Time Value of Money is an important financial concept meaning that receiving a dollar today is better than receiving that dollar tomorrow. This is true because of things like interest, cash flow, and the reliability of the payer. Businesses apply great effort to collecting money they are owed as quickly as possible all while delaying their own payments.
On December 31, I was taken by ambulance to a hospital because of a car accident (regular readers will recall that the ride was precautionary as I was not injured). On March 9 I received an invoice from the ambulance service. The bill was in excess of $1,000. My insurance provider had not paid the bill so I was responsible. One phone call to my insurance company and 15 minutes later the problem was solved. The ambulance service had used the wrong fax number for my claims adjuster.
It was easy to fix but expensive for everyone involved. More than $1,000 went unpaid, an invoice was issued, a claims adjuster had to call the ambulance service and I had to spend my time calling the insurance company (and getting aggravated at the prospect of paying the bill myself while unemployed).
Folks, please humor me for just a moment. Check your calendar. You can probably do this by rolling your cursor over the time/date in the bottom corner of your screen. You can also look the date up on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
You will find that, assuming you do this correctly, the year is 2010 (sarcasm alert!). We are well into the 21st century. Use of faxes for invoices, or really anything at all, is so 20th century! In that I am being very serious.
I don’t know whether the lack of electronic invoice processing is due to my insurance company or the ambulance service, or perhaps both. What I do know is that this is yet another example of a health care system locked into the past.
As I write this, congressional Democrats are struggling to force through a massive health care system overhaul that does nothing to lower health care costs in any way that could not be done better outside of this massive overhaul. In fact, in the likelihood that some of the wishful thinking going into this bill turns out to be too wishful, costs will increase dramatically. This is because the U.S. government and U.S. society is not suited to government run (read bureaucracy laden) personal system like health care.
The government is suited, in fact well suited, to lead an effort to modernize the health care system’s underlying IT system. There are many similarities to the creation of the nation’s highway system under Eisenhower. That modernization will take years, billions of dollars, and be a major political challenge. It will lower costs, improve care, and help extend health care to millions. Therefore, modernization should be the government’s primary focus.
Instead, congressional Democrats are pushing us into a massive collectivist overhaul that is so 19th century.
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When we bought health insurance last year, we purchased a policy with a $5000. deductable. It costs us $195.00 mo.
In exchange for the low mo rate, we shop with our own money for the basic everyday healthcare, so far we’ve spent $695.00 out of pocket for 2 physicals (with full blood and treadmill), and one yearly woman’s check-ups.
We inquired with our regular doctor how much a complete physical would be if we paid cash and thought it seemed like about half price from charges we’ve seen from him having to bill the insurance company.
Prior, we had a policy with a $500 . deductable, $5. perscriptions, and $20.00 office visits and the price for both of us was $565.00 mo. I think you can do the math. This year we will save approx $3000.00
In conclusion, everyone is different and has unique conditions, but taking responsibility for a” limited set amount” in exchange for covered benefits in case of something catastrophic, is a great deal. This is doable by any thinking person, and to do otherwise will result in expensive rationed care.
There is no reason to believe the people who bring us Medicare/Medicad/VetHospitals/DMV/PostOffice/etc would do a good job doing SinglePayerHealthCare…I hope you’ll just think about it…