Well it's like this - you can call it "incentive pricing"...getting paid on time and regularly is absolutely a value. Late Debt creates cash flow problems, and if clients are "slow pay" meaning they take as long as 3 months to pay - this creates a financial hardship...thus they are charged more.

Hospitals are like my business, an "unsecured creditor" - and unsecured creditors have significantly less chance of getting bad debt back if/when it comes down to not getting paid than secured debtors like Radio Shack etc. who sells their "loans" to a financial institutions.

So were you under the same impression I was?, that it is the uninsureds that are charged more and not the reverse?

__________________
...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

Hey your right!...OK then the hospital has it backwards....course the matrix of their finances are unique to the average business...their bad debt is substantially higher than most everyone else....course their profit margins are also.

I, too, have the "rolls royce" plan but found out years ago that prices were different because I had elective surgery that wasn't covered by my insurance and needed pre-op blood work so I paid for it myself. I knew in advance the approximate cost since I'd had the same blood work in the past and was very surprised that not only was it cheaper with self-pay but I also got a discount for paying in full the same day.
I think that insurance companies should re-negotiate their prices and then pass the savings down to the insured in the form of lower premiums!!!

__________________


"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

I'm surprised at some of these stories.

I know my plan positively rapes the lab on bloodwork. I have a test done regularly that the lab bills ~200.00 for.

My plan pays them less than 8 dollars.

I pay them nothing.

Matt

__________________
De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

They taking apps where you work? You too Impugn.

__________________
Mr. Obama, please release the UFO files!

Insurance is the biggest financial liabilty that I face. Between the cars, the RV, the real estate, and the health care ins, etc, the total is staggering!
And the great thing is that much of it is mandated.

__________________
Mr. Obama, please release the UFO files!

I hear ya!

But health insurance is in a class of its own. It's nothing like all the other insurance you carry. This is one of my biggest beefs with all the presidential candidates except Edwards. They know what I know, they're just afraid to say it. We need to do away with health insurance rather than mandate it. (Grrrrrr...like Obama and Clinton are pushing).

Rant:
Basic health care is a necessity for a productive economy. No moral judgment necessary here. Tax away and make it happen.

Health INSURANCE, if it were adopted as part of some hybrid system, should be for catastrophic events - just like all other insurance. Colds and flu, aches and pains, immunizations, birth control and erectile disfunction, and child birth are ordinary relatively predictable and usually minor events, (no loss of life, limb or job), which folks ought to be able to afford anyway.
Insurance is to protect you in the event of some huge unforeseen disaster (like my Crohn's diagnosis and my husbands heart condition ).
If health insurance were treated like regular insurance, we'd be able to afford it.
If health insurance is used to pay for every sniffle, you are paying some middle man to process paperwork and pressure the doctors to treat you the cheapest way possible...not the best. And no one cares how much it costs if its covered by "insurance". Right? All of this adds to the expense of health care - not just health insurance.

I pay over a grand a month for COBRA and when its gone...I'm fucked. There is not an insurance company in the entire country that would take either myself or my husband. My doctor knows this and it weighs in every treatment decision including running very serious risks of chemotherapy while I'm insured even if it might be a premature risk. I postponed it once before. I'd like to try one more option but I'm out of time.

So, I did not represent myself completely honestly but it was out of respect for Chassis. I have recently spent a great deal of time pricing labs and hospitals, (it is an outpatient procedure I'll repeat over and over and closely monitor via regular blood work at the lab), both under COBRA (United HealthCare), and uninsured. I have not seen an instance when the price to uninsureds is actually less than the price charged to UHC.
**Note**If UHC is your insurance company, you can logon and find out exactly how much is charged for particular procedures and drugs - they're trying to encourage people to shop I guess.

Thus, I start in 11 days. I'll get as much as I can before the insurance runs out. Then, I guess I'll wait until I have to go to the emergency room and have my intestines removed...and YOU will pay the bill.

Thats pretty much how it works.

__________________
...the government...is caving in...with their specious arguments couched in the...language of civil rights law, and that the churches ... likewise crumbling to...rhetoric which is nothing but heretical sophistry -- ~F Phelps
Platitudes like the one you offer are no different - and no less incorrect - than the jackass part-time Christian who says, "I'm going to heaven because I'm nice to people." It so misses the point.~Impugn

Basically, this is price discrimination. Third degree, to be precise. Companies do it all the time, and not just with health care.

__________________
If a neocon whines about big government wealth redistribution, just ask him what he thinks about the portion of that big government that sends aid to Israel.

I need a MRI for my shoulder and was told it'll cost my insurance $1500.00 if they pay for it vs $500.00 if I pay for it. I'm almost tempted to contact my insurance Co. and tell them I'll pay for it if you send me a check for $800.00.

__________________
“It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy."
Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers