The health care game

As the health care debate rolls toward its end, you can be certain that, for all the rhetoric, nothing will change.

The discussion is never about affordable health care, but rather about affordable health care insurance. So long as insurers are in the picture, there will be no pressure to control costs by health care providers.

Imagine going into a grocery store and being told by the grocer what you need to buy. No doubt the grocer would be solicitous, discuss options with you, perhaps suggest a specialized store for the rarer items.

In the end however you take what is proffered and leave, receiving a bill later that also includes consultation fees and rental on the grocery basket.

But you don’t see the absurdity of this because your employer is paying someone else to make sure that most of the bill — never all of it — gets paid.

As an example, in May I had an allergic reaction at work that sent me to Medical Center Hospital against my will.

Once there nothing amiss was found, except that I was clinically dehydrated. Three bags of saline, three trips to the bathroom and four hours later I was released, paying $100 out of pocket.

The cost for this “treatment” came to $2,521.01, which somehow ignored the $100. About 20 percent was for the ambulance, another 20 percent for the examination, the rest for the hospital.

Had I been indigent, Medicaid would have covered the total, but I was insured. Insurance only covered $844.76; another $1,317.58 was “adjusted” away, leaving me with a bill for $358.67.

I defy anyone to explain how a one-mile trip in a city-owned ambulance justifies a nearly $500 price tag. How can these and other expenses run so high?

Costs run up unchecked because the system is rigged so that the players get paid. The medical providers make money on the insurance payout; the insurers don’t mind the payout because in the long run they make money, and bigger expenses justify the need for their service.

The employer just factors in the cost of insurance as part of an employee’s compensation.

The only ones hurt by this are the people that have to pay inflated prices for basic services out of pocket.

So long as insurance is mandated, the uninsured and underinsured will be given no opportunity to find affordable care that does not involve someone paying the providers and insurers whatsoever they deem is appropriate, no matter how inflated.