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A comment on Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger. Parent comment

Re:Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Hu... by Spooky23 on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @03:05PM (#12307415)
The anesthesiologist alone will be $5k.

They are the person most able to kill you when they screw up, so a significant portion of that bill is insurance. They also make $300-500k.

Also recovery room or ICU time is very expensive -- something like $1000/hr in some cases.

That type of procedure (gall bladder) will cost something like $15-20k.

When I had a spinal fusion, it was a 4-5 hour procedure involving a neurosurgeon, his PA, an anesthesiologist and his nurse, and 4-5 others. That procedure cost ~ $125k.

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Re:Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Hu... by DashRattlesnake on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @04:22PM (#12308116)
Aren't healthcare list prices in the US really really distorted and nonsensical, due to decades of messed up incentives between hospitals and insurers?
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Re:Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Hu... by Jhsto on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @08:39PM (#12309655)
Cannot speak for the cause, but the prices are distorted. I was taken to ER a couple of months ago and x-ray of chest cost $3500 and CT of chest $5500. The equivalent prices at the private sector of my home country would have been $70 and $120 and I could have gotten those done just as quickly as in ER in US.
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Re:Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Hu... by danielweber on Thursday August 18, 2016 @11:34AM (#12313282)
In most places in the US, you can't even get list prices. Calling up providers for quotes gets you hung up on.

Singapore, which has a significant market portion to their health care industry, mandates posting of prices.

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Re:Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Hu... by DashRattlesnake on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:38PM (#12322351)
I've actually found that you can get list prices from hospitals. The problem is that they're distorted and sky-high and not necessarily very reflective of what you will have to pay if you have insurance, because the insurers have negotiated their own rates. Those rates are treated as top secret by everyone involved (that is, until you get a bill).
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Re:Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Hu... by vidarh on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @03:26PM (#12307593)
Yikes. In that case it'd be cheaper to fly to London and have it done privately here. It should typically be less than $8k for a gall bladder removal.
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