I recently had a medical scare and was immediately seen by a nurse practitioner who is apparently “the” expert at diagnosis for the doctor I was referred to. Immediately after she saw me, she set me up to take diagnostic tests. That was five weeks ago.

Next week, I’ll finally get those diagnostic tests done. I registered for them at three major facilities, two attached to distinguished medical schools, and I live in a metro area, so you wouldn’t think I’d have to twiddle my nervous thumbs for so long. Such, however, is the state of healthcare in America, when urgent tests are subject to socialized medicine wait times.

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I’m faced with a potentially scary diagnosis, I want “right now” information. I called each facility every few days, hoping for an earlier cancellation, to no avail. Someone else will get lucky when I cancel two of my three appointments.

I figured more people than just me would game the system that way, trying not to self-destruct during the long wait, and, with three choices, that I’d get in quickly. I’ve done it before for less serious things, like an MRI on my torn meniscus. This time, I got nowhere. Everyone was very nice, but I guess resources are strained to the max.

Image by peoplecreations.

While researching why this is occurring, I happened upon this article from the American Institute for Economic Research. It explains that Medicare has cut reimbursement to physicians yet again, leaving them 30% behind the rate of inflation.

Looking at my quarterly Medicare statements, I always note that the doctors don’t get a heck of a lot from the government program. Don’t quote me on this because I haven’t kept all the flotillas of paper they send me, but I’d venture to say, at most, 10% of the billed amount is reimbursed.

I know that when I had major Achilles surgery seven years ago, I wondered how the hospital could afford to do the work, given the low reimbursement rate. And that was long before the government cut it even further.

It’s not just Medicare, either. Over my work lifetime, I paid a ton of insurance premiums and got very little back in terms of care. I always felt that the system was broken.

Lab tests that were billed at $600 or so were paid at $60. Honestly, that’s not enough to keep the door open, pay the worker collecting blood, pay for processing the tests, and do the paperwork involved.

When I needed an MRI before I retired, my insurer would only pay for it to be done at an outdated facility. My orthopedist had to hunt for a computer that would play the disc with the results—an ancient computer used by his bookkeeper. When he loaded the disc (yeah, this was even before stuff was all handled online), the quality was so bad that it showed practically nothing. We had to wing it on treatment.

Back then (maybe mid-2010s?), an MRI at the state-of-the-art place was about $1200, and it was $600 at that cheap place. My latest one, done last year, was billed at $12,000 plus. If I recall, Medicare paid less than 1/20th of that amount. I suspect if you’re uninsured, you’re simply out of luck.

Anyone who needs medical services and who is dumb enough to remain un- or under-insured is stuck with a huge bill, and that bill is not forgiven from what I can see (unless you’re an illegal alien, on welfare, or homeless, where I suspect you pay zilch). A family member who had an unanticipated emergency C-section got stuck with $13,000 in bills despite being insured because the family’s coverage wasn’t adequate.

Back in the mid-1980s (i.e., ancient times), I started writing a proposal to fix medical insurance. If I remember correctly I suggested that everyone should be able to self-insure except for catastrophic coverage. Money deducted from paychecks for medical care would be divided: a small portion for a mass group pool for catastrophic events, with the rest going into a personal health savings account.

When you’re young and healthy, paying huge monthly insurance costs and never using insurance is like throwing money away. If we could personally invest the money instead, growing it into a nest egg earmarked “medical” and made available as needed, most people would be far better off. They’d control their money and choose how to spend it. As things stand, it’s never “your” money being spent, so why worry?

As a Medicare recipient now, I would be penalized heavily if I didn’t enroll in the system. Big Brother is not benign and does not it have our best interests in mind. I suspect things will continue to deteriorate. I can only hope the medical schools, at least, throw out the DEI BS and go back to training people with a chance of succeeding at the craft of medicine.