$106,911.93 medical bill for swallowed denture – Boing Boing

What REALLY infuriates me about our medical system is this:

1. Insured Patient Sees Bill for $110k
2. Insurance Company Pays reduced bill of $30k , as per their agreement with doctor/hospital/etc to pay money immediately in exchange for steep discounts.

1. UnInsured Patient Sees Bill for $110k
2. UnInsured Patient doesn’t know they can try to negotiate down because insurance companies have HUGE reductions on bills, or the hospital refuses to do a one-on-one negotiation (because it takes as much time to negotiate on one person as it does for 1500 patients with one provider ) therefore becomes bankrupt trying to pay the entire 110k.

That discrepancy is the root of evil in our healthcare farce.

via boingboing.net

This was from the comments section of a post about someone’s health care bill. It is not the only problem with our system, but it is a large part of the problem.