The Republican Utopia

Archy1221 said:
Don’t be an Ian.  Dig into the life expectancy numbers a bit.  
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I’ll match that and raise you….

I think life expectancy is a horrible stat to judge things on…..unless you include quality of life. 
 

My father is 89 years old and adding to our great life expectancy….while living in a nursing home costing $13,000 per month. 
 

Our health care system (and attitude towards health) sucks. But we LOVE doing everything we can to keep elderly alive and milking them for this money. 
 

I'm not ashamed to say I would be relieved if he didn’t wake up tomorrow.   His quality of life is horrible. 
 

I would love to know how our quality of life as elderly compares to the rest of the world. 

 
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Archy1221 said:
Hospital fees/charges are the worst and yet on a national stage they hardly get mentioned.  It’s usually insurance and drugs that catch people ire (Hospitals like this btw) 
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My late brother-in-law (not the Pharma CEO) was a business major who went down the line item bill of his daughter's birth, which was well over $20,000 in 1991. He called them out on several charges that were either unnecessary or never delivered, and they reimbursed them. Most people don't do that, maybe because most insurance companies are paying for it. Why insurance companies don't contest hospital charges or demand economy of scale pricing is the real issue. 

Semi-related: I caught an auto shop double billing on a car repair and notified my insurance company. They thanked me for my thoughtful diligence, but admitted they would just pay the bill and not follow up because it was too much trouble. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
My late brother-in-law (not the Pharma CEO) was a business major who went down the line item bill of his daughter's birth, which was well over $20,000 in 1991. He called them out on several charges that were either unnecessary or never delivered, and they reimbursed them. Most people don't do that, maybe because most insurance companies are paying for it. Why insurance companies don't contest hospital charges or demand economy of scale pricing is the real issue. 

Semi-related: I caught an auto shop double billing on a car repair and notified my insurance company. They thanked me for my thoughtful diligence, but admitted they would just pay the bill and not follow up because it was too much trouble. 
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Insurance companies in the middle of it is one of the biggest reasons for healthcare to cost so much and this is an example of why.

For the most part, Insurance companies don't care what it costs because they will just pass it along in premiums.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
Insurance companies in the middle of it is one of the biggest reasons for healthcare to cost so much and this is an example of why.

For the most part, Insurance companies don't care what it costs because they will just pass it along in premiums.
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15 years ago, or so, a tornado ripped through Hallam, NE area and did a TON of damage. Basically leveled the town.  One of our customers, who had great prices, asked to be charged list price because he was getting paid a percentage of material costs by an insurance company.  I'm sure he wasn't the only one.

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Semi-related: I caught an auto shop double billing on a car repair and notified my insurance company. They thanked me for my thoughtful diligence, but admitted they would just pay the bill and not follow up because it was too much trouble. 
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I caught a local repair shop doubling the price on an alternator replacement. Filed a claim with the BBB and got some money back. 

 
knapplc said:
I caught a local repair shop doubling the price on an alternator replacement. Filed a claim with the BBB and got some money back. 
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That's terrible. An alternator is one of the easiest things to do too. The majority of the price should be just the part.

 
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