Do we need Healthcare reform?

Last month I went to my doctor's office and ended up in the hospital (the whole story is here).

Here's a list of the high points of the care (which was very good!) I received:

• The emergency room
• A few EKGs
• Some medication
• Saw a few doctors for a few minutes each
• Stayed overnight for observation
• Had a stress test
• Bunch of lab work

How much do you think 1 night in the hospital with pretty minimal usage of services costs?

$33,739

I'm not paying that much since I have health insurance and they have agreements that mean they are only paying a fraction of that cost... but if I didn't have health insurance I'd be screwed.

I probably wouldn't have went to the doctor's in the first place and my heart would just have kept on beating oddly until I had heart failure or a stroke. Fun!

Comments

[Alvin Thompson]

If you can't afford 34k for a hospital visit, it's clearly your fault because you're not working hard enough. In fact, why are you forcing your insurance company to pay for this just because you gave them a little bit of money every month? The stockholders have to eat, too.

Your laziness is disgusting--stop being a freeloader and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I would totally do the same thing if Daddy hadn't already done it for me.

[David Reidy]

In April I suddenly became very short of breath, clearly something was wrong. I rang my doctor and he suggested a visit to the hospital just to be safe. Two weeks later I was fine again, after 14 days of in-hospital treatment, seven blood transfusions, MRI and CAT scans and daily pathology studies.
How much did it cost? Nothing.
Well not really nothing, there is a Medicare levy that’s added to my tax bill, that levy was $2k for the last financial year. The treatment would have been the same if I were unemployed. That’s the way medical system works down here (Australia).
So, as an outsider and an interested observer, “Do we need Healthcare reform?”, respectfully, “yes”.

[Susan in Las Vegas]

What frosts me is your insurance company probably paid $4 -$5000 total. If someone without insurance had the same treatments AND OFFERED TO PAY CASH IMMEDIATELY, they'd get donged for the entire $34K. There's just something wrong with how hospitals, drug companies,etc., calculate their prices.