The free market is the only solution. Until your local clinic offers a weekly special on yearly exams, and you find a chart online with the price (IN FULL) of every procedure they offer, nothing will change. When my son was born I had no health insurance. We chose to have a home birth, both because my wife (justifiably) fears doctors and the ever ready needle of juice, and the cost. So as my son was approaching, the midwife became concerend. She thought she heard two heartbeats, and for a home birth this is not good. Most midwives will only deliver twins for Amish families (because they refuse to go to the doctor anyway), and often loose one.
So we bundled up and went to the local hospital for an ultra sound. An hour later we had one confirmed baby, and a bill for $125. Not too bad, I decided. Three weeks later as my wife was happily nursing our boy, another bill for $75 comes in the mail. “Post-insurance adjustment” was the description. They compared that months billing to insurance companies and decided the actual cost of the ultra sound was $200. Another month, and a FINAL, FINAL bill for another $50. This was ‘medicaid adjustment’, or subsidizing the medicaid unpaid portion from all the moochers. By this point I was not only shooting blood from my eyes, but I’d transformed forever from a republican to a libertarian.
Fix it? Only one thing will “WORK”! If the government gets involved, I quit. Read my blog. Who is John Galt?
