Why An MRI Costs More In The US?

Italy isn't a perfect example because their rate is on the high end, even for the EU. Many other countries have an universal care system with lower taxes. When all the taxes we pay(federal, state, local, etc.) is added up, our tax rate can be more than those countries.

 

Why do some people happily accept paying insurance premiums to cover their house or car, but are completely irrational when the topic is health insurance? It's the same thing.

 

^WADR...
It' really not the "same thing" at all.

I pay insurance premiums to cover my house. (We'll set aside the "happily" for now)
However (comma!) When it comes time to do upkeep or repairs to my house such as a new roof, or some paint, or replacing worn flooring, etc. I do not demand that my insurance company pay for this upkeep.
Same with my cars.
Yes I have insurance.
But I still pay for my oil changes, wiper blades, tires, brakes, and If I have a claim for an accident or damage under comp and collision I have to pay a deductable.

People's expectations with health insurance is a little different. If my car insurance were held to the same standards, the lizard would be paying for everything but gas!
Also....There's no law that says that I have to buy insurance for my car (yet.) I do have to buy liability insurance if I want to drive on public roads, but there's an "opt out" for this.....
Public Transportation.
Similarly....I don't have to buy any insurance for my home, unless "my" home isn't really mine, but belongs to some bank---and even then there's no law that says that I have to purchase this product. There's an applicable "opt-out" here as well.
It's called renting.

Regardless of how you feel about health care in the US, you can't compare property insurance with health insurance.
It's two different things entirely.
All of the arguments (for and against) about health care that deal with money and statistics are just as ridiculous. You can't compare the cost for a service here versus the service there, because nobody on either side of the argument is willing to express their point using real dollars (or Euros) even if you could accurately determine the "real" cost for an MRI.
I had a kidney stone six years ago which necessitated an MRI. Frankly....I would have paid whatever they wanted for it until they doped me up, and then I really didn't care if they gave me one at all.
OK.....so "my" MRI costs me $20.
Coincidently...there was a person a half hour ahead of me that actually had two stones. (bummer! )
He paid $0-because of the little (actually, it's not so little) sign in the emergency room that says:
"Thou SHALT be treated regardless of thy ability to pay!"
So...what's an MRI cost?
Depends on who you ask.

Me: $20 plus a portion of my annual insurance payments.
"That guy": $0. He didn't have an ID, and I doubt that they were very worried about getting his financial particulars.
A Conservative: A lot less than the EU, with their tax burdens and the impact that their massive debt loading is having/going to have on the world economy.
A Liberal: MUCH more than they should. Twice (or other notional number) what everybody else is paying.
Communists: What the hell is an MRI?

Frankly.....I think health care needs to be fixed, but I'm a little dubious about my beloved government's ability to tote that load. The last thing I want in the world is health care with the same speed and efficiency as that which is displayed at the local tax assessor’s office---or at the local licensing branch.
Also......I'm a little leery of the changes that a government mandated health care system would have on my beloved country.
EVERYTHING is health care related.
Helmet laws? Forget it. You're a ward of the state, so you WILL wear one.
How do you like your steak?---oh wait. Never mind!!! Steaks are BAD for you. Suck it up and eat some tofu---WELL DONE!!!
During EVEN years...when real butter and coffee are good for you, they will be mandated. During ODD years, when the idiot scientists think that real butter and/or coffee are bad for you, they'll be banned. Decaf and margarine for you!!!
School Lunch Program?
Mandated. It will be easier getting a Glock on board an airplane than a brown bag lunch into a school. It's a health care issue!
Get caught with a Twinkie...and Child Protective Services will be at your house like a hobo on a ham sandwich!!!
I think you get the point.
AND...we haven't even touched on the subject of how we're going to pay for it without becoming Spain or Italy (two of the nations cited earlier...)

Fix health care?
Sure....just please don't try to tell me that the sun will shine a little brighter and the birds will sing more sweetly if we let the government do it.
I've seen that movie.

VERY SORRY for the long winded post!

 

Read sig, look at avatar, follow instructions. Nothing personal. :yo:

 

Well then who were you going to have a rational discussion about preventive healthcare? The insurance company? ound: The individuals? ound: Sorry I'm just sick and tired of American's, of all people, saying we have to have this done or that done for us. For crying out loud, there is so much we can do ourselves rather than having to pay some government, insurance committee, focus group or whatever to sit around and talk about it. Preventive healthcare is one of them, it ain't rocket science! Get out in the fresh air, get some exercise, eat the right food, don't smoke, and do most things in moderation. No one needs to talk you into it, just Get'er done!

Why in the hell do we need to waste time and money discussing it in focus groups, forming committees, instituting programs spending and wasting money? If it isn't already apparent by the time a certain level of maturity is attained that an individual should take care of themselves then it's TOO LATE! Why does anyone think that endlessly discussing a problem and then throwing money at it is effective? It ISN'T, PERIOD!

 

Now if'n I'm reading you correctly that's old school, Scoop Jackson, JFK and Daniel Patrick Moynihan Liberal Democrat talking right there! :thumb:

Free home and auto, that's next on the agenda . . .

 

Not you certainly: as you're still not getting past your own diatribes of "taking care of oneself". Everyone else has been talking about healthcare costs.

 

Those were your words, and there is a cost to preventive health care.

 

You're not comparing the total costs of the scans though. It would be better to compare the actual costs billed to your insurance. My mom gets regular MRIs to appraise her MS, and my grandmother gets MRIs to gauge her Alzheimer's. On average, the total bill (that's covered X % by insurance) is $1600 in NC.

Magnetic resonance imaging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MRI Cost and Pricing Information

 

And it's not as much as specialized care.

