Motley Fool article on health care billing

[kevink]

When it comes to Motley Fool I recommend skimming their features and skippina all stock picks and investment advice. This one is short and good, and worth it IMHO for this quote alone:

"Imagine a banana in a supermarket. It costs $1 for those paying with Visa, $3 for those paying with MasterCard, and $32 for those paying with cash. You can't sign up for Visa until you're 65, and you can only get a MasterCard if you have a nice employer or a decent income. Worse, customers have no idea that such price discrepancy exists. They don't even know how much they'll pay for the banana until long after they've eaten it."

Anatomy of the World's Most Insane Health Care Billing System

 

[heeyy_joe]

Thanks BUNCHES.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Not necessarily new info but the way it is presented is excellent.

 

[sengsational]

"Imagine a banana in a supermarket. ...

Here's another one of those grocery store analogies. This one is with cans of peas.

Suppose that one day all prices are removed from all products in the supermarket. All labels too, beyond a simple description of the contents, so you can’t compare products from different companies. You just take whatever you want, as much as you want, and bring it up to the register. The checkout clerk scans in your food insurance card and helps you fill out your itemized claim. You pay a flat fee of $10 and go home with your groceries. A month later you get a bill informing you that your food insurance company will pay the supermarket for most of the remaining cost, but you’ll have to send in a check for an additional $15. It might sound like a bargain to get a cartload of food for $25, but you’re really paying your grocery bill every month when you fork over $2000 for your food insurance premium.

God and Devil in the Marketplace