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Originally Posted by Brian Carlton
I thought the point was obvious. There are a group of people........between the wetbacks without W2 income.........and folks with health insurance........that can have their lives set to financial ruin due to the practices of the hospitals with regard to charges.
The hospital is legally bound to charge all comers the same rate. They should be legally bound to accept the same payment from Mr. Lim as thay do from Aetna.
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OK. So they tell you that your emergency C-section is going to cost you $10K. Now what? You think you will shop around? Probably not. So, you will get it there. Now the bill comes. Well, you cannot pay. What can they do about it? Nothing. Yes, it has drawbacks in that 20% of Americans are uninsured and of that 20%, I would bet a large percentage has to be written off.
Here is another thing. If they do, it would be like me having to charge you $300 per ton of widgets when you purchase 3 tons of widgets. Joe purchases 300 tons but I have to charge him the same money and accept the same money as you. That is why we buy in bulk. That gives us more pull with the shop. I buy 1 TV and it costs $100. If I walk in and ask what they will sell me 30 TVs for, I expect the unit cost to go down. 300 TVs and I expect a bigger price drop. Atena sends them thousands of customers. They are able to negotiate a better amount of payment. I get discounts when take out a 2nd policy with AAA