<story><title>Graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous</title><url>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/21-graphs-that-show-americas-health-care-prices-are-ludicrous/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>beggi</author><text>The American health-care system is ludicrous!&lt;p&gt;My girlfriend and I are from Europe and we have been in the US for a year now while she finishes her university degree. Half a year ago she (we?) got pregnant, and we are paying more than triple the money for doctor visits than it would be back home. Not only that - but the money we&apos;re paying is just 20% of the &quot;real&quot; cost, the insurance she paid $7000 per year for is paying the rest. So we&apos;re paying $180 per visit and the &quot;real&quot; cost of each half an hour long doctor visit is about $900!&lt;p&gt;Now you might argue it&apos;s better service, but in my very subjective view, I highly doubt it and it doesn&apos;t feel like it at all. To add insult to injury: We got a 3D sonogram and the amount we paid (mind you, 20% of the &quot;real&quot; cost) was twice the amount our friends at home have paid for 3D sonogram taken by a private company (and the government is not paying a cent).&lt;p&gt;IMO, America is one fantastic country if you&apos;re rich - but it seems much much harder to live here than in Europe on meager salaries.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragonwriter</author><text>&amp;#62; The American health-care system is ludicrous!&lt;p&gt;No, because there is nothing that can properly be called &quot;the American health-care system&quot;.&lt;p&gt;America has a large number of different public and private health care &lt;i&gt;financing&lt;/i&gt; systems (e.g., insurance and insurance-like programs), a large number of different and uncoordinated public and private health care &lt;i&gt;delivery&lt;/i&gt; systems, and extremely inefficient, costly, and poorly standardized interfaces between all those different health care financing and delivery systems.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62; IMO, America is one fantastic country if you&apos;re rich - but it seems much much harder to live here than in Europe on meager salaries.&lt;p&gt;These are both by design.</text></comment>
<story><title>Graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous</title><url>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/21-graphs-that-show-americas-health-care-prices-are-ludicrous/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>beggi</author><text>The American health-care system is ludicrous!&lt;p&gt;My girlfriend and I are from Europe and we have been in the US for a year now while she finishes her university degree. Half a year ago she (we?) got pregnant, and we are paying more than triple the money for doctor visits than it would be back home. Not only that - but the money we&apos;re paying is just 20% of the &quot;real&quot; cost, the insurance she paid $7000 per year for is paying the rest. So we&apos;re paying $180 per visit and the &quot;real&quot; cost of each half an hour long doctor visit is about $900!&lt;p&gt;Now you might argue it&apos;s better service, but in my very subjective view, I highly doubt it and it doesn&apos;t feel like it at all. To add insult to injury: We got a 3D sonogram and the amount we paid (mind you, 20% of the &quot;real&quot; cost) was twice the amount our friends at home have paid for 3D sonogram taken by a private company (and the government is not paying a cent).&lt;p&gt;IMO, America is one fantastic country if you&apos;re rich - but it seems much much harder to live here than in Europe on meager salaries.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>Careful. Hospitals and doctors often report the amounts that insurance companies report based on a master price list that bears no relation to what the insurers actually pay. Insurers are presumably fine with misleading reports that puff up their value.</text></comment>