Originally Posted by Kodiakisland
The biggest problem with what healthcare charges is most people don't have a clue what they are being charged for. They have no idea how many people are behind the scenes that they never see.

Want to talk cost of drugs. Fine. Our inpatient pharmacy operates 24/7. To cover every shift, every day requires a lot of pharmacists and technicians. To have the drugs on the shelves when you need them requires several people who only work supply. Unfortunately, all those people need management and their support. Oh yeah, those drugs have to be in stock in sufficient amounts. It's not a small amount in inventory that is there just in case that never gets used, but it has to be there just the same. How much mark up has to be made just to break even? It's not a little.

Now, that pharmacy has bills whether we have patients or not. Equipment, cleaning staff, utilities. It's not free. Same goes for every department in the hospital. You may see one nurse, but there are many people behind her that are required for her to give you treatment. The hospital overall has to have admin and HR plus all the costs of providing them a place to work. All those people have to be there whether we see one patient or 100.

Doctors? They certainly don't come for free and you may encounter several along the way.

If your hospital bill had a breakdown of everything you were paying for you would never finish reading it. You see three people while you're in but don't see the other 50 that are there making sure you can be taken care of. You certainly don't see all the millions of dollars worth of equipment that is there just so you can be taken care of.

Then factor in all the people we have to take care of that we know we won't cover expenses. How many businesses are required to sell products below cost or just give them away?

Of course, some of you just want to bitch and don't really want to know what's going on, so bitch away.
Sorry but to put it succinctly, horseshit.