Why does it cost $32,093 just to give birth in America?

a reply to: Atsbhct

Price controls = scarcity.

Businesses are in it to make a profit whether you like it or not. If you cap prices to where making something isn't profitable, then they won't make it anymore.

This happened with the flu vaccine once in the past. The US government decided it was too expensive and put a price cap on it, consequently all but three companies stopped making it since the production involves a fiddly process using chicken eggs. One of the companies had their batches go bad that year and serious shortage occurred because of it. And there was no way to make up for it because you can't rush the incubation process and not enough batches were in production to cover for that disaster.

As a result, flu vaccines had to be rationed and the season wound up being a very bad one on top of it all.

The only way to try to cover for that is to go full command economy with total government control and demand quotas to try to force companies to produce what you need and remove all profit motive from the equation, but every time that has been tried, it has failed terribly.

a reply to: ketsuko

THey have price controls in Canada on scripts, do they have a problem?

Natural gas has very very strict price controls too.

I think price controls work when there is artificially high prices, meaning that the price that is forced is not below total production/distribution costs.

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originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: seasonal

Some people have a myopic view.
The reality is, the rest of the world has decided that health care isn't something to bleed people dry and squeeze every penny out of sick people, they do make profit though..just not enormous profit.
I'm going going to look up the pay and benefits package on some of the major drug company CEO's, HMO's too..no doubt they are waaaaay beyond reason.

Well, pertaining to HMO's the pay scale is between 10 mill and 22 mill.

www.fiercehealthcare.com...

Pharma salaries go from 14 mill to over 40 mill

www.fiercepharma.com...

We live in a profit driven world, and that works for cars and shoes. But health care is being used as a way to bankrupt not just the average "Joe" but the entire country.

Something will change, it has to.

But I am afraid these huge corps are willing to crash the whole healthcare system on Friday so they can get the last dollar on Thursday.

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
Well cause' the freemarket and the invisible hand God dang!

Stella Apo Osae-Twum and her husband did everything by the book. They went to a hospital covered by insurance, saw an obstetrician in their plan, but when her three sons – triplets – were born prematurely, bills started rolling in.

The hospital charged her family $877,000 in total.

We're seeing a high mortality rate among young mothers who can't afford prenatal care. Our maternal death rate in Texas is comparable to that of a third world country because the cost of prenatal care is beyond what many families can pay.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
Well cause' the freemarket and the invisible hand God dang!

Stella Apo Osae-Twum and her husband did everything by the book. They went to a hospital covered by insurance, saw an obstetrician in their plan, but when her three sons – triplets – were born prematurely, bills started rolling in.

The hospital charged her family $877,000 in total.

We're seeing a high mortality rate among young mothers who can't afford prenatal care. Our maternal death rate in Texas is comparable to that of a third world country because the cost of prenatal care is beyond what many families can pay.

If you like your Dr you can keep your Dr.

That clown had a chance to really change things. He pussed out and let the insurance lobby write the weak wristed Obamacare bill.

Now we are eyes deep in the shIt and we are counting on Trump of all people to fix it? What kinda a world are we in?

originally posted by: avgguy
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

And your wait times to see a specialist is also 6 months. I could see a specialist this morning if I needed too.

But can you afford it, or most?

The real problem is that we can pay for insurance for everyone with taxes that we have already put in as a nation. Instead of wasting billions of dollars on retarded things, like a $38 billion weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, we could reallocate that money and everyone would be set.

a reply to: seasonal

Agree'd, he(Obama) royally rolled over like a bitch, and sold everyone out..on that and other things.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

In 1979 when my daughter was born, my total bill (which I paid out of pocket since I didn't have insurance) was $850. I 1982 when my son was born, it cost me $1750 (which I also paid out of pocket due to insurance not covering). The second time, when I got ready to take my son home, I had to show that I had a car seat to put him in, formula, diapers, etc. I watched a couple on welfare get all those items handed to them free who were leaving with their child at the same time. I didn't have to think very hard to figure out why it cost me almost double the second go around.

originally posted by: avgguy
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

And your wait times to see a specialist is also 6 months. I could see a specialist this morning if I needed too.

Spend much time here, do you?

originally posted by: hunamongyou
a reply to: Southern Guardian

In 1979 when my daughter was born, my total bill (which I paid out of pocket since I didn't have insurance) was $850. I 1982 when my son was born, it cost me $1750 (which I also paid out of pocket due to insurance not covering). The second time, when I got ready to take my son home, I had to show that I had a car seat to put him in, formula, diapers, etc. I watched a couple on welfare get all those items handed to them free who were leaving with their child at the same time. I didn't have to think very hard to figure out why it cost me almost double the second go around.

If the couple was on welfare the hospital would be reimbursed by the tax payers.

Do you have a different reason for the massive increase, maybe there were small problems with your son's delivery that added up?

Or did a few Dr's stick there head in your wife's room to see if your wife was "OK"? That is a good way to milk the "customer" for hundreds a whack.

When the ACA was created we were told that insurance companies would not get a say in it and that no backroom deals would be made...Obama and his team literally went into a back room and locked the door with insurance company representatives to work out the ACA deal...
I also don't understand how this family could have huge healthcare bills if their plan had an out of pocket maximum, which most plans have...

originally posted by: avgguy
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

And your wait times to see a specialist is also 6 months. I could see a specialist this morning if I needed too.

You do realize, of course, that private medical service also exists here in Canada, and that you can get that kind of service if you’re willing to shell out for it... right?

Well, I guess that just blows your whole argument out of the water.

The American healthcare system is, by design, a system of inequality. American economic philosophy is to ensure a large pool of citizens living in or near poverty, in a system where cost of living exponentially rises in a relative manner the more poor you are, just so the rich and the middle class can have someone to blame for macroeconomic mismanagement.

Of course it must be all those freeloading, marijuana-cigarette smoking illegal leftist immigrants with their welfare cheques. It couldn’t possibly be a state bureaucracy directed by politicians who regularly switch over to CEO positions after funnelling massive amounts of tax dollars into corporate accounts. Nah, it just couldn’t be that.

Cry some more about how we Canadians never have to pay anything close to what you Americans pay for healthcare, including in taxes. $32,000 just to have a child, what a joke. If you have to pay that much, and pay for healthcare through taxes, then I have news for you: the problem has nothing to do with costs or how much people are paying with taxes. It has to do with management and oversight, which doesn’t seem to be a priority when you spend all your time fixated on blaming the poor.

a reply to: TheStalkingHorse

You do realize that the member you replied to is so indoctrinated he has no idea what you're talking about.

originally posted by: Ddrneville

They call that socialism in the U. S....

My mother left america while she was pregnant with me, she was poor, it was a complicated birth and I had a few health problems, I would have died if we stayed in america. Horrible country.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

There's a simple way to avoid this bill, don't have kids.

originally posted by: avgguy
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

It’s actually pretty good, I’d rather pay for what I need, than pay for everyone else’s problems.

***Newsflash***
You're already paying for everyone else's problems.

Where do you think the money comes from to pay for treating people on welfare and others with no income? Your taxes that's where.

The only difference between your health system and that of the UK is we here have the choice of using either the NHS or private healthcare. And we also NEVER have to worry about the possibility of bankruptcy if we fall ill, which in itself is a priceless benefit. Who needs that hanging over them when trying to recover?

It's difficult making you yankee chaps understand that you're already paying for a national health system, and it works perfectly. But you who pay for it can't use it.

a reply to: dothedew

Well said. Thats why I live on Faith.