The first one I could understand to check on the baby but the others were just a unnessary procedures either to earn more money or to reduce potential legal liability.

My daughter is currently in a minor medical treatment, which was questionable by our coverage standards, but they said submit the claim anyway. So we did. Nothing happened, we paid for the procedure, which we were prepared to do all along.

Last week, we got the healthcare notice: We [Healthcare coverage] pay $0 You [customer] pay $2500.

The trouble is, we only paid $1500. Time to call the clinic: “Hey, why’d you guys charge $2500 for the procedure?”

“Oh, ignore that. You already paid us up front (we did). Whenever we submit costs to insurance companies, we always add on an extra $1000 for processing fees, and such. Since you paid cash up front, that’s not an issue.”

Wow.

When I was in East Germany (back when it was, traveling overnight – nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there), I came across a foul stench, but since it was July and warm, tons of possibilities. So I asked the porter what the smell was. Coal. Local municipalities were burning coal in the middle of summer, because if they didn’t use their allotment this year (this was back when it was still Communist), they wouldn’t get as much next year.

That’s serious market distortion, just like my previous example, not to mention “global warming-type” pollution. Which is fake.

So, those of you who still think that government-sponsored universal healthcare is the answer, you’re out of your collective minds.

- the choices are immense. Companies offer dozens of plans with varying deductables, copays, etc. One provider essentially offered an a la carte plan, where you enter in your preferred deductible, out of pocket, etc. and they created a price for you.

- the web sites and sales groups were pretty awful. Many of the sites were simply ugly, where others failed regularly.

- pricing was quite cheap… much less than I expected. High deductable individual plans were often less than $100/month, and even moderate deductable plans were not that much more. I spend more on car insurance.

I’m guessing that the poor customer support is a result of what you mention… that the insurance company’s are setup not to serve the individual, but the buyer of insurance, which is generally everyone else. Sure, you could blame the industry, but the automotive insurance companies have _much_ better sites and customer support, because they deal directly with the consumers of their service.

The other thing that seems to be a problem is that there is so much regulatory difference between states. Again, look at car insurance, where national companies use economies of scale to lower rates. But even national health insurance providers have completely different plans depending on the state, and this has got to hurt their ability to improve efficiency. I doubt a ‘GEICO’ for health insurance could exist in the current environment.