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Originally Posted by flstf
The insurance I have is $5000 deductible for my wife and myself at $330 per month so I guess the costs become irrelevant after the first $5000. 
The statement that the cost is irrelevant may be one of the reasons that health care costs are out of control. It seems to me that there must be competition for a free market system to work otherwise the government eventually may/will step in and take control like they do with monopolies. |
the government and hmo's are already in control!! insurance companies, hmo's, and the government (via medicare, medicaid, etc.) set the price of what they will reimburse a physician or dentist.
besides that, there are so many things to add up when calculating a cost for a particular service. for instance, if you come into a general practioner's office for a sore shoulder you hurt during a basketball game... your copay may be $10 or $20... but there's the receptionist's salary, the nurse's salary, the physician's time to evaluate you, the cost of an x-ray... not to mention what the physician should or shouldn't charge for his/her hourly fee (traditionally, there is no hourly fee for physicians). so, you may only pay 20 bucks, but the cost is much more than that. the physician will likely be reimbursed a good portion of the cost of the x ray via insurance. but that doesn't account for the salaries of the receptionist, nurse, and physician him or herself.
a big reason i don't want to go into private practice... in medical school we're taught how to treat patients, but not how treating patients can be a profitable business.
i can come up with a lot of reasons why healthcare costs are rising (the cost to attend medical school, years of research to develop new technologies, high speed computers needed for imaging & storage...) but i digress.
honestly, i think the best thing you can do is to talk to people in your area and see who they like. if you can find a physician and dentist who pleases you, and you're able to develop a good rapport with, you will have good health care. it's a two way street that too many times we dismiss. i don't think you should look at the financial bottomline when choosing someone to help you in your healthcare decisions, but rather your trust in that person or persons.