Charles Silver and David A. Hyman, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato Institute, 2018.

It would be hard to believe all the outrages described in Overcharged if public information and personal experience didn’t back them up so much. We all know that medical costs are skyrocketing. This book goes into many of the details and provides a comprehensive explanation.

A number of my experiences make more sense in the light of what I’ve read there. One time a full surgical team, including an anesthesiologist, showed up for a procedure to remove a routine sebaceous cyst from my scalp. I had already said I didn’t want general anesthesia, and I continued to refuse it. I’m sure he got paid anyway. Fortunately, I had very good insurance at the time.

Another time I underwent a biopsy for prostate cancer because of elevated PSA. It turned out negative. I had recently had a bladder infection, which is a common cause of high PSA, but the doctor didn’t care that it was most likely a false positive. I won’t go into how disgusting the prep, the procedure, and the aftereffects are. Once I sued a doctor for overcharging, only to learn that in New Hampshire, you can’t sue a doctor in small claims court without an expert witness. (At least that was what he told the judge, and she didn’t contradict him.) In terms of practical economics, that means you can’t sue a doctor in small claims court. We all know that the very idea of getting a price or even an estimate in advance for a medical procedure is a joke, even though it’s expected for any other big-ticket expenditure.
(more…)