Centennial Man Calls $7,000 Per Hour E.R. Bill ‘Outlandish’

[Nova78]

Centennial Man Calls $7,000 Per Hour E.R. Bill ‘Outlandish’ « CBS Denver

A rattlesnake bit him twice
In short order, Joseph was in an emergency room receiving anti-venom. Six hours later, he was released.
His father, John, then received medical bills totaling about $43,000 for the six hours in the emergency department.
His son received six vials of the crotalidae anti-venom and was billed $34,025.88 for that portion of his treatment, or nearly $6,000 per vial. But the same anti-venom can be found selling wholesale for about $1,000 to $2,000.
Dr. Mark Earnest, a professor of medicine and health policy with the University of Colorado, said families like the Josephs also face inflated bills to compensate for all the patients who pay nothing.

“If you’ve got 30 to 40 percent of the people who pay nothing, the people who do have some ability to pay pay a lot more to cover the other guys.”

If your some ass wipe leeching off the system or illegal it would be free ,if your responsible your screwed, what a Country !

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Exactly why I would like to see an end to EMTALA.

Coincidentally, its why rw's want to keep it - to get free care. And, Mitt Romney said that was HIS health care plan for the country had he been elected.

As for the cost of the anti-venin, most parents would say that any price for your kid's life is reasonable. If they had had ObamaCare, the son could have been covered under the father's policy.

Some years back, I had to have post-exposure rabies treatment. I was astounded at the cost but I'd rather pay for it than not get it.

This father/veterinarian is off the mark about PART of the cost however. In the article, he says he 'thought $1500 was a lot for a bandaid'. I can give a vaccine to any animal under almost any circumstance and I've given many hundreds of injections of various kinds. But I still have to pay quite a lot for the vet or his/her staff to give the shot.

Bottom line is that it has been reported (and I have posted links here, in other threads) ObamaCare does appear to lower health care costs while giving us FAIR access to better care.