American Health care: $10,169 for a blood test?

[sana8410]

A lipid panel is one of the most basic blood tests in modern medicine. Doctors use it to measure cholesterol levels in their patients, probably millions of times each year.

This is not a procedure where some hospitals are really great at lipid panels and some are terrible. you are running blood through a machine and pressing buttons. That's it. And that all makes it a bit baffling why, in California, a lipid panel can cost anywhere between $10 and $10,000. In either case, it is the exact same test. "What we were trying to see is, when we get down the simplest, most basic form of medicine, how much variation is there in price?" More than 100 hospitals — with more than 100 different prices.

For this research, published Friday in the British Medical Journal, Hsia and her colleagues compiled reams of data about how much more than 100 hospitals charged for basic blood work. The prices these facilities charged consumers were all over the map. The charge for a lipid panel ranged from $10 to $10,169. Hospital prices for a basic metabolic panel (which doctors use to measure the body's metabolism) were $35 at one facility — and $7,303 at another. For every blood test that the researchers looked at, they found pretty giant variation.

http://news.yahoo.com/10-169-blood-test-everything-170003116.html

$10K for a simple blood test? This is outrageous. To say things are out of control with our health care is an understatement. It certainly shows you or a family member should ask up front what costs are at any hospital you are admitted into. What I would like to know is what [if anything] can be done to bring these prices back to realistic levels? Why can't there be equal billing right across the board? Isn't this something federal regulation should take care of? What would you do if you were handed a hospital bill that would drive you into bankruptcy or selling everything you own to pay? What can be done?

[zolace]

Prices are the way they are because insurance companies will pay whatever the hospital charges, mainly due to corruption and institutionalized cronyism, which is why handing obamacare over to the insurance companies was a huge joke to begin with. The cure is to stop electing the same assholes that work for the insurance companies as politicians and hospital boards.
That's not going to happen.

[solid12345]

Well one big issue is hospitals lose money from the uninsured who come in to the ER room all the time with everything from a simple cough to a broken leg and never pay their bill. The cost to pay for all these people ends up getting passed on to the paying consumer.

[koshgel]

These are hospitals clearly taking advantage. A lot of people don't have the luxury of shopping around for the best price hospital or what if it's an emergency?

It's unfortunate how for-profit these medical institutions are instead of helping those that are sick/injured.

[Spendulus]

These are hospitals clearly taking advantage. A lot of people don't have the luxury of shopping around for the best price hospital or what if it's an emergency?

It's unfortunate how for-profit these medical institutions are instead of helping those that are sick/injured.

One effect of socialism on hospitals is to take institutions that were once do-gooder, non profit institutions and turn them into a machine that sucks on a government tit, while overcharging the paying customer.

Notice there's no consumer protection agency rooting for the customer of PRIVATELY PAID health care costs.

[sana8410]

Actually if you wanted it to stop you do away with insurance… Make everyone pay for their care out of their own pocket…

Doctors used to do house calls for a couple of chickens…

Then came along insurance…

Look what it cost to fix a car before mandatory car insurance came along.

But actually the price of the blood test is nothing compared to what it's going to be now that health insurance is mandatory…

I do tell people if they want their problem fixed in one visit just tell them you don't have any insurance… Years ago I had an issue and did not have insurance and in one office visit I got what was needed to take care of it… It reoccurs every so often and now with insurance, it's a doctors visit, three specialist, CAT scan, and then finally some antibiotics… and I tell them why not just give me the antibiotic , we can skip all the other stuff

[Rigon]

I had blood work done in April and it was over $740.  I was SHOCKED!!!  I have blood work routinely but it's never cost more than $400.

I paid it in thirds.  Who has $700 sitting around?

[noviapriani]

Again, these RWNJ's seem to have little respect for a human life.

My friend is alive because of ACA - allowing her t obtain insurance coverage in spite of preexisting conditions and testing proved her cancer and now she's finished 6 chemo treatments.  Wednesday her doc will view her scans and tell her she's ok - or that she needs more chemo.

I am hoping for the best, of course. 

Beside, one cannot have an intelligent conversation about ACA with RWNJ's - they are illogical and too political to be honest.

[Spendulus]

Again, these RWNJ's seem to have little respect for a human life.

My friend is alive because of ACA - allowing her t obtain insurance coverage in spite of preexisting conditions and testing proved her cancer and now she's finished 6 chemo treatments.  Wednesday her doc will view her scans and tell her she's ok - or that she needs more chemo.

I am hoping for the best, of course. 

Beside, one cannot have an intelligent conversation about ACA with RWNJ's - they are illogical and too political to be honest.

