Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike da bear who wrote (243743)	6/3/2003 1:55:42 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

True, it's disgusting.

To: Mike da bear who wrote (243743)	6/3/2003 2:54:32 PM
From: Horgad	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

If you pay cash (IE don't have insurance) you should be able to get the cheaper price. Just let them know that you don't have insurance but can pay and they will give you the real price and not the fake one that they use with the insurance companies. Same thing goes for stuff not covered by your insurance. After the expense is rejected by your insurance company go back to the doctor and renegotiate to get the real price or you will be paying 40+% more as you said then your insurance would have paid if it was covered. I have catastrophic insurance only and have had to deal with this as lots of stuff is not covered. It is a pain, but it can be done.

To: Mike da bear who wrote (243743)	6/3/2003 4:03:52 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

The $800 is an artificial price caused by the insurance company leaning on the group of doctors, the $2400 is the uninsured making up the difference. In theory without the existence of insurance the price for all would most likely fall somewhere between those two extremes. Its insurance which distorts the pricing mechanism. Back in the days when no one had insurance for braces, people still had a variance in what they paid. I remember being a poor kid living near a wealthy neighborhood. I needed braces. My dentist sent me to an orthodontist who was known to give breaks to poor kids while making a bundle off the wealthy customers. I went there with the proposition that I'd pay him some sum of money from the $30 week I made babysitting. I have to hand it to him, he didn't burst out laughing (I had no idea just how much money braces cost or how long it would have taken me to pay for them- $6k back in 1972) and he said that we'd talk about the charges (which we never did, I wound up working summers for his family for five years). He had the attitude like a lot of dentists and doctors had back then that he'd rather give the poor the same care as the well off in his regular practice instead of donating his time to give poor quality care in a clinic. You won't find many like him now because the uninsured and poor have been forced on care givers, its no longer voluntary.