The root of the problem is pre-insurance costs. If an average person was able to pay for their and their kids health care out of pocket, the problems of being sicker than average or poorer than average would be solved without much controversy. And to address costs, we need transparency, freedom, competition and more healthy attitudes towards personal health. No payment system will get us out of this problem, it will be high out of pocket expenses, or high taxes, or limited care or some combination of the three.
My daughter required heart surgery when she was 24mo. Overall price billed to insurance for everything was about $250k, including several pre-surgery procedures (MRIs, cardiac cath, etc). I believe we paid about $7k after insurance.
My son is currently on isoretinoin (Accutane generic) for systemic acne. Because of the severe side effects isoretinoin can have, they force you to come in for an office visit / check-in monthly, and only dole out the meds one month at a time (no refills). Thus far, we've received from our pharmacy prescriptions from three different manufacturers, ranging in price (to us, post insurance) from $7 to $120. Pre-insurance prices are in the $500-700/mo range. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for these dramatic monthly fluctuations ... so if we can't even get something like this to be predictable and simple, what hope is there for treatments requiring complex care?
