As I promised this is the first blog entry of Malrational. A blog series where I'll talk about Mal's rational based on a variety of issues. I think a lot of these will be very long and I know most (if any) will not read it (if that is you check the bottom I'll put a little key note synopsis). Also I know this isn't the best place to put such blog posts but I figure I can use this as a place to test my ideas and writing style. Somewhere I can improve my arguments and increase my ability to discuss it.
So this first one is on healthcare in the USA. For many people I know it is a confusing situation made worse because many people point fingers but no one explains where the real problems start. I've done research on the subject and I think I know where a lot of the problems are. I could probably write 10 pages on this topic but I'll avoid writing that much right now.
To begin there are four areas all connected to really make healthcare in this country what it is. First patients, secondly doctors/hospitals, third pharmaceutical companies and medical technology companies, and last we have insurance companies. So patients have all the real need. None of the other things exist without patients. Patients go to doctors/hospitals for care. The next step up you have doctors and hospitals going to pharmaceutical and medical tech companies so that they can provide better care to their patients. Lastly you have insurance companies which on the surface appears to be a socialist community pool so a group of patients can afford the high costs of medical care. Now the irony with that last part is insurance companies help people pay less for medical care but they are also part of the reason that medical care costs are so high.
Look at patients like customers. And this customer base happens to want the absolute best, pretty much no one wants to skimp on medical care. Everyone wants the best treatment they can afford. Well doctors/hospitals are competing for these customers and to draw them in they go to pharmaceutical companies and primarily medical technology companies so that they can have access to the best treatments and scans. So now medical technology companies have lots of customers all looking for the best and newest machines which are patented and therefore monopolized. They sell access to these machines at an inflated price which is really quite outrageous. This is the first villain is in the healthcare world. The argument these companies will make for their prices is it's a free market they can charge whatever they want and it is expensive to research. Well the price of these advanced machines gets moved directly to the patients.
This high price forced the creation of insurance companies because without grouping money very few people could afford their medical treatments. The creation of insurance companies inadvertently made it much worse for non-insured patients to pay for their treatments. Here in lies a huge problem with how hospitals and doctors charge their patients for treatment, they use Rate card prices. Rate card prices are essentially a overpriced costs for all their services with the assumption that a discount will be negotiated to make it fair and competitive with market rates. Insurance companies however negotiate not what services they pay for but rather how big of a discount they deserve. This system benefits hospitals since no one insurance company knows exactly what discount rate another is getting. the REAL price, otherwise known as the Net price, is unknown. However patients get screwed because if you show up without insurance they will charge you the full Rate Card price and might not be willing to negotiate a discount.
To make matters worse for an uninsured patient because if you challenge their prices or their charges (and many times hospitals will double bill you for the same things) the hospital simply sells your debt to a debt collecting company. Once that is done you can no longer challenge the charges since the vicious debt collecting company only cares to make the money that they believe they bought. By using debt collectors to hide overcharging hospitals really screw over its patients and most of the time they don't even realize it.
Let's not forget though that insurance companies are also actively trying to screw over its own customers. There are certainly hundreds of thousands of examples where insurance companies will force people to sign completely unfair contracts or simply break their own contract knowing that an individual customer can't possibly fight the army of lawyers they have. It would be nice if insurance companies truly worked as they were originally intended however it is a business and all they really care about is profits. Kill, cheat, and steal as much as possible as long as it increases profits. Many hospitals are also companies and they will do the same. Just as medical tech companies gouge for their products looking to increase profits. With all these aspects fighting over the share of the pie, they do whatever they can to make sure the size of the pie keeps increasing. Obamacare is good start to help cut down on how insurance companies steal from innocent people however the other underlying problems like hospital rate card prices (which hides the real cost of medical treatments) and the completely overpriced costs of new technologies from medical development companies will continue.
Short Recap for those that feel TLDR
-Medical device and research companies have incredibly inflated prices for their products. Since people continuously show that they are willing to pay top dollar for the "best in medical care" research companies will continue to take advantage of very scared and desperate people. The costs of these machines and scans goes directly towards the patients.
-Insurance companies will do whatever they can to make a profit including letting their customers die. However you have to go through an insurance company since the real price of care is done through discounts of the hospital's rate card. So you are screwed if you do and screwed if you don't.
-Hospitals will double charge and charge rate card prices with no discount what so ever to anyone without insurance. Also regardless of insurance, if you owe money to a hospital and try to challenge the charges from the hospital they will very quickly sell your debt to the vicious debt collecting companies. These companies will never negotiate or care if the debt you had is real or not, they will harass you until you surrender. By doing this hospitals can prevent anyone from actually trying to challenge the overpriced costs of medical care.