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The Goodman Institute Health Blog

Tuesday Links

Posted on March 28, 2023 by John C. Goodman

Low income, large debts cause stress. They needed a poll to know this?

Two-thirds of patients have never challenged the accuracy of a medical bill.

Reason for the Adderall shortage: government. (NYT)

What great thinkers seem to agree on: Walking is good. (NYT)

Can electricity improve the functioning of the brain? (NYT)

1 thought on “Tuesday Links”

  1. Bob Hertz says:
    March 29, 2023 at 9:28 pm

    I am sure it is true that most patients have never challenged a medical bill. This is probably most true of older persons (like me), who grew up with great respect for doctors….and also grew up with the old Blue Cross plans that paid for everything at 100%.

    Americans in general are not eager negotiators. When we see that the price of corn flakes is $4,00 on the shelf, we expect the price to stay at $4.00 at time of checkout.
    Many cultures historically have not operated this way.

    In my experience as a health insurance agent, I found that doctors were not the chief offenders. The cheaters were usually hospitals, plus the kinds of doctors who work inside hospitals — anesthesiologists, pathologists, et al. The independent MD is probably just as honest as ever.

    I do not know just when this happened, but hospitals are tied into a “rack rate and then discount” business model. The hospital bills $100,000 (because some foreigner or idiot might pay it), but the hospital expects the insurance company to offer $20,000 instead and that’s just fine.

    As I noted earlier, most patients are completely ill-equipped to negotiate, and truthfully don’t feel they should have to. I sympathize.

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For many years, our health care blog was the only free enterprise health policy blog on the internet. Then, when the NCPA closed its doors, the health blog stopped as well.

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