Actually, these kinds of issues, such as $10k for a blood test, validate a lot of the arguments that the anti-ACA people have been saying all along.

You don't take a broke system, then shove lots of government money at it.

You fix the system.

[Balthazar]

Which kind of test? Complete blood count or something more specific?

In any case, $10000 it's hilarious... In commercial clinics here in Moscow, the cost of a general analysis of blood varies from 1500 to 2100 rubles (ie from 42 to 60 dollars). In public hospitals this can be done for free, if you have physician's referral.

[Full Spectrum]

I think it's more along the lines of specific blood tests, I had a blood test earlier this year and it cost $8000, but it was looking for a specific rare disease that thankfully, I didn't have, but insurance did cover it.

[cinder]

I think it's more along the lines of specific blood tests, I had a blood test earlier this year and it cost $8000, but it was looking for a specific rare disease that thankfully, I didn't have, but insurance did cover it.

Sound more like the insurance industry is colluding with the medical industry to overcharge your company for insurance coverage. Ultimately, it is you who have to pay the cost in term of lower salary and benefit.

[Hamuki]

Im glad I live in a country like Denmark..

If you get hurt, you either call 112 or you go to the ER yourself..
You get fixed up, and if you need meds for it then you can choose to get something for free, or some premium meds that cost a little..

You dont need a medical insurance like the US.. You are born with one, and you dont pay for it..

Its basicly free for everyone in Denmark.

(Ofc its paid through tax.. But we dont pay tax and get 1000$+ bills from a hospital)

[Spendulus]

Im glad I live in a country like Denmark..

If you get hurt, you either call 112 or you go to the ER yourself..
You get fixed up, and if you need meds for it then you can choose to get something for free, or some premium meds that cost a little..

You dont need a medical insurance like the US.. You are born with one, and you dont pay for it..

Its basicly free for everyone in Denmark.

(Ofc its paid through tax.. But we dont pay tax and get 1000$+ bills from a hospital)

Yeah, it's really amusing that someone in the USA would pop up and say "I'm Soooooo glad we have the Affordable Heath Care Act, because I would never have been able to pay the $10,000 for a blood test!"

Note the underlying problems are not touched, nor talked about.  But the political "solution" that allows massive graft and corruption, layered on top of a dysfunction insurance driven non free market system, is advocated.

Well, what should we expect?  Should we expect them to push for a system that didn't allow for graft and corruption?

[Timetwister]

This is the magic of government's interventionism. Everything government touches turns into crap.

[arbitrage001]

This is the magic of government's interventionism. Everything government touches turns into crap.

What the report didn't mention is the blood test come with a hand job from a hot blonde nurse.

Still think it is over price?

[bryant.coleman]

This is how the greedy insurance companies are squeezing the hard working American citizen. Forget about the blood test, every single type of medical treatment in the US costs as much as 500 to 1,000% more than what it costs in the EU. A surgery which costs $100,000 in the US can be performed for just $15,000 in Belgium, or $10,000 in Russia. Only one solution for this. Nationalize the healthcare sector.

[dadugan]

This is how the greedy insurance companies are squeezing the hard working American citizen. Forget about the blood test, every single type of medical treatment in the US costs as much as 500 to 1,000% more than what it costs in the EU. A surgery which costs $100,000 in the US can be performed for just $15,000 in Belgium, or $10,000 in Russia. Only one solution for this. Nationalize the healthcare sector.

Hard to target the insurance sector if they already have their hands full of cookies.

They probably spend much of their profit lobbying the congress for even more rules in their favor.

[kuroman]

The US healthcare is one of the most broken healthcare system among 1st world countries heck even some 3rd world countries has a better system, and sadely this isn't a problem of $$ but it is more related to mismanagement and strong lobbying from the private sector, and this is why I disagree with total capitalism and liberalism economy/politcal system and prefer a system that associate capitalism with socialism to keep a certain balance in sociaty

[johncarpe64]

This is how the greedy insurance companies are squeezing the hard working American citizen. Forget about the blood test, every single type of medical treatment in the US costs as much as 500 to 1,000% more than what it costs in the EU. A surgery which costs $100,000 in the US can be performed for just $15,000 in Belgium, or $10,000 in Russia. Only one solution for this. Nationalize the healthcare sector.

You also have to wait a lot longer to get the same procedures, sometimes resulting in a surgery being unnecessary because the patient has either died or the problem has become so severe that surgery would not be effective.

I don't think you understand that if you make these things cost less unilaterally then the people who perform these services will ultimately get paid less which would mean less people would enter the field and those that do enter the medical field will be less qualified.