Half of all the children in Hawaii are now on Medicaid, new figures show.

[AaronM]

The Healthcare Industry includes the Insurance Companies.

[kalakoa]

Insurance is not healthcare. Does insurance heal a broken bone? Does not having insurance mean you can't see a doctor?

At one point I was flying to the mainland and paying cash because seeing my doctor that way was cheaper than getting insurance here. This arrangement strongly suggests that the system is badly broken.

[eightfingers2.0]

Insurance exists to make a profit. That is it, nothing more.

Once you realize that, you can employ strategies to deal with it.

[AaronM]

The health care providers and the health insurance providers are close bedfellows and some are even one in the same.

Kaiser and Blue Cross are 2 good examples of Health Insurance companies who are also Health Care providers.

[malahini]

[quote pid='332652' dateline='1633903209']
Make no mistake: the problem is insurance, not "healthcare".

If the insurance industry was the only problem, you could avoid that by just paying cash.  Instead, you get charged more if you pay yourself than your insurance pays if you're covered.

When I lived in Europe, regular doctor visits weren't covered, but they only cost $50 to pay out of pocket, compared to $250 here.  The entire health industry in this country, from the providers to the insurers to pharma to, yes, the doctors and patients, is rotten.

Have you ever considered how much the insurance company is *actually* paying the doctor? In many cases the cash price is actually *much lower* than what most insurance companies actually pay for this.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021...rices.html <-- Multiple examples of how cash prices are lower.

Are the doctors really rotten? Really? I will agree that they are a cartel, but I think people are especially whiny when it comes to having to pay anything for a doctor. It is highly skilled labor... That said $250 would be a lot for a doctor, I've never ever paid cash that much for one. The most I've paid is between $50-100 w/o insurance.