Kelley at her Below Seven blog writes about the sad state of the U.S healthcare “system,” mostly about how insanely expensive it is for those of us not in a socialized program like Medicare or Medicaid. If you’re tempted to put the blame only on doctors, hospitals, and Big Pharma, know that insurance companies and politicians are also at fault. Politicians alone could solve the cost problem.
If you want to learn how to negotiate lower healthcare prices, check out this post at ZeroHedge. You could save thousands of dollars.
If you have 15 minutes to spare, read Karl Denninger’s article on comprehensive healthcare reform.
From Kelley:
This year, I have a deductible of $6,500, which means that I have to pay 100% of expenses until I reach that deductible. I’m not sure if “healthy” people realize how much money a person with a chronic disease spends on healthcare each year, but $6,500 isn’t chump change. That’s a whole lot of money!
Since my husband and I have our own company, we go through peaks and valleys when it comes to income. Sometimes, it’s just not feasible to spend $3,000 in one month for diabetes supplies, which is when I’m thankful I was able to stock up so I can make it another month.
I’m not trying to write a woe is me post, but because I have to pay so much out of pocket, I am frustrated at how the health care system works. You never get an exact price of how much something is going to cost before it goes through insurance. But because of my insurance plan, I am on the hook for 100% of whatever they decide the cost is.
Source: Unknown Costs with Healthcare – Below Seven
Physicians are not immune to this malarky either. Health insurance for my family-of-four is about $12,000/year, with individual deductibles of $1000/year, family deductible of $3000/year, and family out-of-pocket maximum of $9000/year. And of course if I want to keep my out-of-pocket expenses at a mininum, I have to use the healthcare providers the insurer picks for me.
Paleo Diabetic 
It’s worth noting that some insurance policies pass along the negotiated rate before the deductible is met, and sometimes they leave the patient with the full-blown rate. Fighting sometimes works. I had a spinal cortisone injection reduced from well over $1k to about $300 by badgering my insurance company into passing the negotiated rate along.
Excellent!
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