Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy

Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by rolobio on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @02:59PM (#24356559)

I can't think of any other business that can get away with not even giving you a ball-park estimate on costs. If my car breaks down, my mechanic will at least give me an estimate within a hundred bucks or so. But a hospital has no idea what it will cost (and neither does insurance) until they finally negotiate that specific case.

Another issue is that insurance does not have to compete across state lines. They've divvied up the country and are sticking to their corners (much like ISPs).

Insurance should be required to accept customers from anywhere in the country. Hospitals should be required to publish prices. These seem like no-brainers to me. But hospitals and insurance make too much money, and give too much of it to congress for any real change.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by Bubbadoo on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:58PM (#24357332)

Actually, hospitals do publish prices. Well they do and they don't. As in, good luck finding that price list. The Feds require them to do that so hospitalizations can be indexed for medicare.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by dbbk on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:17PM (#24356807)

Why should a hospital have a price list? Does the fire department? The police?

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by HarryHirsch on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @04:22PM (#24357695)

Does the fire department

Apparently there are unincorporated areas that do not have fire service from the county but you can buy fire service from the nearest city's fire department. If you do not have fire service the firemen come and watch that the fire does not spread from your property to the neighbours who have service.

This ends up just as you would expect. The poorest and most indigent go without, and then there's death threats, newspaper coverage, the works. You wonder why people are permitted to make themselves wards of the state because if your house burns down your biggest savings vehicle is gone and you are homeless and a burden on the public pocket.

Similarities with medical coverage are incidental.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by bjtitus on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:23PM (#24356908)

Both public services which don’t directly bill you. Maybe something like a public health system is a good idea...

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by rolobio on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:45PM (#24357176)

They do have a price list. I receive it every year as my property taxes.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by exolymph on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:33PM (#24357024)

Hospitals are not particularly equivalent to fire departments or the police, since the latter two are paid for by taxes. Some hospitals definitely do get some money from taxes, but as far as I know that isn't the norm.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by dbbk on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @07:39PM (#24359456)

This is my point... it should be a public service paid for by tax.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by ProAm on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @04:42PM (#24357907)

The police sure do for tickets they give. Those penalty fees are all set. Hospitals should have listed fees for procedures.

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by irlib on Thursday September 03, 2020 @12:08AM (#24360732)

Well, they have a publicly accessible price list in most hospitals out of USA.

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