[Dean's World] Andrew Cory: but: it's only class warfare when the poor go after the rich

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Posted by Andrew Cory:
but: it's only class warfare when the poor go after the rich
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1189099771.shtml


     So I was in this particular hospital for a grand total of 20 hours.

     The bill arrives today and (without any itemization) totals up to
     -- are you ready?-- $116, 749.00 (not included the cardiologist
     fees which are billed separately-- about another $6k).

     I kid you not.

     In a column lateral to the "amount billed" I then find the "amount
     allowed" i.e. the amount that Blue Cross is actually willing to pay
     the hospital. That amount: $4730, or less than 4% of the total
     charge.

     But wait, there's a footnote appended to the amount allowed. In
     fine print at the bottom of the page the annotation says that the
     provider accepts the amount allowed as payment in full and that I,
     the insured, owe nothing.

     That news, of course, allowed my heart to start beating again after
     momentarily seizing up. But then you start to wondering what this
     all means. I saw something similar a few weeks ago when two days in
     the ICU were billed at about $64,000 and the hospital accepted
     about 10% of that amount as payment in full from my network
     insurer.

   -[1]
   
   If you a human being, you must pay $116,749.00. If you are an
   insurance company, you must pay: $4,730. Who has insurance?
   Middle-class Americans with white (or blue!) collar jobs. Who doesn't
   have insurance? People who work retail, people who work (multiple)
   part time jobs. People, in other words, who don't wield enough
   economic power to make a meaningful bargain in the marketplace.
   Insurance companies, on the other wrist, do...
   
   If America is about anything, it is about the idea that as Human
   beings, we are all equal. And yet-- and yet in this most critical
   sector, one that literally separates the living from the dead, we see
   that US$4,730 goes as far as US$116,749 from another...
   

References

   1. http://marccooper.com/sicko-sticko-shock/