The Unreality of Hospital Bills

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health care, hospital bill

Readers and friends know I went to the hospital emergency room with what turned out to be a kidney stone the last week of April. The other day I got the hospital bill. It is a strange, unreal thing. Here are the numbers:

Charges: $10,179
Insurance company adjustments: 8,562.08
Insurance company payment: 1,017.90
My net bill: 599.02

My insurance company knocked down the bill by just over 84%. To me this means the hospital charged me 84% above what the insurance company believed to be the fair price for services and medications. This makes it easy to see how someone with no insurance can be driven into bankruptcy by a single ER visit.

BTW this bill does not include the ER doctor nor the radiologist, who bill separately. Their bills were adjusted by the insurance company too, but nothing like the hospital bill.

Obamacare Penalty for no Health Insurance

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health care, obamacare, tax

I’ve been reading debate about whether or not the penalty for not having health insurance under Obamacare is a tax or not. Folks, this is a non issue. The tax on the productive economy, you know that “thing” that creates food, shelter, transportation, energy, other products and services is what the government at all levels spends. It matters not whether the taking is called a tax or penalty. There’s no difference between a direct taking such as sales tax on a retail purchase or income tax or medicare tax or social security tax taken from your paycheck vs. money borrowed by the government selling bonds or the federal reserve printing unbacked dollars. Government spending = Tax burden.

My personal opinion on health care: It is a responsibility not a right. Since I own my body I am responsible for staying healthy by my lifestyle choices primarily, and seeking help when I am ill. If I have minor children then I am responsible for their health too.

Today we have cost problem in the health care industry. The cost basis is way too high. What will bring it down? Increased supply of health care providers and much less government regulation of this sector of the economy. The health care  industry is controlled by a group of interlocking cartels who have succeeded in maintaining monopoly profits because they have captured the government regulatory apparatus and are using it to create barriers to entry.

Yes, these are radical ideas. When conventional remedies continually provide one failure after another, we can conclude that they are incorrect. Time for radical thinking.

Support for Obama on healthcare slips: poll

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Economics, health care, obama, Political

I just read Support for Obama on healthcare slips: poll and I see that folks are beginning to realize that government run health care, which I’ll call FedHealth, is a bad deal for most of us. Those who want something for nothing, i.e. someone else to pay for their medical needs, are in favor as are those who relish the federal government getting even bigger and more powerful. I am not in either group!

From the linked article:

Public support for President Barack Obama‘s handling of healthcare reform, the pillar of his legislative agenda, has fallen below 50 percent for the first time, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Monday said.

Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats argue the plan, with an estimated cost of more than $1 trillion, could hurt small businesses, add to budget deficits and reduce the quality of medical care for many Americans.

Those concerns may be having an impact on the public, according to the poll, which showed 49 percent of respondents approving of Obama’s stand on the issue compared to 57 percent in April.

Obama and the Democrats are trying to rush this through so people don’t have a chance to think about it.