Here's the quoted post and discussion from Brad DeLong's blog.
While you might think you can negotiate cash discounts for all the medical people you see (if you don't have insurance), it might not be so easy when you need to see numerous referred sub-specialists.
That's my experience too. I found I could get $100 knocked off a ridiculously padded $2300 outpatient-procedure bill, but that was about all. Meanwhile, insurance may only be paying $700. They have hardball negotiators, and it's not just about one patient but potentially gaining or loosing a whole stream of patients.
And then, even with plenty of money on hand, if you are not in an insurance pool of some kind, even the smallest ailments may make it virtually impossible to buy ANY kind of health insurance.
In a system with private insurance, you're much better off having insurance though a pool of some kind. So those without access to such a pool are toast.
That's why we need at least the kind of healthcare reform that passed last year. Of course, single payer or national health service would be far far better.
While you might think you can negotiate cash discounts for all the medical people you see (if you don't have insurance), it might not be so easy when you need to see numerous referred sub-specialists.
That's my experience too. I found I could get $100 knocked off a ridiculously padded $2300 outpatient-procedure bill, but that was about all. Meanwhile, insurance may only be paying $700. They have hardball negotiators, and it's not just about one patient but potentially gaining or loosing a whole stream of patients.
And then, even with plenty of money on hand, if you are not in an insurance pool of some kind, even the smallest ailments may make it virtually impossible to buy ANY kind of health insurance.
In a system with private insurance, you're much better off having insurance though a pool of some kind. So those without access to such a pool are toast.
That's why we need at least the kind of healthcare reform that passed last year. Of course, single payer or national health service would be far far better.
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