Eye-Popping Health Care Costs

Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (Full Version)

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cloudboy -> Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 8:03:51 PM)
We read all the time about how health care in the USA is the most expensive in the world. In this thread I seek to find examples from your own life experiences to demonstrate this point. Here are my two examples: (1) After Thanksgiving I experienced some severe abdominal pain and figured I was about to get food poisoning. I end up at the ER. At the ER they take my blood, run some tests, administer an IV, and give me an anti-nausea shot. (That was fucking amazing.) Then I get a small can of ginger ale, crackers, and a discharge. This all takes 2 hours. The charge: $985.00. (2) I went to the ENT b/c my sinuses have been blocked upl. The ENT uses an endoscope to look into my nose remarking, "yes, it looks puffy back there." The appointment lasted 10 minutes, tops. The cost: $785.00. The Dr. charged about $680.00 to use the endoscope for about 40 seconds to look into my nose. Two basic items of health care -- helping some one with food poisoning and looking at one's sinuses during a 8 minute consultation --- and huge sums of money are owed. What crazy shit have you experienced?

Phydeaux -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 8:08:17 PM)
Yep, going to the ER for food poisoning is part of the problem. You're not going to die from it - why go. Had you gone to an urgent care facility or a doctors office the cost would have been significantly less. Obama care is encouraging the consolidation of dr's offices into mega corps. (ie., hospitals are buying up individual practices). Destruction of the health care industry.

DomKen -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 8:14:42 PM)
I was hospitalized for 8 days in March with severe bronchitis. The bill came to $78k

cloudboy -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 8:24:27 PM)
I went to the ER because when I called my GP, he told me to go the ER b/c the symptoms weren't synonymous with food poisoning in his view. Luckily, that's how it turned out. One does not have many other options at 4 AM in the morning. I know this thread could take a political slant, but I'm more interested in getting responders to tell their direct experiences in the health care system. Simple procedures and basic care are extraordinarily expensive in the USA. Ken's example was an eye-popper.

tj444 -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 8:36:12 PM)
well,.. neither of those situations would have me running to the doctor or er,.. when i have gotten food poisoning (I know how that feels) i throw up a few times, sleep for about 2 hours and then I am almost back to normal.. i have allergies so if i get stuffed up i just take certain OTC meds that help.. I did go to one SoCal doctor about some elective surgery, he quoted me $10k.. I decided to pass on that.. imo he might have thought I was a medical tourist & it was ok to gouge me as his quote was double what I was expecting.. and honestly, how he described how he does that particular surgery, I was not very impressed & I was not instilled with confidence in him/his abilities.. I will eventually get that done but not by him and not the way he described.. I would be looking for a different technique that makes more sense to me.. and not cost nearly as much as he wanted.. I will also check out what it costs in Canada and see if any Doctor there does it the way i want it done.. But when you talk about elective surgery, sometimes people will pay more for a doctor that has developed his own advanced/better techniques and imo in those situations that is what you are paying more for..

littlewonder -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 8:45:28 PM)
mental healthcare for my daughter when she was young where she had to be hospitalized. My insurance only covered two days. She needed much, much more than two days. I had to pay the rest out of pocket. She spent two weeks. It cost me a little over $7,000. She refused to stick it out and they said they could do nothing more for her and let her go only to still have the same problems. So basically $7,000 down the tubes. When I had to have an endoscopy under local anesthesia at the beginning of this year, it cost me over $3,000. Luckily my insurance paid the majority of it.

muhly22222 -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/29/2013 10:11:16 PM)
quote: Luckily my insurance paid the majority of it. That's the kicker right there. If you didn't have insurance, I'd bet they wouldn't charge you $3000. I was just talking to one of my uncles at a wedding this weekend. He went to the pharmacy to get some medicine, gave them his insurance, and got the price back...$756 for a few pills. He asked if there was any way to bring that price down (he has a $10k deductible, so that was all coming out of his pocket). The pharmacist told the computer that he didn't have insurance. The new price? $51.

LizDeluxe -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 6:29:59 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: muhly22222 That's the kicker right there. If you didn't have insurance, I'd bet they wouldn't charge you $3000. I was just talking to one of my uncles at a wedding this weekend. He went to the pharmacy to get some medicine, gave them his insurance, and got the price back...$756 for a few pills. He asked if there was any way to bring that price down (he has a $10k deductible, so that was all coming out of his pocket). The pharmacist told the computer that he didn't have insurance. The new price? $51. Yep. I have insurance but a few years ago there was a dispute over a bill amounting to several thousand dollars. I decided to pay the hospital out of pocket and deal with the insurance company myself. Showed up with my checkbook at the hospital and asked "What would it take to settle this today?". They cut the charges in half without batting an eyelash.

