A huge chunk of the world makes no sense. Take the so-called "health care" world (in quotes because "health" hardly seems like the goal of the system). Recently my spouse was confronted with an episode of atrial fibrillation--basically, an elevated, irregular heartbeat. She spent one night in the hospital--ONE FRICKIN' NIGHT. No surgery, nothing special except an echocardiogram, a couple of drugs, and the standard types of monitors.
The bill for one night in the hospital? TEN THOUSAND dollars! ($10,118.85, to be precise) Now, insurance will pay for $5129.69 of that, and another $4544.59 is an "insurance discount," whatever the hell that is. That leaves us to pay $444.57. I guess one says at this point, thank goodness for health insurance--but isn't there something terribly wrong here?
Also, Helen's arrhythmia was measured in a clinic, and because she was so irregular, they insisted that she take an ambulance to the hospital. And what was the ambulance bill (separate from the hospital bill)? A mere $1445--$1265 for the 9-mile ride to the hospital, plus another $180 ($20 per mile) in mileage. Insurance is paying $1156 of that, leaving us to pony up the remaining $289.
So, the total for both, for 24 hours of care: $11,563.85. If that isn't a case for health care reform, I don't know what is. This is no way to run a railroad.
1 comment:
How ridiculous. At least insurance is paying for most of the costs (but the costs shouldn't have been so high in the first place).
I often wonder just how long it'll be before people can afford to stay healthy in this country...
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