate, we "must" have insurance that covers everything -- whether you need it or not, want it, etc. As a married woman without children, I paid the "family" rate because the insurance at the companies where I worked had either single or family. I went to a doctor in 1999, I think, then in 2003, and then in 2017 (back injury). And all that time, paying through the nose for insurance I neither needed nor wanted.
A scam? That's being kind.