re: #397 ~Fianna

I tend to agree. Part of the problem is that there isn’t any incentive for the consumer to have any understanding of how much and what money is spent on in health transactions.

Take, for example, what hospitals charge (and insurers pay) for basic crap. Fine, hospitals are expensive, that’s why the room is 500 bucks a day… but I was billed IIRC 40 bucks a back for a saline drip. FORTY DOLLARS. FOR SALT WATER.

Well, to be fair, it is salt water, guaranteed to be sterile, with any number of special conditions on it, not to mention market volume issues, transportation, shelf life, and the staff to monitor and store and administer it. You didn’t pay for the salt water, just everything that goes with it.

What is of more interest to me is why someone who walks in with cash (or no cash) will likely be billed twice what an insurance company is billed.