What is "darkness" lurking in high-cost American medical business?

ByHamed Saber

It is a well-known story in America that most of the cause of self-bankruptcy is "not paying expensive medical expenses", and Michael Moore's 2007 film "Sico SiCKOEven it has been picked up. So, why is the medical expenses of the US still expensive, and what kind of "darkness" lurks in the American medical community?

How to Charge $ 546 for Six Liters of Saltwater - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html

NYNA BERSTEIN reporter at the New York Times knew about the reason why American medical expenses are expensive before they are uncovering about collective food poisoning incidents in northern New York in May 2012.

For example, the manufacturer's average shipping price of a physiological saline pack (IV bag) familiar in medical practice is estimated at about 1 dollar (about 97 yen) according to government data. However, if you receive IV bag treatment in the US, the amount charged may jump to 1000 times the manufacturer's price of the IV bag.

Needless to mention an example of such an IV bag, it is an open fact that in the United States medical expenses are expensive to be abnormal. However, why medical expenses are expensive is kept secret. Those that obscure the cause of high costs are "sophisticated processing by distribution organizations" and "difficult to understand hospital specifications".

Huge intermediate exploitation organization
Why are expensive fees charged for a 1 dollar IV bag? That is because the price of the IV bag jumps up to reach the hospital as a result of exploitation by a huge distribution organization.

Huge intermediate exploitation organization is divided into "organization that buys a large quantity of medical supplies from manufacturers" and "organization that distributes medical supplies to hospitals". Every time the IV bag is carried on a truckload, the illegal rebate goes through a voluntary agreement that has been overwhelmed and the price jumps up.

ByOECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

The two intermediate exploitation tissues are "under this system,Economy of scaleIt is said that the cost savings of billions of dollars have been reduced by the billions of dollars ", but it is criticized that it is" exclusively expensive by stopping competition ".

◆ Hospital's response
It is not so much that a hospital that is paid high cost to an IV bag of only $ 1 is a victim. America's medical expenses are expensive because there are also hospitals.

The medical expenses detailed from the hospital that infants and their grandmothers who were taken to a hospital due to food poisoning and received treatment reveal this. The invoice has cost item of IV bag treatment, which was supposed to be adult $ 787 (about 76,400 yen), child 393 dollars (about 31,800 yen). There is no difference between adults and children in the medical practice of administering IV bags to patients themselves. In other words, there is an opening of several hundred dollars just by the difference in the amount of salt water called IV bag. From here we can calculate that the cost of 6 liters of saline is $ 546 (about 53,000 yen).

ByLynn Kelley Author

When Bellstein reporter inquired about this, the hospital replied that such pricing was "a private fee set at the hospital." In addition, the infants and women mentioned above are public medical systems that the province prepares for low-income earnersMedicaidBut I was told that "I can not explain why" despite receiving a large amount of expenses.

A man who received medical treatment due to food poisoning and was charged for a high treatment cost complained to Medicaid's Insurance Maintenance Organization (HMO), but I just paid 66.5 dollars (about 6400 yen) to the hospital. Initially, he claimed that the amount claimed by the hospital was $ 606 (58,800 yen).

Dr. Freud, an anesthesiologist who was hospitalized for 3 days after being suffering from a food poisoning incident, paid as little as $ 8 (about 770 yen) thanks to the medical insurance that he joined. However, the cost to be insured from the hospital by the insurance company is 6844 dollars (about 665,400 yen), and among them it is confused to know the fact that the 6-liter IV bag will cost as much as $ 546 (about 53,000 yen) I will. It can be said that her lamentation of "It's irrational at all, it's just salt water" is absolutely natural.

◆ The reason for high-cost medical treatment
Such expensive medical expenses brought by huge intermediate exploitation organization and hospitals is a big problem for both patients and taxpayers.Medical insurance system reform by the Obama administrationAlthough introduction of the national public insurance system is planned, there is no way to solve it unless removing the fundamental problem.