Posted on 08/03/2010 6:34:26 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
Yeah, and how much of this stay was defensive medicine, with an OCD family member who might sue at the drop of a hat if a hangnail is misdiagnosed? The hospital and doctors are obligated to work it up to the hilt, whereas maybe a Palliative Care consult would have been more appropriate. That won’t work when everybody thinks Mom should live to be 100, no matter what.
So, you went to the ER for abdominal pain, which COULD have been appendicitis, cholycystitis, an ulcer, an aortic aneurysm or any one of a number of serious or potentially fatal conditions. You saw an Emergency physician and nurses ( who have to be available 24 hours a day seven days a week ).
You had lab work and a CT, a diagnostic tool that allows a pretty good shot an accurate diagnosis, rapidly and without say exploratory surgery or a 2 or three day hospital stay for observation (more lab work, more doctor exams etc).
And lucky for you nothing serious!
And your problem is?
Tell you what, NEXT time, take a tums or a Prilosec, wait a couple days and see if you survive, okay? That will save you a bundle.
I am sort of the opposite case. I have some paralysis from an old neck injury. Also looks like incipient diabetes. I never go to the doctor, just work non-stop. That isn’t to say I don’t watch my health, I get plenty of exercie. I dropped my carbohydrate intake to a minimum and my energy levels picked right up. Some health foods like fish oil and dhea actually seem to help.
Cost to taxpayer - zero. Potential cost to taxpayer if forced into medical system - potentially infinite. I could milk that cow for hundreds of thousands like your friend.
Second I'd like to point out that your friend's mother isn't on the Obama plan yet, so just wait or as we used to say hide and watch...I predict she won't get all this “care”.
Third I'd like to make you aware that the hospitals and doctors aren't getting rich on medi-medi as you call it. They are going broke. But due to our litigious society they can't not do tests because if they miss anything and get sued they will be broke sooner.
And that's the way things work today, tomorrow when Obama care kicks in she'll just die with no medical care at all.
Once you tell the hospital that you have no insurance and cannot afford it, they will decrease this amount to about $20,000 or $30,000 or so, and then they will take regular payments that they can afford.
The amount is inflated to compensate for mandated Medicare reimbursement schedules and negotiated rates with insurance companies.
Gee, diagnosis is hard?
It looks so easy on television!
You are so absoultely correct.
The problem is insurance. Once the consumer no longer has to concern themselves with the cost, this is what you get.
Of course there’s also the legal angle too. The doctor doesn’t want to get sued, etc.
The entire system is a scam, and they’re all in bed together. If you don’t have insurance, they charge you a higher rate - thereby coercing you to take insurance.
I have yet to see an honest explanation for that practice.
Believe me, I certainly don’t want gvt health care. But it bears saying that in our refutation of that notion here, we often lionize our current system as if it were a thing of beauty.
It’s not.
What's really maddening is that the mom won't listen to any doctors or dieticians advice to stop living on soda, cookies, ice cream, and cornbread. I mean, on one hand I don't trust the medical professions dietary advice either, considering they've been trying to wean us off of protein and onto carbs for decades. But some of it does make sense.
It's hard to tell the poor woman "No," when she asks for something, she's so sweet and pitiful, and you figure she has no other pleasures in life, but.... it does seem to me that both mother and daughter are stuck in a mindset that is detrimental to them both. And I'm pretty sure tax-payers have shelled out about a million for this one lady over the last 2 years.
My other friend says no, that medicare and medicaid won't actually PAY $180,000, that the bill is inflated for insurance companies but the government gets a discount. I don't actually know much about it. In my family we don't really go to the doctor much. We're pretty healthy.
Wellllll... there’s storage, testing (making sure it’s ok), someone to figure out which one to use, to administer it, etc. It’s not exactly ‘free’. But still that seems a lot.
Bottom line is that the free market should determine these prices. But it doesn’t. We’ve regulated it out. And the consumer doesn’t have an option to select the best care for the best price they can afford. It’s best care at any price and everything else be damned. That is what really drives the costs up. Why can’t all these services be listed (at least at the physician and basic tests (xray, cat) level) so people can choose. At the very least that would put some competition back into the system.
“I’d like to know how they can charge $1000 per unit of blood when blood is donated FREE.”
Plus shipping and handling... :)
I know, that is a scam.
ObamaCare has a solution for people in this situation:
Death with Dignity....and it’s coming soon.
Stay healthy my friends.
I can tell you are irritated, but look through the posts. I don’t see anyone complaining that the problem is that health care professionals get paid too much. It’s not that, and I don’t think anyone’s saying it.
That is, a very sad... albeit all too typical story.
Here are a couple of examples of the OTHER ways things can go.. that might cheer you up.
My own Mother-in-Law lived with us for many year. She developed breast cancer, but kept it a secret until it was far too late. She worked for near minimum wage and had NO insurance... so, we took here to “Free” hospital at our local university. She usually had to wait, sometimes an hour or more... to see her doctors. But, when she got to the Dr., they were fantastic for her. Many times, she saw the same Drs my wife had seen when she had the same issues.. (with insurance).
They KNEW she had no insurance... (or Medicare, at first) but, they operated on her, gave her good medications... and enrolled her is a special drug trial. The drug worked, she lived about 5 years (much longer than they originally thought).
Eventually, she qualified for medicare...but, that didn’t change the quality of her treatment. She ran up close to $60K in medical bills... the drug company offering the trial paid 70%, the hospital allowed her to pay $120 per month for the rest, then waived it when she died.
Earlier this year... I had a giant gallstone that got stuck in my gall bladder and had severe pain that required removal. I was diagnosed (via ulta-sound) in 36 hours... had to wait 3 days to get to a surgeon (it was Easter weekend)... The surgeon first saw me at 10:30 am.. by 11:15, I was in a hospital bed getting IV pain meds.
At ~ 4:30, my surgeon came into my room and PRAYED with my wife and I... then, removed my gall bladder. I was back in my room recovering by 5:30. I went home the next morning at 9 am.
TOTAL COST??? for EVERYTHING?? About $16k. MY COST? $2400, the maximum cap on my high deductible insurance policy that goes with my HSA. ALL my money was paid from my HSA account (my own pre-tax contributions + employer contributions)... Net money out of my household budget? ZERO!
You know what that saintly surgeon’s fee was?? $895.
I was shocked. The anesthetist was paid more... ($990).
The hospital was the MOST expensive part, by far... but, seriously.. for what was done for me? It seemed reasonable. And, with my HSA, it was economically manageable.
You're right. It will happen. Certification will probably be made contingent on agreeing to accept Medicare and Medicaid. I can't imagine how many doctors will head for the medical equivalent of Galt's Gulch.
Those 3D images never work for me. If I stare at that for 2 minutes, what am I supposed to see?
I told my husband that if that was me, he should go ahead and just put me out of my misery.
Mrs. Prince of Space
With Obama care she would have been left to die.
Oh, I know that. I'm a teacher, and the billions pouring into the black hole that is the Education budget are definitely not lining MY nest.
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