Emergency

[Paul de Denus]

For the medically uninsured, an emergency room visit is enough to have one admitted. Depending where you live, just walking in the door, talking to the admitting nurse and then signing in can cost about $700.

At the time, none of this matters of course because you’re in discomfort and scared and you’ve panicked because you can’t find the term to describe how your wife is feeling. All of it is surreal for almost four hours and after several tests including an EKG and a radiologist scan, they let you go home with prescription and advice to see a follow-up doctor in their network; it’s when you get the bill for using the ER facility ($upper four figures$) then independently (even though they are in the ER) the radiologist bill and the nurse practitioner bill and the follow-up doctor visit bill that you really feel you need to be admitted.

Ask for a discount; if you pay right away you can get 30%-60% off. The poor are written off and the rich aren’t concerned but for the uninsured middle-class (those who are of the wrong age, uninsurable because of that age and/or with pre-existing conditions and one catastrophe from losing everything because they will take it from you) it’s the biggest bubble waiting to burst, enough to give one a reason to move to a country that offers a socialized medicine plan.

[Angela]

Let's all vote for someone who thinks the way we do.

[Jenny]

This is an important issue that cuts deep. Without at least a base line health care system, folks are forced to go to the ER for treatment, which is notoriously expensive, and fore-go routine medical care. Do the feds really think that is the way to run a health care system? This topic is rife with politics. Anxiously awaiting the results of the current case to cut "Obama-care" out of our social fabric.

[Brittany]

Paul, it makes me so angry just reading this. My son has epilepsy and it is ridiculous to think that here in Dubai when he was first officially diagnosed we got the Dr. consultation, bloodwork, a CAT scan with spectrometer, an EEG and finally medication all for 4000 dhs which is $1,111.00 US and it all happened in one day! The first seizure he had in the US the ambulance alone cost us $400.00 and that was transport from a local hospital to a children's hospital 10 minutes away. So many are just one catastrophe from losing everything…how right you are!

[Teresa]

@Mike ~ My son's occupational therapy is $120/hr which I pay out of pocket every week until we meet our outrageously high deductible near Christmas every year (plus $180/week for speech that our insurance will never cover). Once our deductible is met my insurance pays the OT center $97 per session which they gladly take.  It's a game.  I think treatments are overpriced because the medical establishment realized that insurance companies are going to skimp on payment.  And we patients have to eat the difference.  We are squeezed shamelessly.

[Mike Handley]

And the un-insured middle-class schmucks (who can't afford to pay $400 to $600 a month for coverage) pay more than the rich insurance companies pay. Why does it cost uninsured John Doe $400 for a procedure, when the doctor will accept an insurance payoff (same procedure) of $120? Why even have two fucking prices for the same thing?

[Sandra Davies]

Ouch indeed.   Having to pay is becoming more prevalent here - dentists for example - but to have to add, every time, money worries to health worries is horrific.   As an organisation the NHS is struggling but in general and in my experience, you cannot fault the staff.

And I hope the recovery was swift and complete.

[Teresa]

Ouch.  And a second look at those bills might reveal that some things charged for weren't even done.  Mistakes are made and patients don't notice because of the foreign terminology.  Even something as simple as a one vs a two view chest x-ray would be a significant cost difference.  A pill can cost $20 or more, a pill you might have declined but were charged for anyway.  A fine-tooth comb is in order.  I hope the patient is feeling better.  I hope the wallet feels better soon.

[Gita]

Paul, this happened to me two months ago. Initial bill: $11,680 for ER and two days thereafter in hospital. Then the doctor bills started arriving on top of that.

By contrast, my parents' costs for MAJOR  illnesses and heart bypass surgery in Canada was: $0.

I am SO with you on this matter. Every western European nation has national health care, some better than others, but over all, far better than the traumatic cost to us here in the USA.  Life expectancy in Canada exceeds that in the United States. I am sorry for your troubles. I hope the wife in this piece is doing better.