I can’t believe people are blaming him and yet no one is saying good god almighty, WHY does it cost that much?
I suggest everyone here read How We Do Harm by Otis Webb Brawley, an excellent book about the ridiculousness of our healthcare .
Sure, it’s an outrageous amount. But nothing stops a person who is not having an actual medical emergency from negotiating price before treatment, and walking out if it sounds too high. I know none of us were trained to do that for medical services, but it think we should start.
I think Brawley’s book is outstanding. I read it a while back.
But we don’t really need it to answer this question. One reason it costs that much is that, in a place where there is no universal, single-payer health care, and where most emergency rooms are still required to treat people regardless of their ability to pay, the hospitals themselves face a dilemma. They have to keep treating people with no money, and yet they also need revenue so that they can keep running. What they do, as a result, is get as much as they possibly can from people who can afford to pay (and their insurance companies) in order to offset the people who can’t.
It’s not true to say that the United States has no socialized medicine. We have plenty of socialized medicine. Except, instead of socializing health care costs across the whole population through a tax-supported national system, like Canada or a bunch of European countries, we socialize our health-care costs on a more local level, stiffing the people who get sick and who have the money to pay in order to provide mandated care for those who don’t.
Obviously, this rather simplistic little vignette misses a lot of things, like the power of insurance companies, the distinctions between public and private hospitals, etc., etc. But one reason that ER costs often seem so disproportionate is that, when you pay for an ER visit, you’re not only paying for your own care, but for the care of the indigent person who just got brought in with hypothermia, and for the uninsured person who brought his kids to the ER for their flu symptoms.
I figured it cost that much so people would stop going to emergency rooms for a cut on their finger. Seems like a good idea really.
Can you even stitch up a wound that is several days old? I think there is a window for stitches that is only a few hours, so the guy wasn’t going to get stitches no matter where he went.
He really made a bad call by going to the ER.
Is there anyone in the US who doesn’t know by now that you are going to get a large bill from and ER? and don’t most people’s insurance cards have a note about calling them before going to the hospital for anything not life-threatening? mine does, and so have most of the ones I’ve had.
The biggest chunk of the bill was probably overhead, anyway. Keeping a hospital building open, powered, secure, and soforth is expensive all by itself.
That was my hope, that it was an idiot fee charged on top of their standard rate.
Please tell me you aren’t serious. Is it not a better idea that your taxes take care of the medical treatment that your condition demands. Surely that is simpler (and as we know from previous threads…cheaper)
Relevant and current anecdote time.
I’m a UK citizen currently on holiday in Austria. Last Saturday while hiking a gorge with my family I was bitten just above the hairline by something, mozzie, horsefly, spider…who knows.
I had irritation that afternoon but by the morning my face had swollen up so badly that my eyes were almost shut.
I went to the nearest hospital and checked in to the “ambulance” section (A&E). That took me 5 minutes and consisted of me giving them my passport details and a copy of my E1-11 card (which ensures reciprocal national health care across the EU).
I was seen in 10 minutes, had blood taken, BP, resp, and cardiac checks done, put on several drips and was in my private room and presented with a pot of peppermint tea within 30 minutes.
They were concerned over delayed anaphylaxis and infection so kept me in overnight while getting further tests done and released me the next day with a prescription. They treated me wonderfully. Everything clean and efficient and nothing too much trouble.
When I checked out they apologetically presented me with a bill for out-of-pocket expenses not covered by the E1-11.
The grand total?
19.76 Euro.
(24.96 if you include the 5.20 Euro that I spent on a superb coffee and marillen topfenstrudel-kuchen in the hospital cafe)
That is a real-world example of how it can work. That is what you want from a health service, not doorstep-negotiations over prices as you clutch your bleeding stump.
What would similar treatment have cost in the USA?
What additional work would I have to do to deal with my insurance company?
What consequences would it have for coverage in the future?
Just in case you are in any doubt here. This was a foreign country and the only paperwork I had to do was show my passport, show my E1-11 and fill in a form for what I wanted for breakfast (coffee, orange juice, ham, cheese, butter, semmerl rolls, rye bread and cherry conserve since you ask)
Seriously USA, get angry. You get such a bum deal over this.
I’d be angry if I was in your shoes. Ham for breakfast instead of bacon? UN-AMERICAN!
It would be nice if the US had European-style health care, but as long as enough voters are choosing to vote for candidates who shoot down proposals for such healthcare, we need to be educated here, and that means at a bare minimum knowing about the existence of urgent care centers, knowing that there is a window for getting stitches, and knowing to ask what different treatments are for, what is necessary, what is for comfort, and whether there are cheaper alternatives.
