# Why are some medical bills so high?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-medical-bills-so-high/699091>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [September 21, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-medical-bills-so-high/699091 "2014-09-21T16:06:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-medical-bills-so-high/699091/41 "2014-10-04T15:47:23Z")

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> [@Dallas\_Jones](#):
>
> \*\*Why are some medical bills so high? \*\*
> 
> Because doctors and hospitals actively pad them based upon your ability to pay.
> 
> I had vertigo a couple of years ago due to what would later be determined to be an ear infection. After the usual blood tests and a CT scan the doc came right out and asked me “what is your insurance deductible?” When I said $1000 he said, “Oh hell, we have already blown that, let’s do an MIR.”
> 
> Not should the test be done, no, the first question was about my or my insurance ability to pay.
> 
> That is how I spent $1000 out of pocket and my insurance company was billed and additional $5000, for an ear infection whose ultimate solution was a one week prescription for antibiotics.
> 
> The MIR wasn’t really needed but since I had personally gone over my limit they were happy to go ahead with the test since my employer’s insurance company would carry the rest of the bill.

Can’t an ear infection be diagnosed with an otoscope? That is how they’ve been diagnosed for me. That and the $4 prescription costs came to less than $100 total for a Dx and Rx.

What scares me about our system is how many people stupidly still support it for various reasons (nationalism, greed, anti-statism). The system will become more and more inhumane and unaffordable and I don’t know if that will necessarily result in meaningful reform. I guess more and more of us will have to use internet diagnosis and walk in clinics to cover our health problems.

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-some-medical-bills-so-high/699091/42 "2014-10-04T15:50:47Z")

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> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Whoosh. Though by _one_ particular metric - life expectancy for patients diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses - we do have the best system in the world.

Do you have a cite for that?

Also because our system costs 2x as much as any other, to what degree is our longer life expectancy (if true) due to that? A car that costs 30k but is slightly better at one thing than a car that costs 15k but is better at almost everything else is not a bargain.

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