Part of the healthcare problem.

That billing is a bunch of bull, the labs already have a negotiated price w ith the insurance company and it's the allowed amount. That's something the government needs to crack down on, and hard. The dammed swine paper pusher s are going to milk the system for all it's worth in the meantime. You have heartburn with government regulation? Blame the scum-of-the-earth thieves in the industry, not the government.

A long time ago in Louisiana, I drove to a lab and got something like a couple dozen standard screening tests--blood panel, liver, kidney, ekg, hearing test, and other general baseline health stuff. They gave me a handy photo ID with a microfilm of all my norms, plus a hardcopy.

It was $100 cash, give or take. The prices were on a billboard when you came in.

In California that'd be illegal. You'd need a doctor's Rx, and the lab isn't allowed to give you your own results. So, a doctor visits to get the Rx, then another to get your results, on top of passing your tests through several layers of delay and middlemen.

with the insurance company and it's the allowed amount. That's something t he government needs to crack down on, and hard. The dammed swine paper push ers are going to milk the system for all it's worth in the meantime. You ha ve heartburn with government regulation? Blame the scum-of-the-earth thieve s in the industry, not the government.

The government built that.

Obamacarp makes it worse.

Cheers, James Arthur

ote:

sn't allowed to give you your own results. So, a doctor visits to get the Rx, then another to get your results, on top of passing your tests thr ough several layers of delay and middlemen.

ce with the insurance company and it's the allowed amount. That's something the government needs to crack down on, and hard. The dammed swine paper pu shers are going to milk the system for all it's worth in the meantime. You have heartburn with government regulation? Blame the scum-of-the-earth thie ves in the industry, not the government.

No. The industry and the medical profession (since the doctors often own th e labs) built that.

Government merely rubber-stamped it, as it tends to do in the US and has do ne since the founding tax evaders set up a constitution that allowed the pe ople who owned the country to run the country, behind a facade of democracy .

Probably not, but James Arthur's brain has been programmed to testify other wise. I originally wrote "think" otherwise, but what James does isn't thinking.

The existance of insurance companies drove those prices up to begin with.

You got that right. People are always thinking about the insurance company ripping them off, they have no idea how much fraud is perpetrated against t he insurance companies in every industry. Take a gander at auto insurance r ates in places like Ontario, Canada, it is OUTRAGEOUS and all due to insura nce fraud there.

Prices go up due to fraud by what 10-25%?

The EXISTANCE of insurance over the years caused medical costs to skyrocket, because:

1. doctors were happy getting more money
2. insurance companies were happy [they get to charge twice what they can show the payout will be]
3. people were happy they had insurance, thinking they were getting something for nothing/very little.

so all the main players were happy and prices skyrocketed. and any complaints from the 'non-insured' were then minimalized as coming from irresponsible people and ignored.

de facto example: medical vs veterinarian costs, although same educational requirements insurance in medical == high costs little insurance in vet == still high but mainly inflation

Try 45% higher than other provinces...

rice with the insurance company and it's the allowed amount. That's somethi ng the government needs to crack down on, and hard. The dammed swine paper pushers are going to milk the system for all it's worth in the meantime. Yo u have heartburn with government regulation? Blame the scum-of-the-earth th ieves in the industry, not the government.

the labs) built that.

The medical profession passed the laws that make one thing legal in Louisiana, and illegal in California? No, that's actually your crew in action in California. Socialists, saving the world. Or at least spending a lot of other people's money and having a whale of a time.

done since the founding tax evaders set up a constitution that allowed the people who owned the country to run the country, behind a facade of democra cy.

Ah, same old make-believe.

Obamacare has healthcare stocks rocketing. That means the stock market expects medical spending, prices, and profits (to select cronies) to soar.

Thanks for your usual, highly informative uninformed testimony.

Cheers, James Arthur

price with the insurance company and it's the allowed amount. That's somet hing the government needs to crack down on, and hard. The dammed swine pape r pushers are going to milk the system for all it's worth in the meantime. You have heartburn with government regulation? Blame the scum-of-the-earth thieves in the industry, not the government.

n the labs) built that.

Not exactly. They lobbied the politicians to pass the laws. The lobbying pr ocess is not entirely predictable from state to state.

That's your universal explanation. Quite where you'd find a socialist in Ca lifornia escapes me - Americans see so few socialists that they can confuse them with communists. It does save you from spelling out what actually did happen in California that was different from what happened in Louisiana.

s done since the founding tax evaders set up a constitution that allowed th e people who owned the country to run the country, behind a facade of democ racy.

It's not what you believe, but since you can believe six impossible things before breakfast, as is required of any Tea Party supporter, you beliefs ar e of no consequence.

Obamacare was negotiated with the medical insurance industry. That is the US government - by the people who own the country - in action.

The insurance industry was liberally compensated for the scrapping of some of their more inequitable tricks for short-changing their customers.

By "uninformed" you mean "not informed by James Arthur's political prejudic es".

g.

He does make the knee-jerk nature of his responses a bit obvious.

For years I had the payment schedule that my parents paid the doctor for my birth. No insurance for them back in "55". Mikek

Did not understand. Did you mean: same schedule of 'costs', or did you mean: you had to continue making payments to your doctor for your birth?

I'm old enough to remember 'house calls' always marveled at how some guy in a three piece suit, wearing a shiny stethoscope dangling about his neck, used to show up at our home from time to time. Also, remembered how he had perfected the art of musing, "Hmmmm." but NEVER said anything. Later, I found that feature in all doctors I encountered. It's like that became part of medical training.