When health insurance isn't enough

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

new studies suggest that coverage doesn't protect americans from going bankrupt over medical costs

while the contest for the 2012 republican presidential nomination is already revolving around conservative-themed attacks on "obamacare," back when the healthcare bill was being legislated, the most important debate was within the democratic party, which held large majorities in both houses of congress. on one side were the drug companies, the insurance companies and president obama -- the latter who had not only disowned his prior support of single-payer healthcare but had also worked with his corporate allies to actively undermine a modest public insurance option. on the other side were progressives who opposed any bill which further cemented the private insurance industry as the primary mediator between doctors and patients.

ultimately, obama and his corporate-backed allies organized enough conservative democrats in congress to win, effectively turning healthcare "reform" into a blank-check tarp-style bailout for the health industry.

but, of course, to even whisper that last truism is to now run the risk of being labeled a blasphemer in a conversation that can only tolerate misleading red-versus-blue analyses.

in today's national political debate, there are republicans who insist "obamacare" is a canadian-style "takeover" of america's healthcare system, and there are democrats who insist that the health bill is a major medicare-like achievement -- any other argument, no matter how valid, has been vaporized by election-season pressure to fall in ideological line....

... going beneath the superficial rhetoric about health insurance and to the reality of actual health care and health costs, the study published by the american journal of public health found:

health insurance is not protecting arizonans from having problems paying medical bills, and having bill problems is keeping families from getting needed medical care and prescription medicines, a new study has found...

http://www.salon.com/news/david_sirota/2011/07/06/health_insurance_problem/

[Persephone001]

What a mess, I don't even know where to start. Other countries seem to have no problem having universal healthcare, the doctors and nurses seem happy, people are healthy...but from what I understand Obamacare is really nothing like that and seems to me it will only make things worse by forcing people and businesses to buy insurance that they may or may not be able to afford and basically giving a lot of control to insurance corporations.

There is so much information being put out there and half of it doesn't make any sense to a layperson...

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

Hasn't this been common knowledge for a while?

[Mijourney]

This is what happens when you turn something personal and supposedly unique like health care into big business. I recently read a blog about costs for medical services not being transparent. You can ask your practitioner about what it would cost for a procedure and they can't tell you because the final costs are determined by the insurance companies. However, your practitioner bills for much more than what is paid out by insurance which is based by and large on the Medicare fee schedule. I wonder if there was no standard fee schedule, what would we be charged by the practitioner? On that note, does anyone have the inside scoop on concierge medicine? What fees are charged for office visits and procedures? Are the fees enormously greater than what insurance companies pay the practitioners? Is concierge medicine a better alternative to health insurance?