We have used major goals in the past year as motivation to stay healthy. It's so easy not to work out, not to eat healthy. Having a goal to strive for helps to keep us on track.
Lately another motivating factor has made a big impression on us: the cost of health care. We have been pretty fortunate up to this point to avoid many expensive medical bills. Now, being in our 50's, we're aware that more health related issues could happen.
The end of July, Papa had a brief encounter with a table saw. This brief split second slip ended up with 11 hours in two hospitals, an ambulance ride, x-rays, medicine, surgery (anesthesiologist and hand surgeon) all together costing just over $23,000 (so far).
As these bills roll in, a couple things strike me. (1) As the insurance company pays these bills, sometimes only 50-60% of the bill is paid and the remainder is "settled" between the medical service and insurance company resulting, thankfully, in zero due from us and (2) how do people with poor or no insurance survive?
We are fortunate that Papa has good insurance so we anticipate that will end up with about $2-3,000 to pay. If it were my insurance, which is an high-deductible HSA plan, it would have been closer to $6-7,500. Without insurance, the whole bill would be due. Interesting that the full bill would be due, though, when the insurance company isn't paying 100% and, yet, the hospital/doctors are settling for a percentage of the bill.
Also, the hand surgeon, which is specialized I will admit, but the surgery took just 30 minutes and the bill was nearly $11,000.
The huge discrepancies in salaries paid in this country confound me. The inconsistencies of how people are treated due to the money/power at their disposal saddens me.
The outrageous cost of medical care motivates me to keep at eating healthy and working out. We simply cannot afford the cost of health care at these inflated prices.
It makes me wonder if the hospitals and doctors have to accept what they are paid by the insurances and we only have to pay 15% - 20% of the contract price, why don't they charge the contracted price up front? Wouldn't that lowers are health costs? I had the same dilemmna (sp) when I had my L knee replaced. It started out $23,000; but with my 2 insurances that I had at the time, I didn't even pay out 1% of that. The insurances only allowed $14,000. Does that make sense? Not to me. I am willing to try something new so that this is why I agree with Obama Healthcare. We had to change something -- status quo was not cutting it.
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