People without insurance

[Sirrahsim]

This whole insurance thing is just crazy! When I lived overseas I got all of my medical care on base so I had no idea what civilian clinics charged! Now that I am in the states I am seeing a civilian OB and am SHOCKED at the amounts they are trying to charge my "insurance company". With one particular bill, the clinic billed them over $700 for some blood tests. I was even more surprised when my company payed them less than $200 of that and "disallowed" the rest. My doc isn't allowed to charge me a penny over what Tricare gives them but is perfectly fine with that. It makes me wonder how much the tests actually cost the clinic to perform if they don't mind a $500 mark off?!?!

[sparks19]

This whole insurance thing is just crazy! When I lived overseas I got all of my medical care on base so I had no idea what civilian clinics charged! Now that I am in the states I am seeing a civilian OB and am SHOCKED at the amounts they are trying to charge my "insurance company". With one particular bill, the clinic billed them over $700 for some blood tests. I was even more surprised when my company payed them less than $200 of that and "disallowed" the rest. My doc isn't allowed to charge me a penny over what Tricare gives them but is perfectly fine with that. It makes me wonder how much the tests actually cost the clinic to perform if they don't mind a $500 mark off?!?!

It would be interesting to see how much the tests would have cost if you were paying cash for them instead of through insurance.

I had to have 6 blood tests after one of my OBGYN appts. They had a price book and they had price for insurance and price for cash. It was going to cost over $500 if we had insurance.... but we were paying cash.... it cost us $140. What a difference.

[wombat2u2004]

It would be interesting to see how much the tests would have cost if you were paying cash for them instead of through insurance.

I had to have 6 blood tests after one of my OBGYN appts. They had a price book and they had price for insurance and price for cash. It was going to cost over $500 if we had insurance.... but we were paying cash.... it cost us $140. What a difference.

Oh yeah....everybody loves insurance companies....lol.
I think the doctors do that here to.
But everyone I know who deals with insurance companies always charge them a higher price. And so do I.....if I do building work or consultancy reports for them, the price is DOUBLE what I would charge a householder.
And I think the insurance companies are very aware of that....after all....by their very own admittance (I know many underwriters).....they charge out their premiums to make HUGE profits.

[sparks19]

Oh yeah....everybody loves insurance companies....lol.
I think the doctors do that here to.
But everyone I know who deals with insurance companies always charge them a higher price. And so do I.....if I do building work or consultancy reports for them, the price is DOUBLE what I would charge a householder.
And I think the insurance companies are very aware of that....after all....by their very own admittance (I know many underwriters).....they charge out their premiums to make HUGE profits.

LOL Oh Iknow they are aware of it... sneaky buggers. But I have to be honest.... I had no idea until I had this series of bloodtests and saw what the difference in price was.

[petslover]

I don't have any insurance. I don't take my medicines like I should because I can't afford them and I don't go to the doctor very much unless I am very sick.

It sucks. I can't wait till I get out of school and get a full-time job with benefits..

It is very hard living without insurance.

[columbine]

The last time I went for a routine physical, my NP saw me at the front desk paying for it with a blank check my mother had sent me, looked at the bill, and crossed out a couple of "errors." My doctor's a total nothing, a harried family practitioner who doesn't find anybody but mothers and young children interesting and doesn't know me from Eve - but I stay with her because I love my NP! When I went to have what I thought might be a deer tick bite checked, he asked if I knew what a deer tick looked like, and when I said no, he showed me one scotch taped to a sheet of paper, and explained that Lyme disease is really pretty rare, and that my lesion looked nothing like a tick bite anyway.

Love, Colujmbine