What is one con about the way health care is financed in France?

What is the best way to address America's health care dilemna?

• When health insurance began, the patient paid the doctor then submitted a claim to insurance company. That original system allowed patients to stay on top of what was being charged for care. Then, it all changed. Today, no one seems to know how much this or that test or hospital room will cost; bills are submitted without the patient's knowledge and the patient is expected to pay for non-covered items when he or she never approved the items in the first place. Ask your nurse in the hospital how much that injection will cost and she won't be able to tell you. Ask for someone who can tell you and you'll be given the run around and marked down as "problem patient." I submit, taking the patient out of the costs loop lies at heart of the problem of continuously rising health care costs. And since insurance companies justify their enormous profits by way of ratio to their costs, it is against their interests to see those costs reduced. I'd like to hear the opinions of others.

• Answer:

  Ding, ding! You are correct! Our system does nothing to discourage overuse of our health care system thus costing more money, thus increasing our prices. Only when people become aware of what they are being charged and seeing the money go out will they began to monitor their usage. Less usage will drive down insurance rates. I began using an HSA two years ago and I have two excellent examples of how/ why being aware of your healthcare costs reduced unnecessary procedures, 1) I had a kidney stone while on vacation (side note: terribly painful experience). The Doc at the emergency room gave me medication and said I could get a cat-scan when I got home, no hurry. So two weeks later I follow up with my Doc and she says lets schedule a cat-scan. I ask why and how much. She has no clue how much and then I explain it better be medically necessary because I have to pay for it. She says, no big deal if you don't get it but if you have another stone then we have to get one. Since I had no more stones I didn't incur a $600 procedure. If I had regular insurance I would have never questioned getting one and added that cost to the system. 2) My wife suspected my daughter might have sleep apnea. She has no signs other than large tonsils, adenoids, snoring. No other signs but we inquired of the Doc. She said really couldn't tell but let's schedule a sleep study. How much? No idea says the Doc but your insurance should pay for it. Not so with the HSA so we go inquiring. It takes my wife two weeks and a dozen calls to figure out it costs $1,500. I say, let's try something else so she sees the Doc again and says since we have to pay can we try another way? Now we schedule an appointment with a ENT pediatric specialist. He says bring a home video cam of her sleeping. Within 2 minutes he says, no she probably doesn't have sleep apnea. The one real way to tell is the sleep study BUT (NOW HERE's THE KICKER)... He says even if the sleep study said she had it, he wouldn't recommend we do anything and that she'd likely grow out of it. Wow! I could have spent $1500 to find out something that a) I suspected didn't exist AND b) wouldn't change the course of action which was basically wait and see. Of course if I had regular insurance with a $15 deductible I would have scheduled the sleep study and let the insurance company pay $1500 without hesitating. So there you have two personal examples of how being in charge of your healthcare expenditures saves money. In a traditional insurance plan I would have gladly let them pay for those procedures thus increasing the overall healthcare costs.