-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 09:33 AM 10/30/97 -0700, Tim May wrote:
Listed prices are the "sucker rates," kind of like the posted prices for out-of-towners, with locals getting a discount. And these pricing differences apply to the whole range of procedures. For example, an insurance company might have negotiated--over many years of intense negotiations--a fee of $100,000 for a liver transplant, but a "cash-paying customer" (a victim, a mark, a sucker) would pay the list price, e.g., $300,000.
Could I negotiate a lower room rate, and lower fees for a spectrum of possibly needed treatments? Probably. I haven't had to try, fortunately. (Nor am I knowledgeable about procedures. Nor am I patient negotiator, no pun intended.)
You can negotiate in advance. Many doctors will cut their rates for surgery if you tell them you are uninsured. We actually called around to a number of hospitals recently to see if they would discount a birth for cash up front and we were able to find hospitals willing to cut their rates. A 50% cut seems the standard range.
Just noting that cash is not always king. Especially to any medium-sized or larger hospital, where filling out the forms correctly is more important than getting paid in cash. (My dentist's receptionist is befuddled by my paying in cash. She clearly prefers to just enter the number of an insurance company.)
The magic words are "Hill-Burton Act." Most hospitals have accepted Hill- Burton Act funding and are required to admit people with or without insurance. Some resist of course.
I have so far elected to self-insure, i.e., to just pay any medical bills I might have out of pocket. However, given this "sucker rate" and the increasing unwillingness of hospitals to take patients not in health care or insurance programs, I may have little choice but to sign up.
Me too. In 20 years, however, you and I will be drafted into Medicare (against our wills) unless the system is substantially modified by then (the most likely outcome). DCF -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNFnFfIVO4r4sgSPhAQHRUgP/b9QZr/Z0UtKWCdEiOkfRaIQEnRMEWYKF FWEdiIjYmHldqsxTjtrICGsI4AQm/fyKEhGq5ED+vLt9rOeElz1j6IlmLCj+Hb1m QSFAUxyLpODYpPGs5+sofTnwHABHHW3fMk3aBSwqqHuh8BK7fSCIBOmAU3kLrJbp QkeAHQb6h3g= =KE8a -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----