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Healthcare Case Analysis

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Statement of issue: The United States health care system costs continues to skyrocket as government intervention fails to regulate the prices of health products and services. The hospitals, drug companies, and other big industries inflate the prices associated with a service, or products used when caring for a patient. Each company marks up their products; for greater profits. Individuals struggle when left without health insurance and find themselves unable to afford these growing costs. As of this year, research data collected by the CDC shows the uninsured rate as 10.3 percent of Americans. The already unaffordable health care bills keep increasing far past the rates of other industrialized nations. Health care in the United States,…show more content…
Unfortunately, the billing departments have been unable to explain why something costs as much as it does. The hospital systems use no rationale when determining the prices on this list. Negotiating between health care systems and insurance companies causes the majority of this problem. After an individual receives care, the individual’s health insurance receives the bill with a categorized list of prices for everything done at the hospital, then the insurance companies negotiate the prices down to a more reasonable price and pay for a portion of it. The insurance companies know the real costs to the hospitals and they try to bring the items on the list as close as possible to those reasonable prices. The institutions providing health care continue to raise prices since they will be negotiated down to lower prices by the insurances. Hospitals do not have to negotiate the prices equally with different insurance companies leading to some people paying much more than others depending on their coverage. Along with the disparities between the final bills negotiated by insurance companies, the companies cover different percentages or amounts of the hospital bill creating a greater inequality. Those left without health insurance get a bill with the full price of the items on the chargemaster, and since those items are inflated, individuals must pay high bills with unfair pricing. The process that relies on the chargemaster for set
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