Epic Fail by CNN Health Care Shoppers
CNN reports that uninsured semi-retired American, Godfrey Davies, needed nasal polyps removed and that the best price the intrepid shopper could find for the procedure in the United States was $33,127 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Davies promptly proceeded to demonstrate the superiority of government run health care systems by purchasing a round-trip airline ticket to his native Wales for $768 and having the procedure done there for about $3,500.
But the CNN report got it all wrong.
On Pajamas Media, Dr. Peter Weiss explains that the CNN story overestimates US surgery prices by a factor of 10. He did a simple web search on prices for Mr. Davies’ surgery. At the first web listing in Indianapolis, Dr. Weiss was quoted a price of $3,440. In high cost Los Angeles, the quoted price was around $4,000.
With airfare, Mr. Davies could have saved money by having the surgery done in the United States.
The moral? Don’t hire CNN or Mr. Davies to be your personal shopper. And keep in mind that CNN, in this simple and easily verifiable case, does not appear to do a good job of getting the facts straight in its health care reporting.
CNN is often wrong.
I suspect that that Mr. Davies had his mind made up to traveling to Wales in the first place. When he was quoted an outrageous price, he didn’t ask for a discount for paying cash in advance. Had he offered cash in advance, the price likely would have fallen to reasonable levels.
He probably didn’t call anywhere else because he probably knew he could easily travel to his native country and get it cheaper.
So, let’s understand this. A patient goes to number of doctors who examine him and give him estimates for the cost of a procedure based on that examination. A blogger who hasn’t seen the patient or knows anything about the specifics of the case goes to the internet and asks around Why should the blogger be believed and the patient’s report of what he was actually told by physicians not be believed?
Doing research just isn’t as much fun as buying a ticket to Wales and getting to be featured on CNN.
There is nothing in the story to suggest that Mr. Davies had a complex condition. The private hospital in Wales quoted him roughly the same price as the American outpatient centers. In addition, there are no data to suggest that UK private health care costs for common conditions are 1/10th the cost of cash based US care for the same common conditions.
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