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The Economist had an interesting article on health care last week. I will try to look it up for you, if it is online. My biggest concern is the lack of transparency in fees. On a recent trip to the dentist, I was first quoted $130, but somehow the fee ended up being $200. I asked what changed and was told, "I don't know why anyone would have said $130." So I asked for a fee sheet so that I could plan for the next visit, and I got, "He doesn't like for us to give out that information." That happens everywhere in healthcare. It is the one and only situation in which Americans regularly and happily write blank checks. Heck, I didn't care, either, until we ended up in an HSA plan. The out-of-pocket aspect leads me to pay more attention. I would love, love, love to see clinics and dental offices with a nice, clear list of fees right at the front desk. Why can't we have that?

The Oz 'single payer' system or 'socia1ised medicine' which is similar to Canada's of course also has an intermediary, but the govt simply pays up to 100% of most common procedures out of tax dollars (originally pegged at 85% back in 1975). It's not just for old people like US Medicare but everybody. Nobody is too upset about this system. I don't know if families back in the 50s just 'paid the doctor and everybody was happy' because it would have cost a lot, and a lot less illnesses could be treated successfully back then. A lot has changed in a few decades. At least Medicare can run queries on a national footing and find doctors overprescribing and overservicing and take them to task over it (as presumably can HMOs and other insurers, although I believe the health insurance system is an inferior one over the universal guarantee approach). Certain drs are hauled up to answer to the Health Insurance Commission if there is a pattern of overprescribing differing significantly from the average. Dentistry is still not covered in Oz under Medicare, only private health insurance, although noises are being made about including it. The British NHS includes many dental procedures. The Oz Medicare system is of course not-for-profit as a govt system, as is the NHS, and guarantees universal healthcare regardless of income -- this may be one of the main differences with the health insurance approach as the middleman -- ref 'Sicko'.

@EBAY guy By using www.redfin.com in combination with www.ziprealty.com and www.propertyshark.com, I can get a pretty good information on a property. However, it would be nice to have everything all in one spot.

Eliza, Excellent question! Recently I had a deviated septum corrected. I'd put it off for years ( at the risk of sleep apnea and all the baggage that comes along -with- it! ) as it had been deemed "unnecessary". After absolutely grilling the specialist's office on the -exact- amount of the out-of-pocket-cost I was given a figure of $200. I said are you sure..? Yes, we're sure. I called back 2 weeks before the procedure, are you sure? Then a week prior, are you sure? Three months after the surgery ( I'd waited at least 5 years to have done ) I got bills in the mail of over $2,000! BLAM! I'm right on the specialist's doorstep. WTF!? Uh... Low and behold, they'd -already- turned them over to collection agency, that's how I found out about it! I called the our state AG and told them this is total BS. They actually seemed a little shocked anyone had the brass to say anything? I said, look, had this been an auto mechanic or a dry cleaner or ME or anyone else you guys would be all over them like a gorilla in a cheap suit! The explanations I'd rec'd from the clinic were flimsy at best and I'm still actively contesting them. All on my FICO of course. I guess since most people just fork over the cash they have to feign surprise when anyone raises the slightest objection. I went to the local dentist for a teeth cleaning ( once ) and I now get bills in my mailbox on a monthly basis! Once!

DinOR Says: > After absolutely grilling the specialist’s office on > the -exact- amount of the out-of-pocket-cost I > was given a figure of $200. > Three months after the surgery I got bills in the mail > of over $2,000! I went in to the dentist a few years back for a cleaning and they ended up giving me a full set of X Rays. A few months later I was told that the X Rays were not going to be covered by my insurance and I got a bill for about $1K. After I didn’t have any luck talking to the dentist and explaining that I should not have to pay for something that I did not ask for I took a photo of his building (he mentioned a few years back that he bought the building) and sent him (via Certified Mail) a “Brokers Opinion of Value” form with a bill for $1,000. He called me about the bill and I told him that I was ready to take a day off work and go to small claims court to collect if he did not pay my bill, but I would be happy to forget about the bill for something he did not ask for if he would forget about the bill he gave me for something I did not ask for (I got a letter telling me I did not have to pay for the X rays later that week)…

DinOR: Exactly, the 'how'd we get here' is important. Doctor prestige? It is important: I overheard a conversation the other day. A fellow somewhat younger than me was holding forth about having seen the trends in the late 70s, how Insurance Companies and Corporations and the Governement were taking over health care, so he and his contemporaries decided that instead of going into the formerly lucrative, prestigious medical field, they would go into finance instead (I wonder how many potential M.D.s wound up on Wall Street selling CDSs). I'm in Boston, and these were Harvard types, not a bunch of dummies. There are shortages of medical personnel now. The two *are* related. Prestige as a motivator is real. Whether we like it or not, or think it is deserved, it still drives people. Agreed that MONEY is the primary motivator now. And of course we haven't touched on the wave of Medical Malpractice suits that started in the late '70s which ran off more potential MDs. (Anticipating justme's defense of malpractice litigation, I'll say it doesn't matter if it is justified; it has the net effect of heavily increasing doc's expenses and questioning their *prestige*, and therefore knocking substantial numbers of good people out of choosing medicine as their profession, and finally utterly denying some areas health care. (Areas of Mississippi were devoid of OBs for a good while there b/c they were run out of business by outrageous local jury awards.)

