43.6 Million Americans Do Not Have Health Insurance
According to U.S. Census numbers the number of uninsured Americans has risen by nearly 2.4 million. The cost of premiums has risen nearly 14 percent this year, the third consecutive year of double digit increases.
At some point our health care industry is going to have to come to their senses. Sure, medical procedures are expensive but some of the costs they charge for are outrageous. My mother recently went into the hospital for a fairly standard procedure and afterwards there was a small dispute between her insurance company and the hospital over the bill. My mother obtained an itemized copy of the billing and she nearly fell over.
They charged her $300.00 for the use of a scissors. These were no specialty, single-use scissors either but ordinary metal shears. They also charged her $50.00 for to aspirin they gave her. Ordinary, over-the-counter aspirin. Fifty bucks. Tell me that's not lunacy. Tell me there is some legitimate reason that my dear old mother has to be rented a pair scissors for $300.00.
It seems the me that there is a mixture of reasons that is causing our high medical costs.
The first, and probably foremost, is fraud. Doctors and patients working on their own or together to bilk insurance companies. Because of rampant fraud, insurance companies have had to crack down by increasing premiums and being incredibly nit-picky on the type of procedures the doctors do.
Another contributing factor can be the high cost of a doctor's education. Since the Higher Education Act of 1965 colleges have been able to slowly raise tuitions every year, confident that our federal government would cushion the increases. Our government pays approximately 90 billion dollars out in aid to students wishing to go to college with approximately 65 billion of it actually reaching the students themselves. This money has made colleges less sensitive to their own costs, allowing them to blithely raise tuition costs over the years with no concern for the ability of their students to pay. The problem is that a lot of these medical students are coming out of college with well over $100,000.00 in student loans to pay. The incredible amount of tuition they have to pay back is an incentive to defraud and over-charge.
For the most part, both hospitals and insurance companies are doing what they can about fraud. What our government needs to do is tackle this problem from the other end by rolling back the amount of federal aid available. These colleges run like any other business, if they don't have customers they can't stay afloat. If medical students can get their degree with out mortgaging their souls we will probably see less fraud and lower prices.
Boiling Brew: Politics and Health Insurance Gap
The Tuition Aid Trap
At some point our health care industry is going to have to come to their senses. Sure, medical procedures are expensive but some of the costs they charge for are outrageous. My mother recently went into the hospital for a fairly standard procedure and afterwards there was a small dispute between her insurance company and the hospital over the bill. My mother obtained an itemized copy of the billing and she nearly fell over.
They charged her $300.00 for the use of a scissors. These were no specialty, single-use scissors either but ordinary metal shears. They also charged her $50.00 for to aspirin they gave her. Ordinary, over-the-counter aspirin. Fifty bucks. Tell me that's not lunacy. Tell me there is some legitimate reason that my dear old mother has to be rented a pair scissors for $300.00.
It seems the me that there is a mixture of reasons that is causing our high medical costs.
The first, and probably foremost, is fraud. Doctors and patients working on their own or together to bilk insurance companies. Because of rampant fraud, insurance companies have had to crack down by increasing premiums and being incredibly nit-picky on the type of procedures the doctors do.Another contributing factor can be the high cost of a doctor's education. Since the Higher Education Act of 1965 colleges have been able to slowly raise tuitions every year, confident that our federal government would cushion the increases. Our government pays approximately 90 billion dollars out in aid to students wishing to go to college with approximately 65 billion of it actually reaching the students themselves. This money has made colleges less sensitive to their own costs, allowing them to blithely raise tuition costs over the years with no concern for the ability of their students to pay. The problem is that a lot of these medical students are coming out of college with well over $100,000.00 in student loans to pay. The incredible amount of tuition they have to pay back is an incentive to defraud and over-charge.
For the most part, both hospitals and insurance companies are doing what they can about fraud. What our government needs to do is tackle this problem from the other end by rolling back the amount of federal aid available. These colleges run like any other business, if they don't have customers they can't stay afloat. If medical students can get their degree with out mortgaging their souls we will probably see less fraud and lower prices.
Boiling Brew: Politics and Health Insurance Gap
The Tuition Aid Trap
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