Medical care is expensive. In fact, the cost for quality medical attention is rising, rather than declining. During the economic downturn, the healthcare spending spiked to double the rate of inflation, even though the patients were consuming less medical healthcare overall. This shocking revelation was discovered in the 2010 Health Care and Cost Utilization Report, which came out on May 21st 2012. The report examines the costs of medical care during the economic regression. According to the executive summary, insurance beneficiaries younger than 65 spent an average of $4,255 through their employer-sponsored group insurances in 2010.
Yet more and more spending doesn't mean that the health care system is getting better- it just means that the doctors may be getting richer. Prices rose five times faster for emergency room visits, outpatient surgeries, substance abuse care, and facility-based mental health services. One of the areas with the fastest growing spending was children's medical care. The only place where spending declined was in nursing homes, where the price of admission on average dropped by 3.2 percent. In most cases, hospitals are able to spike their prices faster than the regular inflation rates. This can be damaging for people without good health insurance.
According to a senior researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, people are paying more for health care, but getting less. Many doctor's offices and hospitals are crammed with patients, and they are getting less time and a shorter assessment. It is easy for doctors to bypass important symptoms because they have too much to do, which leads to inaccurate diagnoses or a fatal error. The hospitals seem to be able to raise their prices faster than the regular inflation, but this makes it unfair for people who are struggling to stay on top financially.
According to the report, patient's out-of-pocket costs jumped 7.1 percent between 2009 and 2010, and the average person now pays at least $689 out of pocket every year. Along with this, worker's copayments and deductibles rose. All of these costs cause a raise in insurance costs, as well. The CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans says that reducing medical costs is essential to making health care more affordable for individuals and families. At the moment, people cannot even afford the mediocre care that they are receiving.
The Health Care Cost Institute will continue to probe the unnaturally high spike in pediatric medical costs, in an attempt to lower them and make the costs more affordable for children in the future. They surmise that the spending may be because of boom in premature babies, the rise in childhood obesity, or the increasing demand for mental ad behavioral health services. Overcharging a patient can become a medical malpractice case. Currently, some states and insurers are looking into new ways to regulate the rising expenses at hospitals.
In Massachusetts, the government is considering a proposal which would impose financial penalties on hospitals and other medical care providers who exceed a state median for medical service by 20 percent or more. This would keep hospitals from raising their costs. In North Carolina, another measure is attempting to create contracts which hospitals would need to sign in agreement that they will not make their costs exceed the natural medical inflation rate. Many non-profit organizations are also working to lower hospital costs and create awareness of the issues that high hospital costs create.
The hardest thing about a hospital with high expenses is this: everyone needs medical care. Unlike commercial prices, which must be controlled in order to keep up with competition, hospitals are a necessary medium. When the hospitals bring their prices up, it only drives people into debt, not away from the medical care that they need. If you have been severely overcharged for a medical procedure, talk to the hospital first. They may have made a small error, and can reimburse you for your cost. If that does not work, you may want to take the case to court. You will want to contact a medical malpractice lawyer to help you with the case.