Well, once again, we the people have lost.

[Ms. Toad]

172. You are aware that you get a huge discount because you have insurance

and that the uninsured are actually subsidizing you, if they are paying their own bill, right?

We have been billed $23,500 for health care so far this year. The providers accepted $14,400 because we have insurance. If we did not have insurance, we would have been required to pay the entire amount. Labs are paid at 10% - 25% of what is billed, and physicians are paid at 40% - 80% of what is billed. the biggest write-down was 93% on a lab bill, the smallest was 5% on a vaccine.

Check out your own EOBs sometime. You may be surprised.

That $9100 the providers didn't receive for me doesn't just vanish. The actual cost for our care was somewhat higher than the $14,400 that was accepted, and the actual cost for the care of the similarly situated uninsured person was quite a bit lower than $23,500 billed.