Hospital bill goes viral

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

The US is the only country where this happens. It's guised as free enterprise.

Only to an ignoramus like yourself who has no clue what free enterprise is or how much government interference and regulation there is in health care. There is almost zero free enterprise in the American heath care industry and that is due to people like yourself who have supported politicians over the years who have injected more and more government into it. As a result, there are virtually no cost controls and that is why this kid is getting billed $6,000 for a two hour stay in a recovery room. Pat yourself on the back because it's your fault.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

And taxpayers do not pay insurance company CEO wages.

We will now, thanks to the ACA.

 

[Moonglow]

I had an appendectomy in late May. I couldn't make it to the VA hospital so I went to St. Mary's. All the bills were to be covered by the VA. About a month later I received a bill for one MRI at a cost of 4,000 dollars and and x-ray bill for 375 dollars. Needless to say I had to spend around three hours trying to tell them to send the bill to the VA and there was a time limit on the ability to file the claim and be reimbursed. 6 months later they were still trying to collect from me and the VA.

 

[Moonglow]

The Veteran's Administration is pure Socialized Medicine and works great. Should we change that?

Not the same thing.
They serve a select group of people.

Can veterans go outside the VA for care if they want to?
Yes they do!!!
Why? Because the VA cannot provide access to care for all things needed.

