Recently, I asked my students how much it costs for a doctor visit. “My mother pays $15,” said one.
“Fifteen dollars?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s what she paid.”
“Okay,” I said, “But is that all it cost?” I pointed out that the average doctor visit costs between $95 and $265.
“She has insurance,” he said, “and they paid the rest. I didn’t know it cost that much.”
Many adult Americans don’t either and that’s our biggest problem with health care reform. I explained that people sometimes have a small “co-pay” and the rest comes from somewhere else. Those with insurance pay monthly premiums whether they get services or not. The poor, and people claiming to be poor, may have a small co-pay and government uses our tax money to pay more, but it still doesn’t add up to the total cost of the visit – or the surgery, or the therapy, or whatever. To make up the deficit, providers charge patients with insurance more than the cost of their services, products or procedures – that’s why an aspirin can cost $13 at the hospital. Some doctors or dentists won’t take patients who won’t pay themselves or who don’t have insurance because they can’t afford to make it on what government pays. Hospitals, though, have to take everyone. There’s no such thing as free health care, but more and more consider it their right.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Spamming will be removed.
Due to spamming. Comments need to be moderated. Your post will appear after moderated regardless of your views as long as they are not abusive in nature. Consistent abusive posters will not be viewed but deleted.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.