i had a mri today and it was $ 16oo.oo! that is why people die becouse
you cant afford to pay the high prices! thank god i only had to pay 55
dollors of it becouse my med. insurance payed the rest. i think someone
needs to look into these med. charges! what do you think about this
topic????

on this subject I must say "Canada Rocks" now if I could just move
there I simply love Montreal

i know your right!

well I'd gladly pay the same tax rate Canada does for the same
healthcare system they have

The hospitals and doctors have to charge so much because the insurance
companies control the amount they pay them for their visits and
procedures. It sounds like they make a lot of money on these, but they
really don't.

My dad had to be flown from Port Townsend to Seattle (about 20 minutes)
Airlift - cost about $9600, Medicare only paid $3500 or so and the rest
was written off. That is one of the reasons they charge so much,
because Medicare and welfare don't pay diddly and they need to charge
the prices to try to break even.

The doctors don't get half of what they charge per visit, and the
hospitals have millions in write-offs for bad debts and "sliding fee
scale" for low income patients, so I am sure that they raise their rates
to try to make some of that back too.

i understand all of that but now if that is true it seems like everone
is passing the buck!doctors here in michigan make a ton of money and
sure isnt haveing a problem making ends meet. if no one is makeing alot
of profit then whats going on????

The doctors also pay a ton of money for malpractice insurance- that is
why a lot of the OB doctors stop delivering babies, I hear their
insurance is the highest because the sue rate is the highest for
malpractice, anytime a baby is born with an imperfection, the doctor is
sued. I even know of a case where the doctor was sued because the baby
was born with fetal alcohol syndrome because the mom was an alcoholic,
and had 2-3 other kids with fetal alcohol, and all during the pregnancy
the Dr. told her not to drink, but she drank, then when the baby was
born with fetal alcohol, she sued him. Obviously was a stupid lawsuit,
but he still had to pay an attorney to defent his case.

Larger city doctors make more than small town - the hospital bought 3 of
the clinics here to keep the doctors because they were leaving to go to
bigger cities to make more money, so now the hospital takes care of the
overhead and the doctors are basically salaried, so now we can keep our
doctors.

Some doctors do make a lot of money, but he careless few who cause the
lawsuits shoot up the insurance rates for the rest, just like bad
drivers do for car insurance.

yep. ya work in the medical field! i thought something was up with
this... lmao!!

Work in it is right, type for the guys, have done it for about 25 years
now, and have some personal experience with billing, etc., as I did that
for awhile too. That is how I know some of this. The insurance
companies even assign each procedure a code and pay by that code. One
of the doctors I type for and his staff were looking the other day where
he would get paid more for flushing out a patient's plugged ears, than
for dealing with a person with several severe serious diagnoses and
juggling the medications, etc., now does that make sense? Takes a lot
more skill and ability to know the meds and which ones mix and what they
do and don't do, than to clean some ears, but they pay more for the ear
cleaning.

I personally have issues with HMOs, they started the downfall with the
insurance company problems, like needing referrals for everything when
in the old days you could just schedule with the Dr. you wanted to see
and it was easier. Now the insurance company can deny your visit to the
Dr. you and your Dr. want you to see if they think it is not necessary.
Insurance companies have way too much power.

I am not arguing against you, believe me, I agree with you, just
explaining my take on it from being around it for so long and with my
personal experiences with the billing, etc. Medicare billing is a whole
world in itself, and Drs. are refusing to take welfare much anymore
because they don't make anything on it because of the write-offs
required by the govt.

I am on your side, wish someone would wake up and take some power back
from those damn insurance companies. Did you know that the CEOs of the
insurance companies can walk away at the end of the year with a big fat
bonus check of millions for what they saved the insurance company having
to pay out??

first, hello marie, how are ya,?? and glad ta see ya on.

Now, 4-Fun, I got ya beat, I was driving and didn't feel right
about a month ago, tingling in both hands , and a bad head preassure,
??? Well I don't have insurrance, because I waved it
at where I work, Because I have never needed to use it,,,,lol
So now, I stop at a Hospital and get checked out,??
I wasn't have any heart attack and they ran a CAT-SCAN on me,
wow, 2900 dollars so yeah, are shit here is high.....lol
OH, and I only wished that it wasn't ALL MINE, LOL...LOL.

Hi IAM - hope you are doing okay tonight.

Sorry to hear the bill was so high, but not really surprised. Emergency
rooms are high. One of the reasons too, is the high write off for bad
debt there, when you think of all the drug overdoses and gang fights,
etc., who go in there, most are uninsured and don't pay their bills.
The hospitals write off millions a year, and raise the rates for
everyone else to try to make some of it back. Sorry, guess I sound like
I am on a soap box tonight, but just telling you what I see.

I wish you did have insurance, it does help.

Thanks Marie, and ahhh, well. what the hell is money anyway?lol

I GUESS SOME PEOPLE DONT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HIGH MED. PRICES?? THATS
JUST MY POINT... IF IT DOESNT AFFECT THEM THEY DONT CARE!

Gotta love Canada for medicare hehe

I KNOW YOUR ARE RIGHT BABYGIRL. I THINK ITE TERRIBLE HOW AMERICANS ARE
BEING RIPPED OFF! THEY CAN CHARGE WHAT EVER THEY WANT AND THEN THE MED.
PEOPLE.... LIKE DOCTORS~ HOSIPATLS~ ECT. GET PAIDWAY TO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

"well I'd gladly pay the same tax rate Canada does for the same
healthcare system they have"


No you wouldn't Mike..trust me..the health care system in Ontario has
been dessicated. In the area I live there's a population of approx
400,000 ppl. We have 3 hospitals to serve that population. Recently, one
of them (the biggest one) had to close down their emergency room because
of a shortage of doctors. I've been in an emergency waiting room for 15
hours with a dislocated shoulder before anyone even looked at it. That
same visit, 2 ppl died in the waiting area cuz there wasn't enough
doctors on duty.
The federal gov't at one point had a HUGE budget surplus, and yet our
health care was reduced even more

YES. I KNOW THAT CANADA HAS ITS FLAWS IN THE MED. FIELD BUT SOME
COVERAGE IS BETTER THAN NONE LIKE ALOT OF PEOPLE HERE IN THE USA HAVE.
THEN YOU HAVE DOCTORS LIVEING IN 2 AND 3 MILLION DOLLOR HOMES AND PEOPLE
STUGGLING TO KEEP UP THEIR HEALTH AND JUST GET BY. THE THING IS THAT
YOUR HEALTH YOU CANT PUT OFF OR JUST LET IT GO LIKE OTHER THINGS IN LIFE
AND THEY KNOW THAT.

We live in a free market society. If the gov. starts regulating
everything, we might just as well live in Cuba. I wish there were a
happy medium.

sushi we don't want them in everything just where they need to be,
nothing wrong with that. Just as you regulate some things your children
do and somethings you let them do freely. that's you medium.

Two years later and only worse The mri today will set you back atleast $2500..