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deltaoneseven | 3 years ago
Maybe the above is a bad analogy. Put it this way.
I've been to hospitals outside of the US and paid for x-ray services. That's how I know. That's how Everyone knows ...
69k a crime.
What I don't understand is why there exists someone defending something so obvious. Are you an X-ray operator?
dekhn|3 years ago
What you are describing is what your out of pocket expenses were. That's completely different from "what an x-ray costs". For example, if your expenses were lower than it cost the x-ray provider, they had to have some extra credit from- say- a health care org or the government. Where did the government get that money... well, taxes, of course! That money you paid to them (if you had to pay taxes) eventually gets converted into paying doctor and X-ray tech salaries, the cozy office for the hospital administrator, electrical companies, x-ray companies, etc (x-ray machines cost $5-10M to install and over a million a year to operate).
The way to think about this is the "all-in" cost: if you could somehow magically see the bills the hospital pays you'd see that out of pocket payments are only a fraction of the total costs of a service.
(I am not arguing that $69K is a reasonable expense for a routine x-ray. It's just that most people don't pay that, and in this case, nobody did- the health care org paid a different amount entirely, which was negotiated between the health care company and the service provider).
deltaoneseven|3 years ago
That's the key word. "In America," and nowhere else on the face of the entire earth. You are one component of a criminally corrupt system. By being a component, you are shielded from full responsibility. It's like being a shareholder of a corrupt company. Same thing.
>if you haven't done that, I'm not sure you have the experience to say how much an x-ray should cost.
>I am not arguing that $69K is a reasonable expense for a routine x-ray.
Don't try to change the topic. You were saying that I am not justified to know how much an x-ray should cost. I'm saying I am justified, and that YOU are the beneficiary of said high costs and THEREFORE YOU are actually unqualified to justify ANYTHING related to this.
Let's say the cost is 5k. It's still a criminal rip off. Also who is making up that BS number 69k? Which industry is making up that number and for what insidious purpose? I'll tell you the answer. Your industry: The American medical industry. You.
Don't come on this site and tell me I'm not justified in saying something is a complete rip off when you're part of the industry taking advantage of peoples lives.
leshow|3 years ago
Except people do, right? The video said that if you are uninsured in America, that is what you would get charged.