Mighty pricey, this Prostate Cancer stuff.

The costs you got are typical of insurance, artificially inflated to give you an artificial discount when, in reality, your deductible likely covered it.

I had long discussions with my health providers about this. My urologist told me he makes about $1,200 per surgery, a nice living, but not anywhere close to the over $100K the insurance says the whole thing cost (of course that includes everything, but at scale, surgery cost < $10K).

@xahnegrey40 You are saying it like it is. Having been in healthcare for over 40 yrs - and having many friends scattered in different parts of it - I finally came to realize that all of our problems are caused by insurance itself.
Without going into all the complex fee systems, middlemen, etc, just close your eyes and imagine this: NO INSURANCE…
Just like everything else, the health market would find its own level. If one store charges $500 for an item, bet your life that there’s another selling the same thing for $400…and another for $300 and so on until they all charge the same lower price. People drive the market and if people are unwilling to pay X, then you have to drop your price. This domino effect would go up the chain from providers to suppliers, labs and hospitals - including exorbitant executive pay packages for those at the top.
If no one can AFFORD to buy your product then you either drop the price or go out of business…no other outcomes are possible!
The very existence of a pot of gold (insurance company $$ or literally someone else’s $$) waiting to be tapped engenders all these side hustlers (middlemen) who drive up the cost of doing business by taking their piece of the action. It’s capitalism gone wrong, twisted into its worst possibility.
And in the US it is basically illegal for a hospital or doctor to refuse to treat a patient who cannot pay; but instead of fixing THAT problem, the insurance companies bang the rest of us who DO pay…totally unfair.
An ER doc told me that a man - recently arrived in NYC and holding a suitcase - showed up in the ER with a letter from his doctor in Guatemala describing what surgical procedures he needed to mend a failing heart.
Of course the man had no $$ and no insurance.
The hospital provided over a Million $$ worth of treatment and received only a pittance from the Emergency Medicaid system…another slush fund funded by the rest of us thru some legislative sleight of hand…
Your statement is not politics - it’s reality - and I certainly offer no solution to the problem, but it seems that common sense has gone out the window.
As I write this I am listening to a congressman arguing with a talking head about the government shut down….every other word is INSURANCE!
It’s like some over arching presence in our lives and our government; everything revolves around it; and now our very legislative system is choked by it.
Our Congress should grow a pair, stop taking PAC $$, and come down hard on this industry. Drive it out of business if need be and reset the true order of things.
Charity is a noble virtue and should be practiced - but reasonably and not to the detriment of the rest of us. Patient dumping on ERs and hospitals - that’s what should be illegal - NOT the act of not treating them. Legislators should get off their butts and FIX the problem, not give insurance company execs seats in Congress…
Best,
Phil

@heavyphil Yes, the insurance issues are challenging, and we just had a Medicare review last week, but if there’s no insurance and you can’t afford treatment, the only logical solution is to die. I just completed month 10 of Orgovyx, a pretty expensive med, but my pharmacy found a PAN Foundation grant , funded by charitable donations, to cover all my coinsurance this year. A simple solution would be great, but I don’t have one to offer.

Hopefully, you won’t need further medications - those monthly cots are prohibitive!

@jime51 yeah, that’s the problem : these charitable patches are going to be running out of steam…we need a comprehensive plan for everyone who wants to pay for one; different tiers, different levels of coverage.
There’s no way to convince a healthy 26 yr old that his participation in a plan can help a 75 yr old patient - but make his plan affordable and maybe he’d understand, right?

@heavyphil Yes, the insurance issues are challenging, and we just had a Medicare review last week, but if there’s no insurance and you can’t afford treatment, the only logical solution is to die. I just completed month 10 of Orgovyx, a pretty expensive med, but my pharmacy found a PAN Foundation grant , funded by charitable donations, to cover all my coinsurance this year. A simple solution would be great, but I don’t have one to offer.

I've seen a lot of positive comments here in the forum about Medicare Advantage (part C). The other night, I started watching a piece from John Oliver's show that presented a very different view, including inflated billings to government (which wouldn't affect patients) and problems getting pre-approvals or finding doctors in-network (which would).

I haven't finished watching it yet, so there might be more, but I'd be interested in hearing from American forum members, especially those who watched the piece. How well did it align with your own experience? With Medicare Advantage, have you personally had significant delays getting pre-approvals for your cancer care, or trouble with doctors (and hospitals) moving in and out of network? Or are those issues that affect only a small minority of participants?

p.s. Yes, I know about John Oliver's political alignment, and am making allowances for that.