ST Alpha - "All of that is true and I'm not arguing the USA health system isn't cray, but I just don't know that those are the examples of it?" (Reading a Post)

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In response to "Jack: it’s not the specific cost, more that a person was presented a $10k bill for an ER visit, and that it magically dropped to $3k. " by mafic

All of that is true and I'm not arguing the USA health system isn't cray, but I just don't know that those are the examples of it?

Posted by JackDawson (aka dawson) Mar 11 '20, 06:07

When there are private actors in a system, it stands to reason that there are going to be privately negotiated rates of service with certain customers/payors--airlines for example, do this, as do cellphone companies.

I would assume that this is the case across western capitalist democracies, unless a country has specifically prohibited the practice (hard to imagine that is the majority rule).

Thus, since individual pricing schemes are ubiquotuous in capitalist economies, it hardly strikes me as an example of the craziness of the American health care system.

Responses:

The ones I have experience with (Switzerland, Canada, Australia) all effectively have government-regulated pricing. - mafic Mar 11, 06:25 3
- That latter sounds identical to this. The former: total price controls are not exactly the standard I'd hold up to prove something else is crazy - JackDawson Mar 11, 06:33 2
  - Not really the same. Insurance selection and pricing here is also heavily regulated. The point is more that variable billing for basically an ER visit - mafic Mar 11, 06:47 1
    - Right, but as you see this isn't really variable billing for basically an ER visit, as it ends up in the same place as any other visit - JackDawson Mar 11, 06:55

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All of that is true and I'm not arguing the USA health system isn't cray, but I just don't know that those are the examples of it?

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