Get the no insurance form hospital

I cannot tell you how obsessed I am with this chart.It shows exactly what is wrong with America'sconversation about health care.On one level, you've seen this chart before.It shows health care spending as a shareof the economy of a bunch of countries.There's Germany and France and Japan and Canadaand oh! There's America.But now I want to add something you haven'tseen to this chart.This is how much of that spending in each countryis private and how much is public.Here's what's amazing:America's government spending on health careon programs like Medicaid and Medicare and the VA -our versions of socialized medicine.It's about the same size as these other countries.These countries where the government runsthe whole health care system!And then there's our private spending.It's the private insurance system that makeshealth care in America so expensive.Conventional wisdom says that the government ismore expensive than the private sector."It can't say no. It's corrupt, it's inefficient, it's slow.""If you want something done rightyou give it to the private sector."That is what we hear in America all the time.And yet here we are with the biggest private sector spending the most.If you look at the data on physician visitsand hospital discharges, you can get rid of one theory.Americans don't consume more health carethan people in these other countries.We don't go to the doctor more than the Germansor the Japanese. In fact we go to the doctor less.The difference between us and themis that we pay more.Every time we go to the doctor for everythingfrom an angioplasty to a hip replacementfrom a c-sectionto a pain reliever.In America, the price for the same procedureat the same hospital, it varies enormouslydepending on who is footing the bill.The price for someone with public insurancelike Medicare or Medicaid is often the lowest price.These groups he covers so many peoplethat the government can demand lower prices from hospitals and doctorsand they get those lower prices.If the doctors and hospitals say 'No'they lose a ton of business.They lose all those people on Medicareall those people on Medicaid.But there are hundreds of private insurance companiesAnd they each cover far fewer people thana Medicare or a Medicaid.And each one has to negotiate pricesand hospitals and doctors are on their own.And if you're uninsured, you have even less leverage.Nobody is negotiating on your behalf.So you end up paying the highest price.One study found that most hospitals charge uninsuredpatients four timesas much as Medicare patients for an ER visit.Other countries, they don't have this problem.Instead of every private insurance companynegotiating with every healthcare provider.There's just this big list.The country, the central government, they goand they say,...