Healthcare

[BadBoyBenny]

This post is not about whether we should or shouldn't have free Healthcare, but an explanation to me of what we have now.

I am under the impression that currently, people will not be turned down for necessary healthcare at a hospital, is this true? If so, how is the cost passed on... Is it higher prices for individual and insurance companies, or is there some government\charity money put aside to compensate hospitals who treat the desititute?

[lehighguy]

They treat you, and they try to get the money back if they can. Fact is, they treat it like alot of companies treat people they know can't pay, right it off as bad debt and recover whatever is cost effective to do so.

As far as who pays for it, obvisouly it increases prices. If a doctor is treating one person they can't be treating someone else. The only way to increase labor supply is with the incentive of higher wages, which means higher prices.

[canis582]

Mostly nonprofit, inner city hospitals have had trouble collecting AR. As a result, the services and outcomes at these hospitals have declined.

So we have some nice social darwinism going on with the "poor people" hospitals and the "rich people" hospitals.

Poor people hospitals mainly do commodity work like giving birth and ER stuff. Rich people hospitals concentrate on specialty (higher profit) stuff like kidney and cancer stuff.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
Q. What are the costs of providing health care to the uninsured?
A. Hospitals and physicians shoulder the financial burden for the uninsured by incurring billions of dollars in bad debt or "uncompensated care" each year. The amount of uncompensated care delivered by nonfederal community hospitals grew from 6.1 billion in 1983 to 20.7 billion in 1999, according to a 2002 American Hospital Association report. In the past, hospitals have shifted costs to insured patients who can pay for care to help make up the difference. However, this is no longer a viable option because managed care plans have instituted strict price controls leaving little margin for hospitals to shift costs to the insured. More than one-third of emergency physicians provide more than 30 hours of EMTALA-related care each week, and they lose an average of $138,300 each year from EMTALA-related bad debt, according to a May 2003 American Medical Association (AMA) study. Emergency physicians and other specialists combined lost $4.2 billion in revenue in 2001 providing care mandated by EMTALA. The future is bleak. Reimbursements for services are decreasing, hospitals have fewer resources, and fewer emergency departments are treating increasing numbers of patients. With projections that health care costs will double and the number of uninsured will increase to 53 million by the year 2007, the nation is faced with how it will continue to provide care for all Americans, not just the disadvantaged. Emergency departments provide an essential community service, similar to fire departments, police departments, and public utilities. The nation cannot afford to allow the emergency care system to collapse because of a lack of funding. It is too high a price to pay in terms of public health effects and human suffering.



[/ QUOTE ]

[ACPlayer]

In fact, the treatment at hospitals (in ER) is naturally more expensive than treatment in a doctor's office. So, the prices that are passed along to the private markets are higher than they need to be if everyone had access to healthcare.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
In fact, the treatment at hospitals (in ER) is naturally more expensive than treatment in a doctor's office. So, the prices that are passed along to the private markets are higher than they need to be if everyone had access to healthcare.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually that is not true for ER visits for similar problems as a doctors office visit. (Obviously if you go to the ER with a more severe problem its going to cost more than a visit to an ER or a doctors office for something more routine.

[ QUOTE ]
Q. What are the costs of emergency care?
A. Emergency care has inaccurately been portrayed as the most expensive form of health care and as a contributor to increasing medical care costs. Although emergency departments incur extra costs because the facility is open 24 hours a day, the average cost of a nonurgent visit to an emergency department is comparable to a private physician's office visit, according to a 1996 New England Journal of Medicine study.

The major categories on emergency department bills include professional services (physician and radiologist), facility, pharmacy, supply, ancillary (laboratory, radiology), and miscellaneous. The fee for an emergency physician's services on a medical bill is about one-third of the total charges.

The costs of an emergency department visit are related to the severity of a patient's illness or injury. The bill can escalate quickly when extensive diagnostic testing is necessary. Unlike a physician's office, emergency departments have state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, and use of this equipment to make a diagnosis will appear on the patient's bill.



[/ QUOTE ]