When I bring my car to a mechanic, he must provide an estimate for the service. 99% of hospital visits are not emergencies, so the same rule should apply to medical service -- cost estimate first, then service.

But healthcare is totally different because... uh... because the hospitals say so.

> But healthcare is totally different because... uh... because the hospitals say so.

lmftfy

But healthcare is totally different because... uh... because the insurance companies add a 30-50% cost to the marketplace.

Single payer. Give folks the option to tell insurance companies how they feel. Force insurance companies to compete and earn our business.


> 99% of hospital visits are not emergencies

Source?

Simply put.

Good idea, sunlight is the best disinfectant to corruption

El Camino Hospital is just as bad as the rest of them; I've used their "estimator" and it was off my more than double for a routine pregnancy (under 30, natural, without epi, 2nd child, no complications) for my wife more than a year ago.

It's also worth noting that El Camino Hospital took more than 3 months to send all the billing, each week was a new surprise in the mail after about 1.5 months, some with wrong dates and cryptic descriptions leaving you wondering what it was even for. While their service was good, I didn't like the before birth interactions, staff would rarely look at you vs the computer screen. They would queue up in a line for the computer, then introduce themselves, proceeding to ask the same questions as the previous person with some from different departments. These introductions and computer entries later roughly translated to separate bills for each department introduction, other than writing down info from the machines and the same generic questions, most rarely did anything more.

They say they also have billing assistance for low income, but that's also not true, they go based on gross income before taxes rather than after tax income and they require every single bill photocopied for that year along with previous year tax return for the household as proof. Rarely does your pregnancy fall on the same year as all the pregnancy expenses.

You go in to a hospital with a pain, not I need my appendix removed. Would you then say hum let me think about it, I see SF general has a 2 for one sale?

Dr visits I can see... you need a X ray, can I send you one from net week?