If We Had A Medical Section I'd Put This In It

[Minimalist]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the hospital in question is a nonprofit establishment.

https://www.bannerhealth.com/locations/s...cal-center#

So they don't have to worry about those pesky taxes, either.

[bennyboy]

I'm from Canada. I understand most of the words you are saying, but when you put them together in that order, I cannot comprehend what you're trying to say. It SOUNDS like you're saying you got charged over $15,000 for minimal overnight care in a hospital. But I know that can't be what you're saying-- because that would be fucking retarded.

I went back to Canada as a non-resident, which means I wasn't covered by health care. I had a heart scare, and went to the emergency room. I was immediately admitted, asked a bunch of serious questions, given an EKG, had blood taken, had an actual doctor talk to me about my medical history. I was given an IV, put on observation for a couple hours, and released. The cost? $250, which they didn't even make me pay-- they just suggested that I should probably catch up in my health care payments when I got back to Canada.

So yeah, fuck American capitalist bullshit. It's broken.

[Minimalist]

I'm from Canada. I understand most of the words you are saying, but when you put them together in that order, I cannot comprehend what you're trying to say. It SOUNDS like you're saying you got charged over $15,000 for minimal overnight care in a hospital. But I know that can't be what you're saying-- because that would be fucking retarded.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your reading comprehension, Benny.

[thesummerqueen]

I can't even finish reading this thread. It makes me too fucking angry.

I had an $800 bill that blew up to $1000 just to have some glue applied to my chin. Not even stitches. GLUE.

I don't remember what my bill was for when I sewed my finger. I had insurance then. I think it was a $250 copay altogether.

[Minimalist]

My little bro was just in the hospital for 7 days for a very serious blood infection.  Herecovered, but since he has no insurance (he's one of the Obamacare haters who opted out even though he had the money to get insured), I have no idea what he's gonna do.  He was in critical care for 3 days, and regular rooms for 4.  With all the tests an medications he was given, and knowing the base rate for critical care is like 8k a day, and for regular room is like 4 k a day, he's basically just screwed.

Or more likely bankrupt.  Hey, Drumpf goes bankrupt every other day and he's running for president.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I can't even finish reading this thread. It makes me too fucking angry.

I had an $800 bill that blew up to $1000 just to have some glue applied to my chin. Not even stitches. GLUE.

I don't remember what my bill was for when I sewed my finger. I had insurance then. I think it was a $250 copay altogether.

For what it's worth, in NZ, ALL care related to accidents is 100% covered. There is no out of pocket for the patient. This applies to citizens, legal residents and tourists.

Boru

[AFTT47]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the hospital in question is a nonprofit establishment.

https://www.bannerhealth.com/locations/s...cal-center#

So they don't have to worry about those pesky taxes, either.

My wife is an RN at that hospital, Min. She's a floating nurse, not assigned to any particular station but she most often works with psychiatric patients so I guess you probably didn't see her.

I'm a tech/physical science guy so economics is witchcraft to me. I don't really know what I'm talking about here so I'll throw that up up-front but I wonder who pays for the cutting-edge technology you have available at that hospital including available drugs. I'm not making any insinuations here because I really don't have a clue to the answer to my question. I don't know if the hospital chain (Banner Health is major and is one of the largest employers in the Phoenix area and has hospitals in California and Alaska as well) is a robber baron or they have genuine expenses related to development of the cutting-edge technology that keeps our old, happy asses alive longer than our predecessors.

Not saying you're wrong, Min but I question your cynicism. There's always two sides to a story and all that. We (Americans) do seem to pay more for our health care but we also seem to be more beneficiaries to the cutting edge of medical break-throughs. Somebody has to pay for that. R&D isn't cheap.

[Minimalist]

I probably did meet her.  I think they were busing people in all night to keep waking me up.

My wife volunteers at Banner.  She's an interviewer for the Long Term Aging Study.  Periodically I remind her that Banner is able to avoid paying people because she's volunteering for some of the richest motherfuckers in the state.

The one flaw in your argument is that they could charge $1 million for an aspirin and it doesn't do them any good if no one pays it.  All it does is give their lawyers a fee as they force people into bankruptcy.  With all the retirement communities around here what they are mainly getting is medicare payments.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Min, I thought someone as old and well-educated as yourself understood that all those huge words derived from Greek and Latin used by doctors cost real money. What, you think they grow on a word-tree? We Americans have the finest doctors inventing new syndromes that, of course, need polysyllabic names, and that shit ain't cheap. (Learnt that lesson about twenty years ago -- Raylene was having severe chest pains, went to the emergency room, waited five hours, got seen, x-rayed, and told she was suffering intercostal chondritis -- the cartilage in her ribs was irritated. "That'll be $5,361.29, please.")

I think it says a lot about the shitty state of health care in America when I say I'm happy I'm covered by the VA. They may pencil-whip appointment schedules, they may deny or delay (as they have in my case) non-critical care, but I don't pay a dime outside of occasional prescription copays, and I don't pay a penalty on 15 April. ACA is a failure not because universal care is wrong, but because it represents a legislated, and massive, transfer of wealth from individuals to corporations, with no guaranteed RoI, no guarantees about care, only a guarantee that the IRS won't try to fuck you too. Recovering libertarian though I am, I would have preferred single-payer. At least then, it's not the government acting as an enforcer for a private concern.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I can't even finish reading this thread. It makes me too fucking angry.

I had an $800 bill that blew up to $1000 just to have some glue applied to my chin. Not even stitches. GLUE.

I don't remember what my bill was for when I sewed my finger. I had insurance then. I think it was a $250 copay altogether.

Holy hole in a doughnut!

1 G for some glue? Shit I had my a cut in my head glued together a good decade ago after hitting it off the side of a table (I was drunk, long story, or not actually), if I'd been hit with that bill I'd have requested to bleed out!