No, Mike, I don't have a PPO. My health insurance is very similar to Medicare, and pays the same provider prices. Other charges are similar, but a bit less dramatic, such as a Dr visit being charged $120, accepted as being worth $50, with the insurance paying $42 and my copay being $8. Very similar to what medicare does.
If we could all get medicare prices, we could pay for our routine health care without insurance, and would only need catastrophic insurance for things that really cost a lot. Catastrophic coverage (say, for expenses that exceed $500, $1000, or whatever we think we need) would be pretty durn cheap. All the people who work at the small clinic in a small town that I go to seem to be doing pretty well financially, and a large part of their patients are on medicare. Which leads me to believe that the high charges they quote are excessively high. Sorta like used car dealers, actually -- the asking price is well above their costs, and even settling for "Blue Book" sales prices, they still make quite a bit.
I'm not knowledgeable of national figures and statistics regarding healthcare, I can only look to my own little microcosm. And in that little tiny part of the big picture, the providers are overcharging those who don't have health insurance. |
