Kevin Drum quotes Karen Tumulty as follows:
A paradox of medical costs is that people who can least afford them — the uninsured — end up being charged the most. Insurance companies, with large numbers of customers, have the financial muscle to negotiate low rates from health-care providers; individuals do not. Whereas insured patients would have been charged about $900 by the hospital that performed Pat’s biopsy (and pay only a small fraction of that out of their own pocket), Pat’s bill was $7,756. For lab work — and there was a lot of it — he was being charged as much as six times the price an insurance company would pay.
[Link blocked in China because Mojo hurt China's feewings at some point ;-(]
I taught my Chinese students this lesson almost ten years ago. Not trying to be arrogant, but there it is. Glad to see Time Magazine is finally getting around to informing it’s readers about this reality.
The best part is, in some cases, (think ambulances called when people collapse in public areas), I bet you anything the state pays full price when a recipient of services fails to pay.
I still thank my lucky stars that I have almost total cover free on the NHS here in the UK – not that I ever use it though. This is what they talk about when they say that the US medical insurance system is essentially geared towards young men like myself!