And by the way, DinOR. I worked at MBNA for a year. We pretty much ignored medical debts/collections on credit reports. Even credit card companies are well aware of 1) what ass-hats they have doing medical billing/insurance etc. 2) that the person may not even be aware there is a collection outstanding on his Credit Report in the first place. *Nobody* else puts $10 fees (Co-Pays!!!) into collections! Hospitals do. Doctor's Offices do. Radiologists do. I've seen 'em on the reports. Almost *no one* is completely free of them.

FAB, Good for you! ( Actually I thought a comm. appraisal was more like 5-6K at a min. ) but I like the way you made the punishment fit the crime. I just wish I'd had that kind of leverage? I suppose the reason we're a little hyper-sensitive about it is when we sold our home to begin Misadventures In Bubble-Sitting, we cleaned-out-everything! When I was going through 'bales' of cancelled checks I noticed that not (1) month went by where we didn't have one for the local dentist? When I asked Mrs. D about it, she just said "He kept billing us so... I kept sending him a check!" Enough!

Lots of good anecdotes about the mechanics of health care since last afternoon. Great to hear about all the real-world experiences with pricing, etc. >>My biggest concern is the lack of transparency in fees. Eliza hit it right on the head. What is needed is price lists and list prices. After having seen some real medical bills, and what the insurance company actually paid, I can say in no uncertain terms that one of the biggest benefits of insurance are the pre-negotiated rates, which were just about 40% of what the doctor would otherwise bill. Think $4000 instead of $10000, for example. Negotiated rates would also apply under national health insurance but of course then it would be denounced as socialism ;-) (hope the new and improved spam filter still is ok).

MST, No offense was intended, but I prefer to make my own statements :-). That being said, the main reason for malpractice cases is (surprise) *malpractice*. Doctors have to fess up to the fact they are quite fallible, some of them a lot more than others, and stop being all huffy about it. The goal should be to prevent errors and omissions, but not to harp about them.

MST, Again, I can't thank you enough! It makes no sense whatsoever to engage in a debate about HC by starting with the (current) debacle and working your way backwards? When you have rampant abuses the caliber of which FAB and Eliza describe above, there's nothing 'to' salvage. Sometimes you just have to scrap things and start over? The reason this topic keeps cropping up here as well as other bubble blogs is b/c it's the same brand of abusive realtionship we've tolerated for years from the REIC.

DinOR, I have a feeling that it is always more risky, billing-wise, to go to a specialist that is the "medical building" type, rather than the one that is part of an "medical group" type setting that has a reputation to worry about. Those one-doctor-per-office places seem to have too much private enterprise going on in their billing practices, and not enough peer pressure from their colleagues.

DinOR, I'd start asking for a "Sunshine" law where all medical professionals have to post their rates for all customers to see (on the web, preferably), much as is the case in auto repair shops in California (you mentioned mechanics).

justme, Not doubting it in the slightest? Again though ( and I wish skibum would weigh in on this ) the problem is that, freaking "peer pressure" shouldn't have a THING to do with it! If what we're relying on for fairness from the system is pity or "cuttin' a brotha' some slack" then we are truly screwed -before- we so much as developed symptoms. You don't have to get a whole lot older before you realize, every day you *don't have a problem is a day closer TO having a problem and they're just lined up waiting to exploit a condition that likely was in the cards from before you born.

Eliza, My dentist has been so far been very good about disclosing the cost of any "extras", and in fact will take a break to print the estimate and have me sign it before we proceed. Again, much like a reputable auto repair shop would (or have to in California).

justme, Well or like Utility Boards that have to appeal for a rate increase? I recall reading a report in 2002 where in the 50's HC was like 4% of GDP. What is it now? 12%? I don't know. At what point does it eclipse any hope of real productivity? Having ( or not having ) HC Insurance shouldn't be a Do or Die proposition. If you'd 'prefer' to even out your expenditures, it should always be an option. But *not having it shouldn't be that big a deal either. THAT'S the America we need to get back to.

DinOR

[botched post] DinOR, Health care was 17% of GDP in 2008, according to the link I posted earlier. http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

Just to add to stupid things dentists/docs/Insurance do: I needed to get a tooth removed, I asked the dentist if the tooth can be removed within the same week, cause i had some FSA amount left which needed to be completed within the week. Went to dentist, he took some x-rays and referred me to another guy. Now, the whole procedure was a waste and add to that, they sent only a partial amount and rest of bill came in after my FSA amount expired. My wife went to this dentist for braces and he said, he would do it for $4500. We confirmed that there would be no other charges. 6 months into it, he referred my wife to another dentist to remove one tooth ($600). Now, he is doing the same for another tooth. HR dept arranged a healthy check up for free at office, so myself and wife took it up. We are also mandated to do a healthy check up at docs place every year. It so happens, free check up office was not actually free, those guys billed against free healthy check from insurance and docs office guys sent us the bill for both of us. It's always something or the other. Every month, the bills keep coming.

