The first call was the worst because I didn't have my scripting down and was testing the waters to see what the standards are for the procedure. I reached a receptionist named Edward, told him about the lack of insurance and need for the procedure, ending with a simple request for a price range (emphasis, again, on range) that includes, office visit, consultation, lab work, procedure, and anything and everything else associated. His first line of defense, "Well, I can't really tell you that. You'll have to come in."
"Well, can you transfer me to someone who can give me an estimate?"
"The nurses assistant (I think that's what he said) would know, but they are all busy."
"Ok, is there anyone else you can transfer me to who can give me a number?"
"Hold on, let me ask." Wait for a few minutes with the nice elevator music. "It's really hard to say without a consultation. Can you come in so we can look at it?"
"I don't have insurance. I understand that a lot of places offer free consultation. Even then, you understand that it's not feasible for me to go around to every office for the free consultation in order to get a quote..."
"Yeah, I appreciate your situation...If you had insurance it would be much easier..." *sigh* Face-palm moment. If I, or anyone else had insurance, I wouldn't be calling you. I'd call my fucking doctor. Anyway. "Well, it'll be *blah blah blah* for the procedure. I urge you to go to a well-known place. It is your health we are talking about." And he went on about how good the practice is, by which time I zoned out.
"Yes, I understand. I picked you first actually because I heard good things about you." Lie. I found them on yelp.com. There were two good reviews.
And so it went on.
Apparently, I became rather well known in the office fairly quickly. When I called back, not five minutes later, a woman answered the phone. I barely started explaining the situation to her when she interrupted, "Oh! You were talking to Edward! Let me transfer you!" Oh! Thanks for your bubbly personality and your unwillingness to talk to me or even listen to my question! Poor Edward. He once again had to bug the doctors to get an answer to my question and once again lamented my lack of insurance and once again urged me to make an appointment.
To be honest, I really did appreciate everything he did for me. I've been on the other side with persistent customers with unusual requests. It's really good service when he left his station to get answers for me.
The rest of the calls went more or less smoothly. I changed my scripting to, "Hi my name is...., and I know this is a difficult question to answer, however, I don't have insurance and I'm looking for a quote for ____ procedure that includes, consultation, procedure and lab work." With that, I got a bit of a spiel of the dependence of the price on the type of procedure (it seems like quite a few people don't really understand the concept of range), but mostly I got the two numbers out of them.
I can't help but think that maybe part of what ails our healthcare is the lack of transparency of prices. Why shouldn't the doctors offices or hospitals know how much a procedure should be? Why shouldn't the patients be able to shop around for an estimate, kind of like car insurance? I can see the pitfalls, such as in an emergency situation, I might not have the time or be conscious enough to make a decision. However, for a majority of procedures, I'd bet that this will help bring down the cost of medical care.
I was listening to a podcast by The Economist talking about two opposing view points on the US health reform bill from two Britons. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to be able to respect the opposing view point. He brought up a good argument that the biggest problem is the cost, even Obama acknowledges this because he said that healthcare spendings is taking up 16-17% GDP. However, the present bill does not do enough to control cost. Based on my earlier experience that day, I thought that if we made the market more open and forced consumers to face the numbers of the procedures we are choosing, it'll put a downward pressure on the market prices.
Throughout my talks with various people about healthcare, I've been surprised to learn that my view of the insurance companies as evil was not shared by even a majority of people. In my group of friends, I've been able to learn other likely causes and has been persuaded to change my mind, even about universal healthcare from the federal government. I find it frustrating that we lack exactly this type of productive, educating, and enlightening dialogue furthering the knowledge of both parties at the national level. It's especially sad that the two major Parties cannot even talk to each other to form a compromise that takes the best of both idealogical standpoints, since to my knowledge, implementing one does not necessarily mean the exclusion of the other. That's why it was so surprising and satisfying to listen to these two English guys talking about healthcare, disagreeing with each other on certain points, but ceding others based on common goals, and having a civil debate. When can we move beyond "You lie!" and "Baby killer!" and reach that point in our national dialogue?
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