 

Irrelevant to my point, since as I made clear, I was in the private, non-subsidized sector. All Spaniards have access to free health care paid for by the government. There is also a parallel health-care system that is private and not subsidized. As a foreigner I was not eligible (or at least assumed I was not) for the government system.

It is their private pay-if-you-want-it system that was about a third of what I have to pay here, even with insurance here.

We have top-notch health care here, if you can afford the insurance and deductibles, but it is delivered so inefficiently that it costs three times what it should.

Somewhat off topic, I had a different experience when I decided to visit Kenya while I was living in Spain. You need a shot for yellow fever to visit Kenya (or actually, to return from there). But in Spain, only the government has those shots available. I was not eligible for the free shot, so I offered to pay, but the bureaucracy had no provision to collect payment. It was a catch 22. Not eligible for the free shot, but the shots were not available for pay. After a lot of hassle, I finally found someone willing to let me have the shot for a fee. Maybe he just pocketed the money. I didn't care as long as I got the shot. Spain invented the bureaucracy for which Latin America is infamous.

 

True...but what did the MRI cost the uninsured/poor person who got resonated before I had my scan?
According to a friend who worked at the hospital.....nothing.

My four or five points were very simple. I just took the long way around the bush to develop them. Unlike most others...I don't cut/copy/paste the opinions of others. I like to express my own thoughts.
You're (still) free to discuss/debate/lob insults as you see fit. Like yours and others, opinions herein will either stand or fall under the weight of their own merit.

My main points were/are:
1. Health care insurance is in no way comparable to automobile insurance....I wish it were. Synthetic oil is expensive!
2. The US Government has neither the ability nor the authority (at present) to "fix" health care. Economics and raw ability will cover the former, and a non-partisan reading of the USC will cover the latter. YMMV.
3.Most people in the United States would not like it very much if the government tried. Like public transportation...in most parts of the US things work a little differently than they do on the Continent. People in the US tend to eschew bloated, authoritarian government. Look at some of the traffic enforcement laws, public camera usage, "Freedom" of the press laws, private property laws, and re-read (or read) the USC (as amended) and do a quick stare and compare..... their system may (or may not!) be "better" than ours...but it is different!
You're going to have to heavily edit daffy little things like the USC to square the two up.
4. NOBODY can accurately determine how much an MRI costs in the US, since you have to contend with the uninsured (zero's really screw with averages!) advertising costs, tort costs, malpractice costs, and on....and on.

That's about it in a nutshell......besides one other little nit that I have to pick with socialized health care....How are Spain and Italy doing financially?

That grass suuuuuuuure does look green from over here!!!
Like others.....I've been over there!
Great places to visit! Not so sure I'd want to try to buy five acres and become an ex-pat though......YMMV (as always!)

 

OK, how about German healthcare or even Australian healthcare. They're free to the most part and are worldclass and the Countries are doing OK, so the indication that only financially frivolous Countries have free health care is not true.

I'm not sure I'd ever want to be an ex-pat in the USA where I'd have to find $1000 a month or more for health care and could die of an easily treatable condition just because I couldn't afford treatment. I get good, free provision here and if I want a HD tv in my room or jump the queue for a non lifethreatening condition I go private either through extra insurance or pay for it up front. Many private hospitals do an all upfront price so you have no hidden costs later.

I also know that Countries with free health care usually offer it to citizens of reciprical Countries for free too. If I visit Australia I can use their health system as one of their own knowing my Country will pick up the tab and vice versa. I had free medical treatment at a Spanish hospital about 10 years ago and just handed over my UK card and that was it.

Much more civilised way of doing things.

 

Many schemes now won't be paying for Lipitor, they'll only pay for Atorvastatin.

I know the Maine state health insurance pays for gym memberships as part as a wellness "contract" the employees can use to reduce their insurance contributions. It seems to be a trend.

My insurance pays for wellness stuff with 0 copay.

 

Depends on how the patient was admitted. Especially with services like a MRI, it's more then often not that an uninsured patient has to pay for those "nonemergancy" services.

Physician Response to Patient Insurance Status in Ambulatory... : Medical Care

al.com: Special Report

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=4&cts=1331345164724&ved=0CD0QFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.passavanthospital.com%2F_data%2Ffiles%2FHospitalChargesExplained12803.pdf&ei=rbZaT-SLD4aatwfB-u2lCQ&usg=AFQjCNH4am1eQpEhKe2HwixOi6Na1m-SNg

Hospitals that participate with EMTLA have to accept any patient for emergency services. Most hospitals still prioritize services based on insurance, though.

I think Asian countries are actually better systems to look at. Japan has lower taxes and lower private healthcare costs due to regulation. I don't know about Italy or Spain: I have relatives in Austria. There, the hidden costs seem to be whether it's universal healthcare coverage or private services. When my aunt had her thyroid byopsied, she found the advantages of being able to pay for private care. With their universal coverage, she would have to go to a predetermined doctor (not necessarily one experienced with this type of oncology). She had more flexibility in getting appointments with recognized oncologists if she also paid privately.

I only insult those posters that are stuck at that particular maturity level Looks like we might have some differences in opinion over what might be the best way to moderate healthcare costs, but we are in agreement that it's a complex issue.

 

Granted, but why do we have to waste money and time on something that humans have been doing and has been second nature for thousands of years?

 

So we shouldn't reform our health care system because gas prices are higher in Germany. Wow. Just... wow.

 

You really do need to stop reading so many blogs, and read some actual books sometime. It's as if you're unaware of any of the epidemics that happened throughout history (and are still occuring).

 

How does this relate to anything we've been talking about?

 

If you don't know the fallacy with this statement, or my reference to history, then you really should start educating yourself.