Unit Pricing And Comparison Shopping: Fill & Download for Free

Price and outcomes.The US has incredibly expensive health care. I mean incredibly expensive. Health care is one of the biggest for-profit industries in the country. A long time ago, some enterprising capitalists figured out that if you sell a product that people have to have or they will literally die, if you conceal the price of the product, and if you design the product in such a way that people can’t comparison shop, you can charge any price you want.As a result, well…A few weeks ago, I slipped with a razor knife and cut myself at the base of my thumb. I needed four stitches.The stitches were removed two days ago. It really wasn’t that big a deal:So far, I have received two bills.This for four stitches and a tetanus booster. Total price (so far):$2,603.45.I don’t have insurance. I do qualify for subsidized insurance under the ACA. My price for a basic plan is $570/month with a $6,000 deductible.Conservatives blather about how the US has such expensive healthcare because it’s sooooo good and American hospitals have the best equipment and Americans do all this research and…Ah HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.Some of them, they…they actually…BWAH ha ha ha…they actually believe that.This torrent of money doesn’t go into healthcare. A huge volume of it goes into health insurance profits. Every dollar an insurance company takes in profit or overhead is a dollar that isn’t going to treatment and isn’t going to pretty shiny machines that go beep and isn’t going to research.Libertarians love to talk about how the market promotes efficiency. Which is true. It promotes efficiency at making profit, which is not necessarily the same as efficiency at delivering goods and services.The outcomes of this system are plain:Shorter lifespan than other developed countriesHigher infant mortality than other countriesEvidence demolishes ideology. If the US had cutting edge healthcare, you would expect it to be expensive but effective.It’s not. It’s expensive but delivers inferior results.Part of that is the unequal access, of course, but part of it is by design. Because the goal of American healthcare is profit, not treatment, it discourages preventive care and regular checkups, which are low-margin services, in favor of dramatic interventions for serious conditions, which are high-margin services.This isn’t a grand conspiracy. It’s the natural consequence of a system tuned to maximize profit instead of maximizing number of people cared for.Edited to add: It’s now several months later and the bills are still coming in. Since posting this answer, I’ve received yet another bill, this one for $816.25.That brings the total bill (so far) for four stitches to:$3,419.70

Question: “Why does a power wheelchair cost as much as a car?”A primary reason for the inflated cost of Power Wheelchairs and Mobility Scooters in the United States is that the “buyers” seldom pay for the things themselves and have little or no interest in the cost.Look at this typical advertising copy for a FREE Power Wheelchair.✓ You get a FREE Informational kit✓ You get a FREE Mobility Consultation✓ We work with your doctor & your insurance to complete the necessary paperwork✓ With Medicare & private insurance, your Hoveround could cost you little to nothing*✓ You get FREE delivery & in-home training**It is followed by the bold print claim that:9 out of 10 people get their Hoveround for little to nothing!* CALL US TO LEARN MOREThe majority of users of Power Wheelchairs and Mobility Scooters in the United States:Did NOT comparison shop.Did NOT negotiate the price.Did NOT care, and in many instances did not even ask, what the price was.In a lot of instances did NOT NEED the deviceRather, the purchase price was paid by a third party, either an insurance company or Medicare. In either instance, the user/owner either did not pay for the device at all or had the highly inflated price heavily subsidized. By whom? You actually, as an insured person through your premiums or as a taxpayer.Moreover, a large percentage of the Power Wheelchairs and Mobility Scooters you are paying for were not medically required. Rather they were push marketed by high pressure Medical Equipment Marketers to customers as a Free Benefit …whether they actually needed the Power Wheelchair or Mobility Scooter or not.Although the devices are sold and used by those who truly need them, the customer does not necessarily have to have a medical need for the device.Many of the Medical Equipment Marketers (a LOT of them are located in Florida) pay medical doctors fees or kickbacks to “examine” customers and prescribe the need for a very expensive Power Wheel Chair or Mobility Scooter. Interestingly, they never determine that perhaps there is no need or that physical therapy or exercise, or weight loss would be a better option. The Equipment Marketer, using the diagnosis supplied by its employee, a corrupt doctor, will then using employees who are medical billing and insurance specialists, prepare and submit claims on behalf of their customer to either an insurance company or Medicare.But the corruption goes beyond even that. The Medical Equipment Marketers pay people for leads and even pay people (often drug addicts or the homeless) who have no conceivable need or desire for a Power Wheel Chair or Mobility Scooter to serve as “names” for a fraudulent insurance or Medicare claim.Anytime you have the combination of a corrupt organization willing to engage in insurance or Medicare fraud (and many if not most of the Florida based Medical Equipment Supply Companies are that) and customers who do not have to pay for objects they want, and corrupt doctors, and third party payees you will inevitably have inflated prices and huge profits that attract more corrupt companies. And that will radically distort the price paid for an object.But the market distortion that results from how Powered Wheel Chairs and Mobility Scooters are marketed and paid for in the United States goes farther than that. The system makes expensive used Powered Wheel Chairs and Mobility Scooters, barely used and in perfect condition, essentially unsaleable. For why would anyone buy a used one when they can get a new one “For Free”?Note: It cannot be argued either that these are high technology devices with high development costs that must be amortized or that they are have limited sales and do not benefit from economies of scale. Powered wheel chairs and mobility scooters are less complex than e-bicycles or golf carts. Their components, and often the entire units, are sourced from low cost Asian suppliers. And the 2021 market size for them is $2.9 BILLION, and the revenue forecast for 2028 for them is $4.9 BILLON.

Target has one that I’ve found a little irritating. Many stores, especially the grocery chains in my area, have price tags that show you the sale price, but also a unit price, such as a cost per ounce. It allows for easy comparisons of value. If you look around, you’ll quickly see that the larger, but more expensive packages, are usually a better overall value than smaller ones. Of course, you have to also decide if you can afford the larger initial outlay, and whether or not you’ll use the larger quantity before it spoils. But this simply tool is invaluable in deciding what to buy, and in determining the store’s pricing practices and comparing to other stores.Target, apparently, doesn’t want you to do this. They don’t post unit prices, which requires you to do a little math or download a price comparison app. That’s fine; I can see the business decision behind discouraging open price comparisons.But if you do take the time to do that math, you’ll notice something else that Target likes to do. It’s generally expected that larger packages will be a slightly better value at the unit-price level. That’s not the case in Target. Compare different sized packages of Bounty paper towels, for example. Divide the cost by the number of sheets in the package (listed in small text near the bottom of the package front), then do the same for the other packages. What you’ll find, most of the time, is that the best value is actually the middle-sized package. The larger package is often the most expensive per-unit.Try it again with ziploc bags, or toilet paper, or anything else that comes in variable sizes, and you’ll probably find the same.Target has taken to not only discouraging price comparisons, but also to taking advantage of your expectations to get a few more pennies out of you for thinking larger must mean better value. They know people will gravitate towards the larger packages, thinking they’re getting a better deal, and they actually price those items slightly higher for it.I still shop there, mind you. I like the stores, and even with this, the prices are still often good. But it was an odd little game to play for a few pennies extra here and there. I do wish they would get on board with unit pricing like everyone else in the area, and exercise a little transparency.