DomKen -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 9:24:05 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: cloudboy Ken's example was an eye-popper. Keep in mind that that is what they billed Medicare. Medicare isn't likely to actually pay all of that.

angelikaJ -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 9:35:48 AM)
FR The next time you get an outrageous hospital bill, don’t get worked up. Take a breath and negotiate. For a good strategy, listen to Pat Palmer, who knows how to land the best price for services rendered. And she’s seen it all: from $400 bills for a single Tylenol, to a teddy bear masquerading as a very expensive “cough support device.” Pat, who has worked for an insurance company, shares her tricks for finding savings in the fine print of a hospital bill. The $400 Tylenol Pill, And How To Get A Better Price

leonine -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 9:59:09 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: muhly22222 quote: Luckily my insurance paid the majority of it. That's the kicker right there. If you didn't have insurance, I'd bet they wouldn't charge you $3000. I was just talking to one of my uncles at a wedding this weekend. He went to the pharmacy to get some medicine, gave them his insurance, and got the price back...$756 for a few pills. He asked if there was any way to bring that price down (he has a $10k deductible, so that was all coming out of his pocket). The pharmacist told the computer that he didn't have insurance. The new price? $51. And this is why in countries with state sponsored healthcare, the cost to taxpayers is a small fraction of what you guys pay in insurance. The insurance cos are arm in arm with the pharma cos to bid up prices, they can pass it on to you and you can't shop around for a better deal. Only something the size of a Ministry of Health has the clout to haggle with Big Pharma.

Phoenixpower -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 10:53:55 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: leonine quote: ORIGINAL: muhly22222 quote: Luckily my insurance paid the majority of it. That's the kicker right there. If you didn't have insurance, I'd bet they wouldn't charge you $3000. I was just talking to one of my uncles at a wedding this weekend. He went to the pharmacy to get some medicine, gave them his insurance, and got the price back...$756 for a few pills. He asked if there was any way to bring that price down (he has a $10k deductible, so that was all coming out of his pocket). The pharmacist told the computer that he didn't have insurance. The new price? $51. And this is why in countries with state sponsored healthcare, the cost to taxpayers is a small fraction of what you guys pay in insurance. The insurance cos are arm in arm with the pharma cos to bid up prices, they can pass it on to you and you can't shop around for a better deal. Only something the size of a Ministry of Health has the clout to haggle with Big Pharma. I know that my comment isnt really on topic now and I do apologise for that....but seriously....I prefer to pay more on taxes over here and don't have to pay anything out of my own wallet into medical health care...those prices are just shocking to me...

LizDeluxe -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 3:58:43 PM)
Interesting on-topic story on CNN today regarding Boston: The average cost for a day in a U.S. hospital is $4,287

kiwisub12 -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 4:16:29 PM)
My late dom was on medication for various and asundry ailments. If he bought them in the US, without insurance, it cost about $500 a month. He bought them from India via mail and got three months for about $400. Recently i had to get a CPAP machine. It cost $1500. My cost? - $700. I recently went in and got replacement nasal pillows for the head wear - it cost $140! If you didn't have insurance you couldn't afford to have sleep apnea. [8\|]

dcnovice -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 4:18:33 PM)
I was in and out of the hospital for about a month recently. I shudder to think what it will cost me.

LookieNoNookie -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 4:42:07 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice I was in and out of the hospital for about a month recently. I shudder to think what it will cost me. So...what's the story? I think I kind of eclipsed things....what's happening DC?

LafayetteLady -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 5:15:57 PM)
I just filled my prescriptions today for the next month. Total cost? $990.59 Luckily, I have Medicaid which covered the full cost. But my monthly medication cost exceeds my monthly rent. That's just wrong.

OsideGirl -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 5:25:11 PM)
I went in for laser cauterization for pre-cancerous cells which is an outpatient procedure done with IV sedation. (I'm a DES baby) The insurance refused to pay for the procedure even though I had gotten approval before the procedure. They came back saying that I hadn't been approved for sterilization and would be responsible for the $5000.00 bill. (This was 1993) The bill for the IV alone was $1200.00. I had multiple arguments with the insurance company's customer service agent, insisting that I had been sterilized while I was insisting that I had not been (so was the doctor). Finally, I screamed at the dumbass that one of us had been there and it wasn't her. It took nearly a year to get it straightened out. It turned out that the insurance company had changed procedure codes in the week between the approval and the operation. In the meantime, I was being hounded by the hospital for the payment.

LookieNoNookie -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 5:28:25 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: LafayetteLady I just filled my prescriptions today for the next month. Total cost? $990.59 Luckily, I have Medicaid which covered the full cost. But my monthly medication cost exceeds my monthly rent. That's just wrong. WOW!!!!

LafayetteLady -> RE: Eye-Popping Health Care Costs (4/30/2013 7:49:54 PM)
Crazy, ain't it?

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