The real problem is that the cost of healthcare in the US is like playing Russian Roulette. Will it cost 200? Will it cost 400? Nobody fucking knows until you see the bill come through the mail.
You see so many different numbers for the same kind of operation. Depending on the hospital, insurance policy, etc, it could range from 50 to 5000 dollars.
This. I've tried asking the price of a dozen stitches ahead of time, just as a proof. In fact they would/could not tell me.
To be a little bit fair, sure, there could be complications. But then, why not compile statistics about how common which complications are? And provide a chart of range of costs? Or have a kind of hospital insurance to cover unforeseen or unusual expenses, so that price/cost/resource usage can be more predictable?
Yes our system is incredibly, and clearly intentionally, stupid.
That’s because vet care is mostly self-pay. It’s harder to put together a comprehensive breakdown and estimate like that when insurance payers keep things so opaque. But for out of network/self-pay, clinics and hospitals are mandated to provide a good faith estimate based on their known standard fees.
Wanna be clear I agree there is nothing defensible about our current system. But provider networks are notoriously chaotic. Demographic updates don’t come through, providers leave and join, it’s a mess. You should have an online directory as a member, no? What is your insurance carrier?
Here it's one big health network and the people who do the billing are in another state several hundreds of miles away. There is literally nobody local who knows anything about the prices.
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u/youra6 Aug 23 '26
The real problem is that the cost of healthcare in the US is like playing Russian Roulette. Will it cost 200? Will it cost 400? Nobody fucking knows until you see the bill come through the mail.
You see so many different numbers for the same kind of operation. Depending on the hospital, insurance policy, etc, it could range from 50 to 5000 dollars.
That kind of variance is completely unacceptable.