There should be a law against abusive billing practices. If anyone sends you a bill for something you did not order in writing, the biller should be liable for 100% of the amount of the bill in penalties.

justme, We need an extreme make over ("Health Care") version. Any thing short of that is a disaster.

So I asked for a fee sheet so that I could plan for the next visit, and I got, “He doesn’t like for us to give out that information.” Nothing like the free market to bring a little pricing transparency. http://www.quickhealth.com/service.htm

I'm always amazed how people presume that doctors are more ethical than lawyers..... In California, a client MUST be given a firm fixed fee schedule IN WRITING up front. Otherwise the lawyer can and generally will be DISBARRED.

sa, And there's nothing like that feeling of being "passed around" amongst HC providers now IS there!? Right, when you've got a system that's so generous they can afford to feed each other "referrals" you know something is wrong. The more HC expenses escalate... ( the more you need INSURANCE! ) It should be apparent that these people are plugged into the HR Dept's. as well? All in the interest of your good health of course. If *justme's link doesn't scare the hell out of you, nothing will.

We could have make over for lawyers too. Another day.

sa, Surprisingly I'm a little less cynical there. Can't speak for CA ( as Dennis has shared ) but in OR you will definitely be disciplined! I went to see a labor atty. regarding "alienation" in my former employer's 401K plan and being part of the Bar Ref. Svc. they agree to a 1/2 hour free consultation. Guy tries to bill me for $110 any...way. I contact the Bar Referral Service and in short order that is absolutely the LAST I hear of it! Try getting 'that' level of satisfaction from the medical community?

Dinor, You are right, people look at healthcare costs and believe insurance is the solution and fail to see insurance is one of the biggest problem.

kewp Do any of these help? http://www.billcara.com/CS%20Mar%2012%202007%20Mortgage%20and%20Housing.pdf http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2007/11/21/dslmtgresets.jpg http://www.scribd.com/doc/14166113/T2-Partners-Presentation-on-the-Mortgage-Crisis4309-3 First one is Credit Suisse report - 2007. Second link is a reset chart and third is a report from April 2009.

This is a good topic. I will start a new thread on medical costs.

FAB says: I was told that the X Rays were not going to be covered by my insurance and I got a bill for about $1K. $1,000 for X-rays? I get full panoramic X-rays every year, and combined with the exam and cleaning the bill is under $300. And DS's comment that the UK NHS covers dental is very surprising. I have seen many English, including some well to do, who have oral conditions that make me think they have never heard of a dentist. Definitely not an orthodonist.

Headset, In San Francisco!? LOL! Another reason I feel that HC costs have gotten SO out of hand was just like anything else, The Wealth Effect! What's next? Having to pay for parking when you go to have an appointment at the clinic? I mean after all, what hasn't had the patented REIC "these are people that -have- money" standard applied to it?

NHS does not cover much dental - a lot of dentists have gone private so they can charge more and only some people are able to get totally free dental treatment for necessary procedures ( think fillings) - children, old people and those on social security. Orthodontics - much more teasing if you have braces as a kid in the UK and lots of people think you don't really need them - just cosmetic. Also, dentists in the UK have a bad reputation for painful injections etc - so many people avoid them until it's absolutely necessary.

DinOR Says: > FAB, Good for you! ( Actually I thought a comm. appraisal was > more like 5-6K at a min. ) In recent years most (fully self contained narrative MAI) commercial appraisals for CMBS loans have been around $3-4K. I just did a few page Brokers Opinion of Value (since I'm not a licenses appraiser)...

repo4sale Says: > I sold 198 properties with a 1165% avg. Gross > profit, with a 23.65 month avg. hold. How about some details on just one “average” deal? An example of a 1165% return would be buying a condo in Santa Ana for $300K with $100 K down and selling it for $1.5mm 24 months later (the rent for 24 months would be less than the cost of sale)…

If your concerned over your child's education, suggest you send them to a private school. You can skip Cupertino and send them to Bellermine, Presentation or St Francis. After all many who been here decades favor these over all other. Do you rather overpay 200-300K or spend a fraction on private school ? Even in Cupertino you will see pretty large declines.

Isn't tuition there about $15k a year? If you have a lot of kids, that could add up pretty quickly: $60k per kid per high school. You could break even with 4 or 5 kids.

So.... who is the pic of? Just curious.

Me, in 4th grade.

I also made each comment author's name a link to all of that author's posts.

It's only a problem if they buy them at whatever the bank owes on them. What they SHOULD do is offer 20% of what the peak value was, and if they get a home at that price, put the refugees in there and let them apply their rent to buying it. It beats plowing them under.