California’s cap on health care costs is the nation’s strongest. But will patients notice?

[Peter]

I hear you. It's just that when I find a fatal flaw in someone's post, I usually don't bother with any further flaws. A dead argument can't get any more dead.

I just don't understand how he could be charged so much for something a student doctor can do in a corridor in about 10 minutes.

We can all argue about the cost of complex procedures like a brain opperation but something as basic as stitches?
It's like reality just flies out the window where costs are concerned in US healthcare.

 

[Mr Person]

I just don't understand how he could be charged so much for something a student doctor can do in a corridor in about 10 minutes.

We can all argue about the cost of complex procedures like a brain opperation but something as basic as stitches?
It's like reality just flies out the window where costs are concerned in US healthcare.

The cost of procedures and devices aren't really tied to the cost of doing them. The same procedure is going to cost something different at every single hospital in a given metropolitan area. The hospitals are individually negotiating this stuff with insurers, then have their own higher charges for uninsured people.

I'm no expert in the field - far from it - but from the little I know, America's healthcare system is a gigantic ****ing mess thanks to the insurer middlemen.

 

[Ethel2]

After paying around eight grand for my daughter to get 5 stitches at the ER, I'm at a loss to notice anything.

Buy some steri-strips. They work almost as well and they can be applied to smaller lacerations (five sutures is almost certainly small enough) at home.
That said, our health insurance system is very broken. The providers and drug companies pretty much charge whatever they want and your health insurance has to pay it meaning your premiums are on the chandeliers somewhere. People are using ERs as primary care providers. When you go to an ER they usually order a bunch of tests that private physicians don’t order-just to cover their asses and because they don’t have the experience primary care docs do. Outcomes are very race dependent with people of color having uniformly worse outcomes. And there are too many people out there with no health insurance at all.

 

[Noodlegawd]

You paid an amount you don't like, therefore the cap isn't doing anything? And to think you were trying to lecture someone else on relevance... derp...

I paid an absurd amount for a simple procedure in a state run by people who never shut up about how healthcare outta be free. Derp.

 

[Noodlegawd]

Buy some steri-strips. They work almost as well and they can be applied to smaller lacerations (five sutures is almost certainly small enough) at home.
That said, our health insurance system is very broken. The providers and drug companies pretty much charge whatever they want and your health insurance has to pay it meaning your premiums are on the chandeliers somewhere. People are using ERs as primary care providers. When you go to an ER they usually order a bunch of tests that private physicians don’t order-just to cover their asses and because they don’t have the experience primary care docs do. Outcomes are very race dependent with people of color having uniformly worse outcomes. And there are too many people out there with no health insurance at all.

ER was the only choice at the time of day the accident happened -- all the urgent cares were already closed. It still shouldn't cost $8k for stitches, and they didn't run any tests.

 

[Ethel2]

ER was the only choice at the time of day the accident happened -- all the urgent cares were already closed. It still shouldn't cost $8k for stitches, and they didn't run any tests.

It’s a broken system. Part of the reason you paid $8000 is because the hospital has to pay for the cost of care for those who don’t have insurance and can’t pay.
The system in Canada works much better though it too has issues.

 

[Noodlegawd]

It’s a broken system. Part of the reason you paid $8000 is because the hospital has to pay for the cost of care for those who don’t have insurance and can’t pay.
The system in Canada works much better though it too has issues.

I didn't have to pay $8000 for 4-5 stitches at the ER in PA. I was shocked when the bill was around $1200.

 

[Ethel2]

I didn't have to pay $8000 for 4-5 stitches at the ER in PA. I was shocked when the bill was around $1200.

Somehow I think you’re leaving out part of the story. Besides, one option to get lower er bills would be to move to PA. It’s your choice.

 

[Noodlegawd]

Somehow I think you’re leaving out part of the story. Besides, one option to get lower er bills would be to move to PA. It’s your choice.

Not really. What do you think that could be?

It's pretty amazing how hard it is for people to admit that $8000 for 5 stitches, even in the ER, is complete and utter insanity.

 

[Greenbeard]

I just don't understand how he could be charged so much for something a student doctor can do in a corridor in about 10 minutes.

We can all argue about the cost of complex procedures like a brain opperation but something as basic as stitches?
It's like reality just flies out the window where costs are concerned in US healthcare.

Emergency departments are costly settings and those costs have to be paid by whoever walks in the door. That's why insurers do everything they can to steer lower acuity cases away from EDs and toward urgent cares, etc. If you get a band-aid put on at an urgent care instead of at the ED it doesn't make the cost of operating the ED go away, but it does mean that you (and your insurer) won't be on the hook to pay for some portion of those costs. We play a lot of hot potato in this system.

 

[Ethel2]

Not really. What do you think that could be?

It's pretty amazing how hard it is for people to admit that $8000 for 5 stitches, even in the ER, is complete and utter insanity.

I wouldn’t hazard a guess about what you left out.
Sorry
I smell a rat

 

[Noodlegawd]

I wouldn’t hazard a guess about what you left out.
Sorry
I smell a rat

So no clue what might be off about my comment, but you smell a rat? Weird.

 

[Ethel2]

So no clue what might be off about my comment, but you smell a rat? Weird.

I’m the skeptical type. I have a natural doubt that bothers me when I’m presented with a situation that doesn’t seem right. If you actually are telling the whole story I’d view that as evidence that the US healthcare system is broken-as I wrote earlier.