But in the US some guy owes thousands for getting a test that turned out to be negative.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article24047680...
I think the bigger take-away here is that Insurance providers, especially the lower tier ones, will fight you tooth and nail to provide the medical coverage and incur all the costs associated with that (billing personnel, lawyers etc...) instead of just paying for the costs as agreed upon.
This is very distressing, and I was looking at my medical bills from last year, the blood work done cost nearly $800, and I opted for a cortisone level exam that was $280, of which I only paid $15. But it took a ton of legwork, calling for procedure numbers, speaking to clueless CSR outside the US. The costs for basic procedures are just outlandish, so both the hospital as well as the Insurance play this war of attrition where the only real loser is the patient caught in between, often while ill and with no other recourse.
This poor guy got screwed and even with medical insurance they wanted HIM to do the legwork to prove he shouldn't pay when his exams were complete.
I'm kind of on-board for a Megacorp like Walmart to enter this space at this point, if only to see what other alternatives they could come with.
Their vision stuff wasn't bad at all, I had a hard time getting an appointment with a local provider with my medical insurance due to time/schedule constraints, so I went to a Walmart, got an exam during lunch (covered by insurance), gave them my frames and 1.5 week later I had them in my hand with new lenses for $155 with 2 year warranty waiting for me in the evening (7pm?).
I think my Insurance savings would have been like $40 had I gone into a network optometrist so it was hardly a deal breaker as my time was a bigger concern.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/02/wh...
And there are demands now for increasing general surveillance to provide for better CDC responses. It's just disgusting.
This has to stop and the only way it'll stop is with proper government regulations that are enforced. The patient should never see a bill for anything other then a set monthly premium (which ideally should come out of taxes, but it doesn't have to completely). Anything else, at this point, is fucking barbaric, primitive, and shameful. To be the richest country in the world and have the worst healthcare system in the developed world is disgusting.
When it costs $3270 to take a COVID-19 test [1], and if I’m young, and poor, and broke, then well, F that. I’m going to just take my chances and risk it. And try to not cough on some rich guy, because well, he has insurance that’ll probably pay for it.
And then our President tells us that not everyone can get a vaccine, just because it’s too expensive [2], and they can’t afford to pay for it. Tough luck. Meanwhile, he gives another tax cut to his rich billionaire buddies.
[1] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article24047680...
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-says-co...