Name:   Lifer - Subject:   Healthcare question Date:   10/8/2016 11:19:34 AM

Personally I think health insurance should be for long term and catastrophic care only.  Other than that if we went to a direct pay system share consumers were responsible for the full cost of their treatment without cost shifting prices would drop precipitously. No more $70 aspirins and such.  Full detailed billing with reasonable margins.  I think if folks k ew they had to pay directly they would shop for what they could afford. Third party payers is what has run up the cost exponentially. With today's pricing this seems undoable but once the insurance companies are out of the picture the free market will adjust to what can be afforded by the masses. I realize this is totally unrealistic in today's world, but we are talking fantasy utopia here.

I once had occasion to see a detailed billing from a hospital stay at UAB years ago. I was amazed at some of the things I found. Several instances of treatments, procedures and meds I never received totalling a couple of thousand dollars.  I contacted the insurance company to dispute the claims. They didn't care. One rep finally asked me why I cared so much because I wasn't paying it they were.  I was trying to look out for the interest of my employers and protect the rates we paid.  They just didn't care. Ironically there was a charge of $165 they refused to pay.  The charge was for insertion of a breathing tube when I died (I'm much better now though... Lol). The reason for the denial is the clinical note was signed by a nurse and this is the and not an MD. To the best of my recollection before I died there were 5 or 6 doctors and several nurses, and even one housekeeper, in the room at the time. I contacted UAB to see if they would resubmitted the charge with and MD's signature but they refused. After several frustrating phone calls I gave up. I did however refuse to pay pointing they were still several thousand to the good with erroneous charges that did get paid. That collection stayed on my credit for a while. I had to write a letter of explanation  when I applied for a mortgage because I still refused to pay it.

As I I have stated several times I am a much higher than average consumer of health care goods and services. It gives me a different perspective on the whole issue than the average consumer. I don't know an absolute solution but I do know single payer and more government intrusion  is NOT the answer.