Health Care Reform – Washington Not Addressing the Real Problem

For more than a year Congress has argued, fussed, accused, demanded, and spread general rhetoric over the Health Care debate, and has manages to not once actually address the real problems in our health care system which need to be fixed. One of those issues is the problem of hospitals and doctors over charging for their services, and I recently experienced this problem first hand.

Three weeks ago I had to take one of my employees to the emergency room of our local hospital to be examined after being injured on the job. The employee’s injuries were in no life threatening. We spent six hours at the hospital while the doctor ordered a series of ex-rays and MRIs to be performed. In the end my employee was told he has a sprained wrist, and a bad bruise on the back of his head. He returned to work the next day.

Last week I nearly fell out of my chair when I received the hospital bill of more than $11,800.00 and the doctor’s bill for $3,900.00. I was shocked to say the least. I knew the bills would not be cheap, but I never dreamed the bills would exceed $15,000.00. I was enraged by these bills. I wanted to scream at the hospital, and the doctor. There were no broken bones, no need of stitches, no over-night stay, this was out-n-out highway robbery, and I was going to let the hospital know what I thought of them.

After giving myself a couple of days to get over being angry so I could ensure that I could convey my message to the hospital without yelling I called and spoke with the hospital’s Patient Relations Supervisor. The supervisor was very patient, and listened to my objection to the outrageousness of the bill. Once I finished the supervisor informed me that since this was a Worker Comp. Injury and would be handled by my insurance company, the hospital was discounting the bill to the insurance company down to $2,600.00. On the one hand I was thrilled that the amount owed had been lowered, but on the other I was even madder than before. Just to make sure I heard the supervisor correctly, I asked. “So let me get this strait, because an insurance company is involved, the bill will only be $2,600.00, but if I did not have insurance the bill would be the $11,800?” The supervisor told me that I had heard correctly. I then spent the next ten minutes wasting my time explaining, to the hospital supervisor, all of the ways that their billing practices were simply wrong, and bordered on legalized theft. I have been told that I can expect a similar discount form the doctor, but I have not yet had this confirmed.

Let me break this issue down for you, and point out all of the ways the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies work together to try and force you to buy health insurance, while lining their pockets with huge profits.

The hospitals like insurance companies because they insure the hospital will collect the majority of their funds quickly and will only have to worry about collecting a small portion form the patient. With this in mind the hospitals and doctors have conspired with the insurance companies to encourage you and I to purchase health insurance. The hospitals and doctors now inflate their bills for services by 500 to 600 percent, present the bill to you. If you have insurance, you’re insurance company, going along with the plan, then requests and receives a sizeable discount on your behalf bring the bill down to the actual amount that should have been billed in the first place. By doing this the insurance can show you the insured, that they are working hard for you and saving you money. However if you do not have insurance, then you are forced to pay, without discount, the highly inflated bill for the treatment you received. And if you are unable to pay the over inflated, undiscounted bill, then you have to file bankruptcy, and the hospital gets to legally write-off the overstated bill as a loss and deduct the loss on the hospital’s taxes. To further their cause the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies all pay millions every year to lobbyist to lie and convince Congress that the problem is that not enough Americans have insurance. Congress being the lazy entity that it is, and has failed to fully investigate and analyze the problem. Therefore this and many other issues in the Health Care problem are not being addressed by the current Health Care Bill; nor have any of the amendments that have been offered, by either party, to the Bill.

Now Congress is so happy that the hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies all support the Health Care Reform Bill, and it is no wonder that they do. The insurance companies know that the Federal Government will have to have the insurance industry underwrite the Government’s Plan, and all three will be able to continue the operate their over inflated billing racket and have it legitimized by the Federal Government.

We must speak out my friends. We all must tell Congress that we will no longer put up with flimflam bills that do not address the core issues of a problem; that We the People demand to get our monies worth from their representation.

Speak out my friends, and be heard; do not let the rhetoric of Washington drown out your voice. To remain silent, is to say you don’t care what happens.


Gerald