Thomas Sowell, checkups and mental health

A while back I wrote a letter about Thomas Sowell comparing apples and bowling balls, rather than apples and oranges. On Aug. 13 he did it again.

In his editorial about health care, he said insurance should cover only major medical expenses. Annual checkups can be planned for, since they occur each year.

What if an annual checkup showed the need for an MRI test? I know someone who was billed $17,000 for an MRI. Would that be part of the annual checkup cost?

It seems to me that the cost of annual checkups is a very small part of health care costs, and it is unlikely to reduce total costs very much. Besides, encouraging annual checkups is good preventive medicine, and it helps keep long term cost down.

He compared an oil change on a car with an annual medical checkup. Both can be called routine, but an oil change costs around $35. An annual checkup will be a lot more than that.

He also derided "mental health" coverage. Apparently he is so perfect that he doesn't believe people can have problems with their brains. If this is true, San Joaquin County can save a bundle of money by closing its mental health system.

Reuven Epstein
Galt

Reader Feedback

dogs4you wrote on Aug 31, 2009 9:09 PM:

" Leonard, read my checking account, it says the `ol dog paid out 10 bucks co-pay for the MRI that his Doctor ordered. You might be refering to the money I pay on a monthly basis. Never the less some of the test and procedures I have had done this year would cost triple than what I pay either in co-pay or monthly dues. Glad I have Kaiser. For my eye exam, outside of Kaiser well over $450.00, Kaiser wanted and got $10.00 co-pay. Now stop ragging on me. "

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Leonard wrote on Aug 31, 2009 8:55 PM:

" The co-pay you pay for an MRI if you have insurance is only a small fraction of the actual cost. "

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Gator wrote on Aug 31, 2009 4:32 PM:

" My wife just had a MRI @the Boise Spine institute and because her insurance was a California based company it cost us $ 500.00 out of
pocket. It was clean as a hounds tooth, worth every penny. Now when
we switch over to Mutual of Omaha in October that’s when she turns
65 and her old employer cuts the cord…The cost would be a 10.00
Co-pay.. "

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dogs4you wrote on Aug 31, 2009 1:17 PM:

" It is very difficult for me to believe that an MRI would cost $17,000 dollars. As a matter of fact I don`t believe it. I wrote a letter to the editor last week, it concerned Kaiser Permanente. It seemed some bloggers didn`t beleive me when I stated that I paid nothing but a co-pay for all services that were rendered for me. That included an MRI, which other than a co-pay of $10.00 was the entire amount I paid. Also for blood test and X-rays, the co-pay was the entire amount. True different people pay different co-pays depending on their plan. Hopefully this will clear up any questions the disbeliever has in what I stated. Kaiser Permanente at one time had a buzz word, Good People, Good Medicine, though times have changed the Good People, Good Medicine has not. "

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Jerome R. Kinderman wrote on Aug 31, 2009 10:23 AM:

" A $17,000 MRI? A cursory investigation into the average cost of such a procedure sets it between $400 and $4,000 - a far cry from $17,000.

There must have been something very special going on that would have anyone billed so much for the test. Could it have simply been an error? If not, I'd sure like to know more about this test. "

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