OK I said $400k, just saw the January and February bills, updated the spreadsheet. Make that $523k plus.

Re reimbursement percentages, some things are paid in full, some denied, others are quarter-third-half range of reimbursement. I’ve rarely seen merely 10% reimbursement level. But the overall point is valid. One must go in and beg and negotiate with the docs/hospitals. They can do a lot of writeoffs and subsidies. Our local hospital has multimill’s in charity write offs for a county of 70k population.

Another problem is that with each health care purchase you are paying for a lotto ticket. The ticket pays off if you are injured by some type of negligence on the part of the health care provider. The ticket is not optional. The health care provider must provide it to you, so they much charge you for it. I am talking about the excessive damages awarded to plaintiffs who get hurt by negligence. If you could opt out of it and pay less, you probably would choose to do so. Economically, it makes sense to cap the damages at some reasonable fairly small amount (such as a percentage of the charges - maybe 1000%) and allow the patient to buy insurance that will pay him in the event of malpractice. That will definitely cut down on the cost of health care.

Related to the lawsuit lottery problem above, patients need to be able to get more information about whether a doctor has had a lot of malpractice issues before choosing whom to go to. Right now, you really just go and hope nothing bad happens because you really have no idea about the doctor who is treating you other than anecdotal evidence from friends or acquaintances. If you could investigate the history of a doctor and see that he’d only had 2 minor complaints in 20 years of practice, you’d probably feel fairly comfortable making an informed decision. If you are informed about your choice of doctor, do you really want to buy a lotto ticket that will pay you $20 million if the doctor should happen to screw up and amputate the wrong leg or something or would you rather save the money and just take your chances that you won’t be the first one in 20 years?

I think we should be able to save and accumulate our Sec. 125 FSA health care spending accounts. That’s part of the solution and would smooth out the bumpy ride for many Americans.

My breast cancer treatment so far has cost close to $400k and not all the bills are in yet; of which, my out of pocket copays were $120 (and my monthly premium is $26). I’m keeping a spreadsheet. When the dust settles, I’ll blog about “What Cancer Costs.”

The only health care to become cheaper/more affordable are things not covered by insurance, that are in a pure competitive market, with the consumer paying: cosmetic surgery, LASIK surgery, etc.

Curtis - Liz, that is actually my point exactly. With your insurance removed from your check beforeyou get it, no one seems to factor that into their health care cost. All they see is their co-pay and the other is almost like part of their compensation. I know I’ve always removed any difference in insurance cost when comparing 2 job offers. If we were to force people to pay for every test their doctor runs out of their own pocket, the doctor wouldn’t be nearly as busy and could spend more time with patients. He could cut overhead as well by not needing the extra dozen people to file insurance paperwork thus lowering his overhead and cutting your “real” health care cost.

Curtis - Still you are talking about health insurance and not health care. Doctors and hospitals are acting as should be expected with the way they are treated and given incentives by the insurance companies. Fixing health insurance will not, necessarily, lower our health care costs. I say let’s get back to the days of paying your doctor on your own and leave the insurance companies behind. They are more trouble than they are worth.