Tag: healthcare costs

Is healthcare in the USA expensive? American’s borrowed 88 billion last year to pay their medical tab.

Posted on by bill
Is healthcare in the USA expensive? American’s borrowed 88 billion last year to pay their medical tab. According to USA today, Americans paid 88 billion last year to pay their medical bills. According to Gallop who is known in the USA for their polling Americans on different subjects, Americans borrowed 88 billion dollars to pay their medical bills. The total cost for medical care in the USA was $3.7 trillion nationwide, which translates to $10,739 per person.  These numbers are insane. Most Americans are aware that a major health event can bankrupt them.   Imagine working your whole life and having Read More »

Canada’s healthcare system may teach us about how to make healthcare affordable for all of us.

Posted on by bill
Canada’s healthcare system may teach us about how to make healthcare affordable for all of us. The discussion behind Medicare for all is growing louder, as our current system of private insurers and high administrative costs is failing us. Most doctors offices spend hours on the phone wondering why they weren’t paid, or getting a precertification for services that they believed were medically necessary. In the USA, many countries are ahead of the USA with health benchmarks, while we spend more than anyone.  “In 2014, Canada spent 10.45 percent of its national GDP on healthcare. The United State’s expenditure was Read More »

A new drug pricing model from CMS may force manufacturers to compete with pricing from other countries.

Posted on by bill
  A new drug pricing model from CMS may force manufacturers to compete with pricing from other countries. Sick of high drug prices?  Health insurers have made higher priced drugs more affordable to consumers by patients coupons to reduce their copayments while the insurers paid high prices for both brand name and generic drugs that have been rebranded with slight formulation changes. As they always do, health insurers pass the cost on to us and earn more by charging higher premiums the following year. In a capitalistic society, if you increase demand, prices will increase.  This is true of drug prices.   Doctors write too Read More »

Inside the medication mill; What is wrong with healthcare in Florida?

Posted on by bill
  Inside the medication mill; What is wrong with healthcare in Florida? The last few months had been surreal with the loss of my dad who passed away just after his 93rd birthday.   Some of his health problems were from good intentions gone bad.  Incontinence appeared years later after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and after a second opinion from Sloan Kettering. He was offered the  treatment option of radiation treatments that were considered safe and had few side effects when compared to surgery. Years later, these patients often became fully incontinent; an unwelcome surprise for an active aging adult man in his Read More »

NJ healthcare costs rise again, so where does all the money go?

Posted on by bill
NJ healthcare costs rise again, so where does all the money go? Most healthcare providers on the front lines such as internists, chiropractors and pediatricians have been accustomed to insurers doing things to further decrease their reimbursements and their roles in healthcare, which reduced cost. Recently, a friend of mine who is a local Doctor of Osteopathy was talking about how United set their fee schedule so low that he would only allow his PA to see these patients.  He also told me about how they stopped paying him for two months because they said he was removed from their Read More »