Posted on 08/03/2010 6:34:26 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
I golf with a guy who had a heart transplant. He spent 6 months in the hospital waiting for a heart. Once he got it, he was out in a week. Total cost: $1.2M. Total cost to him: $1000.
When he told me this, I joked about how it’s good that Obama fixed healthcare. That’s when he told me, while he was in the hospital, there were two black women waiting for hearts, both of the women were on welfare. Both got hearts.
Yeah, pretty rotten system there. Can’t wait to see the “fix” in action.
We went through the same thing with my aunt. She was on 24 different medications. When she started throwing up non-stop we took her to the doctor and to the hospital. They could find nothing wrong. Released her and we took her home. We took her off her meds and within 6 hours she was no longer throwing up. The medication level had reached toxic levels in her system. After that, if a medication was prescribed we would ask what it was for and why she needed it. She lived another 10 years in relatively good health and wasn’t really sick much after that.
I’m not a doctor but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Three possible causes for her malady:
Cancer of Pancreas
Diverticilitus
Wounded stomach lining.
Snort! Ha!!
I should add that she's a very good friend. If anything happened to me, she'd take care of my cats. This is very important to me. ;^) Also, she's not a total tree-hugger. She's former military and appreciates a strong defense. But in this area... (sigh)
Ok boys and girls, let's stand up and hold hands and close your eyes. All together now, sing. (Rock Horror Picture Show type music)
Hope...and change...hope...and change...
Sway now
Hope...and change...hope...and change...
B.S.
They will be TOLD by the Fed's what they may or may not test for.
The Fed's is who are making this country go BK...it ain't Health Care.
Spot on! Thanks for your comment.
I don’t begrudge any body’s desire for treatment but pay for it. If you want Cadillac treatment buy a Cadillac plan.I feel sorry for the old lady but we don’t owe her $180,000.00 worth of treatment. We as individuals must determine the limits that we can afford and stop there.Piling up sky high bills and not paying them is what has ruined the system and invited in the government to run our health care (lives) to an end not good for any one.
I’m convinced all those meds are doing her more harm than good.
Click the link in post 22.
You can enlarge it the image all you want.
Wow, that’s appalling that the surgeon made so little. Someone is making money off this mess, surely... right? I seriously do not know.
ARRRGGGGHHHH. 15 years ago they would have put you on a nitrate and a beta blocker and you would have had a 50/50 chance of being dead in a year.
My wife and I are in our 40s. I have a pre-existing condition (clinical depression). We are self-employed. No health insurance insurer will cover us. We have tried. We have no “private option”.
Many years ago one of us became seriously ill with a common disease. The condition was treatable, but required surgery plus a few days recuperation in the hospital. The total cost for fifteen minute surgery plus one week hospital stay was equal to our annual income — about 2/3 the cost of our home.
Result: bankruptcy.
I’m opposed to Obaacare, but there has to be a better way.
Wow, that’s appalling. It’s weird that clinical depression would disqualify you. I mean, it’s not like it leads to diabetes or heart disease or cancer.
I hope everything turned out all right for you.
This reminds me of a situation I had with my son years ago. One evening he complained of stomach pains so strenuously that my husband was certain he was going to die and called the ambulance to take him to the hospital.
I knew my son liked to watch TV shows that always had a disease du jour which starts with an everyday symptom. I was certain it was gas, so I gave him a drink of soda from which he produced a huge belch. His stomach pain was somewhat relieved and the paramedics went away empty handed that night. Of course he lived to belch another day.
Many of these hospital visits are caused by simple events. Over eating, cold or flu, the occasional childhood diseases make up a big portion of the trips to the emergency room for citizens and especially illegals. Both the hospitals and the doctors have to cross their t’s and dot their i’s on everything. They have to make sure their rears are covered because unscrupulous people will be ready to sue them in a heartbeat. That means the emergency room is the most expensive care you can receive and for some it is for the least complex illnesses.
People today associate healthcare with health insurance. They think the responsible payor of healthcare bills is their health insurance and there is very little connection between people’s cost and the actual cost of the services rendered. If more people had to bear the cost directly, they would be more careful about how they accessed healthcare. For example, when I was young, my parents took us to the local clinic. The only time we went to the hospital was when my mother gave birth or someone had a very serious medical event.
As long as people see healthcare as a right and have no concept of the expense, healthcare costs will rise. Now that you have a brand new group of people who feel entitled to healthcare on demand, I believe the costs will increase exponentially.
My thoughts exactly while I was reading the story. All those drugs could be irritating her digestive system. Some of the drug combinations might be antagonistic.
What galled me was the several children the hospital had flown in for cosmetic surgeries (given, these kids had serious cleft pallets, etc.) from other countries as part of their charity outreach program.
If you have to charge me (and my insurance company) $80,000 or whatever it was finally settled for, plus $1,200 out of pocket, I'd say you don't have enough money to pay for your charity outreach program.
Perhaps they should try raising money independently, instead of sticking people who play by the rules for exhorbant amounts of money to cover it.
My advice is to find a good homeopathic physician. I've seen one for over 20 years. I am 60 years old and take nothing other than a good vitamin supplement. I'm in better health than 99% of people my own age. I eat a mainly plant based diet, meat only so often and in moderation and do weight bearing exercise daily. I could pass for someone 15 year younger than my age and am no where ready for retirement.
We need to take control and responsibility for our own health, for me it has worked.
I have a younger sister who has diabetes. She weights close to 500 lbs, eats whenever or whatever she wants and then is upset because she's back in the hospital again. She's had her leg amputated, almost died from gangrenous gall bladder and now they are chipping away at her other foot and leg. With all of that it is not enough to keep her away from the foods she should not be eating.
“Gee, diagnosis is hard?
It looks so easy on television!”
Except on House!
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