Tuesday, October 9, 2007

A Rant about our healthcare system

About a month ago, I had a trip to the local ER, because I thought I was having a heart attack. I was not, thank goodness.

I just got the "explanation of benefits" from our health care plan in the mail. The total original bill was for just over $4,600. The disallowed charges were around $4,200, leaving a balance paid by my plan (minus my copay) of around $400.

Now, had I not had health care coverage, the hospital would have billed me for the whole $4,600. But my insurance company only has to pay less than 1/10 of the final bill? How the hell does that work?

In my next life, I am coming back as the CEO of an HMO.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you didn't have insurance the hospital would have charged higher rates, and the entire bill would have been more than double that.

It is truly insane that people get robbed whether they have insurance or not.

Thom

Anonymous said...

If you didn't have insurance then the hospital would have charged you a higher rate. Your total would have been twice as high.

But you're right, it must be nice to be a corporate executive. I'll bet they get an all-inclusive insurance package.

Anonymous said...

If you were illegal, it would have been free!

Anonymous said...

Totally insane. Our system sucks.

Anonymous said...

the insurance company negotiates "bulk discounts" and the hospitals overprice things thinking if you don't have insurance, you'll either not pay at all (they get a bigger write off) or they'll have to pay a lot of fees to collect the money, or they'll have to settle.

It's criminal. It could all be fixed with the stroke of a pen...