On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > But look, this is the whole reason I'm not sure Americans should be > allowed more than basic financial services. > > In general - even though buyer beware - most people have no clue what > they're buying (or selling in the case of insurance). They don't read > the contracts and even if they did they don't understand them.
It is even worse than that. I'm a case in point. I read the rider on my health insurance. I even understood it. And I still got fucked over. The hospitalization rider on my insurance had a $500 per day cap on room and board. That seemed reasonable to me. $500 for a bed and 3 meals doesn't sound extraordinally out of place. But it turns out that hospitals but more into room and board than you might think. When my daughter was born she was in the NICU for 48 hours as a precaution. Turns out that room and board in the NICU was $3000 a day. So I was on the hook for $5000 for 2 days. Another example: when I had hernia surgery years ago I made sure to get authorization for the surgeon, I made sure that he was on my PPO list. Made sure that the hospital was on the PPO list. All my ducks in a row. Until I got my bill and found out that my anesthesiologist was not a preferred provider. WTF? I didn't know that they billed separately. And I sure as hell didn't have a choice in anesthesiologists. How are consumers supposed to know what questions to ask of whom? We cannot have a system where patients have to become medical billing experts in order to follow the arbitrary and shifting rules of a predatory insurance industry. The system is horribly broken and it needs a severe overhaul. Juda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:290835 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
