You go to your doctor. You give them your insurance card. Your doctor sees you. And later on, you might get a bill for your co-pay or part of the cost of the doctor's exam.
But what does that health care experience actually cost?
One of the biggest problems plaguing our American health care system is that nearly all consumers have no idea what anything actually costs. Beverly Gossage writes about this problem this week in USA Today:
Market-based competition and an easy application process on a multibillion dollar website were supposed to bring rates down, but, as we all know, premiums soared. Though some consumers received a subsidy to help them pay those expensive rates, most found themselves with ever growing deductibles of $6,500 and $7,100. But there was no promise that they could find out the actual cost for a son’s broken arm or a daughter’s tonsillectomy.
They certainly won’t find those instructions in the reams of regulations that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given us. Millions are left with very high deductibles, but no instructions on how to find out the cost of a procedure or treatment before it’s needed.
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