Oh, I'm not saying they don't want money up front, but they can't want "the whole deductible" as that is against all costs, not each cost. Some could require you to put up the co-pay for each appt, I get that, by it a set amount or percentage. For example when I had my hysterectomy, the doc and hospital required we pay our estimated 20% up front. That's an inconvenience but makes sense.
Are you meaning to say copay? It just that one doesn't pay one's deductible to doctors. Now if one's deductible isn't used up, then the doctor can require you to pay upfront for full appt, but they can't take your entire deductible unless your immediate care from him/her is going to be at least as much as the deductibles. Since most insurance has deductibles $1000-5000, I find it hard to believe one doc appt could be that expensive. Sounds like what you have are fraudulent docs trying to take advantage of stupid, scared people.
I agree entirely, and this is part of what ACA is trying to resolve. It won't resolve all of them, some will still not have insurance, some will have insurance but not the copay to go the doc instead of the ER, but it should help lots and lots that are a bit better off than that, but not well enough off to afford insurance and copays as they stood till this month.
1. Time of day. Emergency rooms see many things that could be handled during the day at a reg doc, but surprisingly things hurt and bother much worse in the evening and night when we are not so busy and we just notice it more. So often the final straw of willingness to suffer is reached at night.
So then tell me how the lack of regulation for the past..... forever! has helped. The number one thing ACA does to help this is by acting as a representative of the general public which individually has no ability to tell docs to charge less or insurance to pay doctors less, or insurance to pay the docs and not so much to themselves.... So ACA has a provision for the insurance companies that 80 or 85% of all insurance payments must go to medical care. That should help because the insurance companies will begin to put pressure on these costs that to date only Medicare has done since things like refusing treatment to pre-existing conditions won't be the way they pad there bottom lines.
Except for Medicare/Medicaid refusing to pay over a certain amount for procedures. Please don't just talk out of your ass, tell me where medical price regulations through the gov't exist. I await.
Who exactly "regulated" that insurance companies have to be between the producers and the consumers? What layers are you speaking of otherwise. Please be specific and give links as it appears you're talking out your ass.
Just because they can doesn't mean they do. I've never seen a patient turned away, my kids were never turned away, my dad was a doc a Southwest Med Center in San Antonio, where the county ER was, maybe still is. I'm not ignorant. But I was always insured, perhaps they'll take non-emergency insured patients, is that what you're saying?
Bless your heart.