Why medical expenses are very high in U.S.A? Can anyone provide me the details of health insurance in U.S.A?
Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at
5:00 am
want to know different plans and programmes
Filed under: Medical Health Insurance Plans
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Here you go: http://www.ahip.org/
because going to school to become a doctor HERE is expensive and the doctors want to get that money back right away X 100.
Medical expenses are high because the doctors must carry insurance for their businesses or hospitals to protect them from having to pay a lot of money from their own pocket if they are sued for malpractice. The insurance premiums they pay to the insurance companies are high for this sort of insurance. These expenses are passed along to the patients.
Also, the pharmaceutical companies charge extremely high prices for prescription drugs. Most people can’t pay for medicine from their own pocket, and if they have insurance, the insurance company pays most of the cost.
Insurance premiums for one person can cost as much as $800 US, or more, per month. Most Americans can’t afford this and many have no insurance and must pay for medical services directly to the doctor or hospital.
There are many insurance companies with their own plans and programs. If you research it on the Internet and contact various companies, they will send you information to read about their different insurance policies and plans. It will take time to go through the different plans to choose the best one for you and your family. If you will be working for a US company, they will usually have their own insurance plan (the more people in a company, the greater the discount the insurance company gives the company).
Many people in the USA can’t afford to pay for their medicine, especially elderly, retired people. The problem is getting worse in the USA and no one in government seems to care. When it finally reaches a serious crises stage, people will probably decide to vote for candidates running for the US Congress and US Senate who will support some sort of national health care system. The unfortunate side of that will be that Federal taxes will go up – my guess is it’ll be similar to all the seen as well as hidden taxes paid by citizens of the U.K. The other unfortunate result will be a reduction in quality of health care because there would no longer be competition between doctors to provide the best care to their patients.
The short answer is that the health system is conditioned to patients paying for their bills through medical insurance. Medical insurance provided by the federal government is only available to some, and then sometimes so little that it barely covers one’s needs… a fact which has encouraged the purchase of medical insurance policies provided by private corporations. The private corporations build a system in their commercial interests, so you pay more and more (you are a consumer, buying a product at a higher and higher price); the price increase is justified by the promise of more and more payment coverage *in the event* of a need for it. The health system sees the insurance companies making a lot of money, and sees they can take some of those profits for themselves for things like staff, better equipment, more areas of specialty care – all they have to do is ask for more money for their services. Then they use that money to grow, and in growing they need more money. The Rising Cost of Living.
Most health insurance providers are private corporations; it stands to reason the number of companies are many, and that each company will be happy to provide you with a matrix of cost versus service.
First of all, there are hundreds of different plans & programs, so details won’t be able to be typed in this tiny space. Not to mention, I don’t want to spend the next five years answering just this one question.
Regarding the first, it’s a matter of opinion. I think there are several contributing factors for medical cost expenses:
1. Americans tend to want prompt treatment, with state of the art equipment, and the latest & greatest of everything. Do you know how much an MRI machine costs? These costs will ALWAYS be handed down to the consumer.
2. America has gone lawsuit happy. Medical Maplractice costs have skyrocketed. These costs will ALWAYS be handed down to the consumer.
3. America has decided we’re giving health care to everyone, even if you’re not an American, and even if you’re not here legally. So there are lots of people using our expensive, litigous health care system, and not paying for it. These costs will ALWAYS be handed down to the consumer.
4. Most Americans don’t want to pay for their health care – they want the insurance company to. Most Americans are insured. Because they aren’t paying the bill (so to speak), they don’t "shop around". They don’t care how much it costs, they don’t want the generic equivelent, because it’s not their money that they are spending. They will go to the emergency room after hours, because it’s more convenient. These costs will ALWAYS be handed down to the consumer.
5. In the US, obesity is up, excercise is down, and fewer people are eating at home. Type II diabetes is growing more common – the most preventable disease! We aren’t taking care of ourselves, and just expecting the health care system to fix things for us – while our use of maintenance drugs is just growing, growing, growing. These costs, yes, will ALWAYS be handed down to the consumer, even if it’s in the form of fewer raises because your employer is paying 5X as much for your health insurance as he was 10 years ago.
So, to sum up, the US has one of the best health care systems in the world – THIS is where the wealthy of the world go for their crucial health treatment – but we’re not good shoppers, because ‘we don’t have to be’, and the cost ALWAYS gets passed on.
That is an impossibility. Every state in this country has their own state regulations that dictate some of the required benefits on health plans, and there are literally hundreds of insurance companies available. You are going to be required to apply to prove you are healthy, and pay more if you aren’t. In many cases if you are sick enough, or have a chronic illness or disease you won’t have traditional insurance available to you at all unless you are employed by a company that will automatically put you on the group insurance. State health pools for high risk people are available in almost every state, but they are at extremely expensive, restrictive and may have long waiting periods.
Why are costs high? Because this is a capitalist society and health care is a business.