Insurance is a joke

My daughter needs a mri. Well with insurance and our $3000 deductible it was going to be $2400. So I called envision and asked for self pay price and they said $400. Guess where I am having her mri right now.

That's just insane...

I am not trying to stand up for insurance companies here, but you do know that the doctors office is billing them $5400 for the same procedure that they would bill you directly $400. Personally, I think insurance is a joke as well, but not everything they get blamed for is their fault.

Good move. Hope your daughter is going to be OK!

I have one scheduled for the 21st. After the Kamala/Biden ticket gets sworn in on the 20th, all healthcare will be free. I don’t need an MRI, I’ve just never had one and want to see what it’s all about.

tell them you only want to go in head first and that you don't need no stinking head phones.

Insurance is a scam but it seems all the politicians are scared to mess with it. It's seems that the doctors / hospitals could be forced to charge a reasonable price.

I guess the flip side would be free enterprise, can't regulate prices.


Again I'm sure the politician's donor have instructed him on where to side on this issue or it would be different.

Wow.

Needed an MRI several years ago . Had to drive to Paris for it to be covered . Here in MP (where I pay taxes) it would've cost me $1500 .

its all a scam for insurance not to pay anything. the insurance company tells you its 3000K when they actually only pay $400, so with your deductible they pay nothing.
I was told my echocardiogram would be 2300, so I said how much if I just pay you cash, $210. Wth?

You can't expect to force doctors to charge a reasonable rate when you also require them to treat all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

Nothing will come of healthcare until we are willing to turn people away at the door.

Imagine that, for profit medical operations, negotiating with for profit middle man insurance companies, for rates that would lock in additional profits for both parties. Paperwork and additional staffing adds lots of costs to the process.

They were scamming you. I know where Paris is...you can’t drive there.

Not long ago had my blood drawn,results I asked what was my testosterone level? Oh sir that would have to a be another blood test, ok. Went ahead got it done,week later I get a bill for $48...they charged the insurance company $812 and left me with $48...it all is a scam

Insurance without a doubt is a racket. But they have you by the balls because you’ve got to have it. I hope everything is good with your daughter Brandon. Knee, shoulder or something internal?

Yes, headphones would only mask the robotic whirring and clicking sounds. It's cool. Stay perfectly still or you will have to do it more times. I pretend I am in a torpedo tube waiting to be fired at a German sub.

when I had my MRI I got headphones and they played Judas Priest for me.
I am still making payments on that MRI

I once fought with insurance company for a month over covering an MRI. I suspect that they were not use to getting requests for MRIs from a plastic surgeon. After 2nd request was turned down we had my orthopedic surgeon request it. Cigna has an orthopedic surgeon that reviews all MRI requests. I shopped around prices vary quite a bit for MRIs.

head, she's been having tons of headaches and with my history we didn't want to take a chance it was something more than migranies. Not that those don't suck.

Prayers up for Ratzebeth brother.

Yeah, that is BS. I just got an MRI and noticed the same thing. Why such a price difference? Can anyone explain that? The $400 self pay price is apprantly a market price, I was quoted the same. Why are insurance companies paying such high prices over "market"? Makes me wounder if insurance gets some kinda end of year kick back or something.

Havent had Ins. in over a year. Best move yet!

I don't understand why everyone is calling the insurance companies the crooks. The doctor and imaging offices are the crooks. Why are they charging 2 different prices for the same services. Someone mentioned the paperwork, but with the amount of patients the insurance company refer to them from "in network" referrals, they should get a better deal than any cash payer.



Solidifies my point.^^^^^

MRI quality varies too. Sometimes it's the Yugo vs Mercedes thingy.

Insurance should be for catastrophic situations that's impossible for Average Joe to pay for.

My thoughts and prayers will be with you and baby girl.

Let’s say you own a burger restaurant. You serve a couple hundred paying customers a day and make a nice living. But then one day a law was passed that you had to give a free burger and fries to every homeless person that walked in the door.

How would you feel?

Now let’s say you own a Mercedes dealership. You now have to give a $80,000 car to every homeless person that walks in.

How does that one feel?
How would you keep your head above water?

That is a bad analogy. A doctor provides a service not sell a product.

That's a bad argument.

The insurance industry lobbied for this system. Government only creates winners and losers with everything it does. It isn’t complicated.

Prayers up for your daughter, Ratz.

I ordered flowers and got fishing baits for some weird reason. Hopefully the mri being cheap doesn’t show up as an X-ray

Mine was worse. I asked for a talk radio station. It was NPR reciting President Obama's greatest accomplishments.

Same here, it is always cheaper to pay cash if you haven’t met your deductible.. I dropped my health insurance this year, it got to be higher than my mortgage and was paying cash for [censored] anyway since they try to rape you to meet the deductible

Prayers for your daughter RATZ. Hopefully there is nothing major to be found, but hope they can find the source of her headaches.

It's actually the hospital we are talking about here, not the doctor. They invest in a multimillion dollar machine that helps diagnose illness. Then they pay high salaries to doctors and nurses for their expertise and training. In order to recoup these investments, they charge the patients that use them. But something like 25-30% of the patients they treat are indigents that pay nothing.

Look, I'm not saying its fair. But the reality is you cannot half regulate. You can't have a for profit system and not allow the market to regulate itself.

A fully capitalistic medical system would provide the absolute best medical care. But it would require some people to not have access to it.

A state funded medical system would provide full medical care to all, but because you are taking the incentive for profit out of the equation the quality of care diminishes.

Sure the UK has universal healthcare to all. But their level of healthcare is basically go to a clinic and get a prescription for an antibiotic and an aspirin. Getting an MRI to diagnose an underlying problem is a 6-month process. People in England with the means to do so come here for medical treatment, as do Canada.

Rewind 5 years ago. Take my daughter into Tx Childrens for Scoliosis follow up. Waiting room filled with 50-60 people. They are behind an hour or so we wait, wait, wait. Never once did I see one single person go to "cashier" window before being called in. Our name is called and before I can even get to the door, I am cut off by someone that says I need to report to the cashier before services can be rendered. I go to cashier and boom......$350. I paid it of course. I never saw one other party PAY anything. I am a teacher. I have OK insurance. I want whatever plan those other 58 people are on!!

What else did you expect when the dumbocrats and insurance companies got together to provide an affordable medical coverage plan.

yes. Sometimes hormone imbalance will cause them also.