RE: what is necessary and what is for comfort: there was a story a few years ago of a guy dying of an infection after showing up at the pharmacy with two prescriptions, one for pain killers, and one for an antibiotic. He could only afford one, and chose the pain medicine. If he’d known more, he probably would have chosen the antibiotic.
And the cost of paying premiums on malpractice insurance has to come from somewhere.
no, you didn’t misunderstand. He was not turned away. He got medical care.
He also could have gone to his family doctor or an after-hours care facility. Anyone not living under a rock knows it’s expensive to go to an emergency room. Sadly, this was a teacher.
I’d like a cite for that. None of of the doctors I go to have a bit of trouble putting in stitches.
[QUOTE=aceplace57]
Until this thread I had never heard of an Urgent Care Center. I’m not sure there are any here. Something I need to check on.
[/QUOTE]
If you plug “urgent care” and your ZIP code or city name into Google, you should get some listings. If that strikes out, call a local hospital or your primare care doc and ask if any are in the area.
The level of services will be all over the map, unfortunately.
Some CVS stores have what they call Minute Clinic, which is a really basic operation that can wrap a sprained ankle, look at a rash and maybe write a prescription for antibiotics if you have a bacterial respiratory infection or flu as well as give “back to school” type imunizations.
The middle ground is the “doc in a box” standalone facility. These are often in industrial areas and handle minor workplace accidents and illnesses.
Next up are the facilities that are attached to or run by hospitals. These are the real “ER Lite” places - they can do xrays, basic lab work, wound care and suturing, generally with a much shorter wait time but the same level of care as an ER for a lot lower cost. And if you really do need to be in an ER, it’s often just on the other side of the parking lot.
If you’re wondering where to go if you have the option, the hospital near my home offers this:
How would you even do that? Keeping in mind that you, their financial offices and your insurance company would have to come to an agreement (and all be open) before anything could start and you’d have to somehow come up with a diagnosis and treatment before racking up any charges.
If I go and in and say “My side hurts, how much are you going to charge me to make it not hurt?”, where do we go from there?
A lot of healthcare cost is fake not the cost to do it.It like that in most countries now state run health care ,private health car or private health insurance.
You don’t want know what x-ray ,CT scan or hip surgery or knee surgery costs.
That why governments are going bankrupted and long wait times are going up.
The real cost for health car is much lower but they bring cost up so high to get more money from government to make a profit.
The healthcare is getting much worse throughout the world.
Our hospital has a Family clinic. Mostly PCP’s and there’s a few specialists on the 2nd floor. I know there’s a OB GYN up there. I see the ladies slowly walking to the elevator. 
Their open 8 to 7 weekdays and I think 10 to 4 Sat and 1 to 4 Sunday. That would be my first choice if I got injured or sick at night. Suck it up and hang on until 8AM.
But that’s a risk. Especially if those chest pains aren’t bad chili. Not much too do the way our health care system is today. I’d die of shock anyway if I opened up a $9,000 bill for a trivial finger cut.
Our Senator Mark Pryor was explaining why he’s so firmly behind Obama Care. Pryor had cancer in his tendon. It was debated whether the leg could be saved. His wonderful, caring insurance company would only pay for amputation. He went for the cancer treatment and saved the leg. Then went to war with the POS insurance company. The low lifes finally settled and today Pryor has two legs and a burning desire for universal health care for everyone.
It not the government or private health insurance problem it is the hospitals that keep upping the cost every year and government or private health insurance just can’t keep up with profit machine.
by the year 2050 most healthcare in the world will reach point it will crumble with out lots more going int it.
Health care spending in the United States has been growing significantly faster than the national economy for several years, posing serious threats to the solvency of Medicare and Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that federal spending to support Medicare and Medicaid will rise to 12% of the GDP in 2050 and 19% of the GDP in 2082, which, as a share of the GDP, is equivalent to entire sum of current federal spending. This potential increase in spending threatens to contribute to an ever-increasing national debt. In the long term, healthcare spending would decrease investment in domestic capital stock as well as foreign assets, causing economic stagnation.
Every time someone tells me they had to wait 12 hours in the ER, I want to slap them and say “Then that means you had no need to go to the damn emergency room, idiot. I’ve never been to that same ER and had to wait more than 10 minutes, because I don’t go unless I have a fucking emergency!”.
But I don’t say it.
What does Obama care have to do with Universal health care. And if universal health care denies cancer treatments what’s Pryor’s Plan-B?