Oh yeah! The VA!!
~~~~

Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) -- Military veterans are dying needlessly because of long waits and delayed care at U.S. veterans hospitals, a CNN investigation has found.
What's worse, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is aware of the problems and has done almost nothing to effectively prevent veterans dying from delays in care, according to documents obtained by CNN and interviews with numerous experts.
The problem has been especially dire at the Williams Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina. There, veterans waiting months for simple gastrointestinal procedures -- such as a colonoscopy or endoscopy -- have been dying because their cancers aren't caught in time.

Hospital delays are killing America's war veterans - CNN.com

Is that the kind of socialist medicine (your words) you want?

The VAMC that I go to in Fayetteville, Ark is a great place, with great nurses and doctors, and does do all that is needed, they opened a mental wing last year.

It is better than the private medical insurance I've had.

 

[Noomi]

You guys realize the guy is lying right?
Medical care in Australia is not free. You have copays.
As well as Doctors are free to charge whatever they feel like above the "standard fee" set by the government. Whatever amount the doctor charges above that fee is wholly paid by the consumer.
In general better doctors charge more. So people who can't afford the higher charge - got to not so great doctors. People who can - go to better doctors.
The copay in Australia is somewhere between 25% - 30%. Many Australians buy PRIVATE INSURANCE to cover what Medicare does not.
A simple google search reveals the guy is lying out of his ass.

A lot of Australians do NOT purchase private health cover because its too expensive - and you might have a surgery that costs $20,000, but your insurance covers only half the cost, and you get stuck with the rest of the bill.
Unless you are rich, you will stick with the public system, which works fine.

 

[dblack]

A 20 Year-Old Got Appendicitis and This Was His Hospital Bill

Love the comment from the Aussie.



$16k surgery yields a $55k bill, of which twenty year-old is responsible for $11k.

No, actually - this doesn't work for me.

And the conservatives here will attack that Aussie for being so selfish as to rely on the taxpayers to pay for his/her medical treatment. But that is how it works here. No bill. Stay in hospital for as long as you need to, the generous taxpayers will pay your bill, and we like it that way.

No one should have to worry about a freaking bill that high when they are sick.

Should people have to worry about buying food when they're hungry? Clothing when their cold? Entertainment when they're bored?

What should people have to worry about?

 

[asterism]

You guys realize the guy is lying right?
Medical care in Australia is not free. You have copays.
As well as Doctors are free to charge whatever they feel like above the "standard fee" set by the government. Whatever amount the doctor charges above that fee is wholly paid by the consumer.
In general better doctors charge more. So people who can't afford the higher charge - got to not so great doctors. People who can - go to better doctors.
The copay in Australia is somewhere between 25% - 30%. Many Australians buy PRIVATE INSURANCE to cover what Medicare does not.
A simple google search reveals the guy is lying out of his ass.

A lot of Australians do NOT purchase private health cover because its too expensive - and you might have a surgery that costs $20,000, but your insurance covers only half the cost, and you get stuck with the rest of the bill.
Unless you are rich, you will stick with the public system, which works fine.

If it works fine, why is there a private system?

 

[asterism]

I'm no expert but if Australia can why can't we provide health care for all? What if we paid the equivalent amount to a single payer system we now pay to the various health insurance companies?

We could cut out this:

UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley paid nearly $14 million - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

But look at his total compensation:

CEO Compensation, 2012

And this is only one health insurance company!

Where did that money come from?

(here's a hint, it wasn't the policyholders)

Where do you think the money comes from?

Capital gains. He has a large amount of shares in the corporation. Those shares gained in value because health insurance as an industry experienced growth.

 

[Noomi]

A 20 Year-Old Got Appendicitis and This Was His Hospital Bill

Love the comment from the Aussie.



$16k surgery yields a $55k bill, of which twenty year-old is responsible for $11k.

No, actually - this doesn't work for me.

And the conservatives here will attack that Aussie for being so selfish as to rely on the taxpayers to pay for his/her medical treatment. But that is how it works here. No bill. Stay in hospital for as long as you need to, the generous taxpayers will pay your bill, and we like it that way.

No one should have to worry about a freaking bill that high when they are sick.

Should people have to worry about buying food when they're hungry? Clothing when their cold? Entertainment when they're bored?

What should people have to worry about?

This isn't about clothing, or food. Its about paying a bill.

 

[Noomi]

You guys realize the guy is lying right?
Medical care in Australia is not free. You have copays.
As well as Doctors are free to charge whatever they feel like above the "standard fee" set by the government. Whatever amount the doctor charges above that fee is wholly paid by the consumer.
In general better doctors charge more. So people who can't afford the higher charge - got to not so great doctors. People who can - go to better doctors.
The copay in Australia is somewhere between 25% - 30%. Many Australians buy PRIVATE INSURANCE to cover what Medicare does not.
A simple google search reveals the guy is lying out of his ass.

A lot of Australians do NOT purchase private health cover because its too expensive - and you might have a surgery that costs $20,000, but your insurance covers only half the cost, and you get stuck with the rest of the bill.
Unless you are rich, you will stick with the public system, which works fine.

If it works fine, why is there a private system?

To bypass the waiting lists, mainly. You can choose your own doctor if you have private health cover, get a private room. You don't really get that much - if you need surgery urgently enough, you will get it.

 

[Political Junky]

Single payer in other countries operates much like Medicare does in the US.

Medicare Is More Efficient Than Private Insurance ? Health Affairs Blog
<excerpts>
Medicare Has Lower Administrative Costs Than Private Plans.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, administrative costs in Medicare are only about 2 percent of operating expenditures. Defenders of the insurance industry estimate administrative costs as 17 percent of revenue.
Insurance industry-funded studies exclude private plans&#8217; marketing costs and profits from their calculation of administrative costs. Even so, Medicare&#8217;s overhead is dramatically lower.
Medicare administrative cost figures include the collection of Medicare taxes, fraud and abuse controls, and building costs.

Medicare Is Publicly Accountable, Private Plans Are Not
When it comes to how much it costs private plans to deliver care, or individual insurer innovations that deliver value, the publicly available data are scarce. Goodman and Saving present only one study on the ways that insurers try to control costs, and this was published by AHIP. Because Medicare is publicly accountable, it allows us to study what works so that we can improve the health care system.
.
The authors cite a number of innovations that could lower the cost of care, but all of them have been introduced by doctors and clinics, not insurers. Because insurance companies treat their claims data as trade secrets, we do not know if they have adopted such innovations.
Even government-funded Medicare Advantage plans don&#8217;t release payment and coverage data.
A closer look at the data shows that, contrary to Goodman and Saving&#8217;s claims, Medicare delivers health care more efficiently than private insurers. Medicare&#8217;s public accountability and bargaining power give it the ability to drive system change and control skyrocketing health care costs, while profit-driven private insurers have offered no solution.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

A 20 Year-Old Got Appendicitis and This Was His Hospital Bill

Love the comment from the Aussie.



$16k surgery yields a $55k bill, of which twenty year-old is responsible for $11k.

No, actually - this doesn't work for me.

I think my brother's was like 35k before insurance.

This is why all those young libertarian college kids who think they don't need health insurance because they take care of themselves are total idiots. Appendicitis can pretty much happen to anyone who has an appendix - any time - and WHOP - you've got a hospital bill instead of a down payment on a nice house or a handful of decent used cars.

 

[dblack]

And the conservatives here will attack that Aussie for being so selfish as to rely on the taxpayers to pay for his/her medical treatment. But that is how it works here. No bill. Stay in hospital for as long as you need to, the generous taxpayers will pay your bill, and we like it that way.

No one should have to worry about a freaking bill that high when they are sick.

Should people have to worry about buying food when they're hungry? Clothing when their cold? Entertainment when they're bored?

What should people have to worry about?

This isn't about clothing, or food. Its about paying a bill.

Ok. You're just dodging, but I'll play along. What bills should people have to worry about paying?

 

[eagle1462010]

A 20 Year-Old Got Appendicitis and This Was His Hospital Bill

Love the comment from the Aussie.



$16k surgery yields a $55k bill, of which twenty year-old is responsible for $11k.

No, actually - this doesn't work for me.

And the conservatives here will attack that Aussie for being so selfish as to rely on the taxpayers to pay for his/her medical treatment. But that is how it works here. No bill. Stay in hospital for as long as you need to, the generous taxpayers will pay your bill, and we like it that way.

No one should have to worry about a freaking bill that high when they are sick.

Riddle me this...................

Surgery and recovery only a few hours...................

Get's some fever meds and eat Jello for 3 days, in bed watching T.V............

55 THOUSAND DOLLARS............................

Where is the problem here.....................

 

[BobPlumb]

A 20 Year-Old Got Appendicitis and This Was His Hospital Bill

Love the comment from the Aussie.



$16k surgery yields a $55k bill, of which twenty year-old is responsible for $11k.

No, actually - this doesn't work for me.

And the conservatives here will attack that Aussie for being so selfish as to rely on the taxpayers to pay for his/her medical treatment. But that is how it works here. No bill. Stay in hospital for as long as you need to, the generous taxpayers will pay your bill, and we like it that way.

No one should have to worry about a freaking bill that high when they are sick.

Riddle me this...................

Surgery and recovery only a few hours...................

Get's some fever meds and eat Jello for 3 days, in bed watching T.V............

55 THOUSAND DOLLARS............................

Where is the problem here.....................

Are you calling Bull shit on thus Bill?

I'm right behind you.

 

[BobPlumb]

Assuming that the hospital bill is real ( I have my doubts, but could be wrong) the hospital has grossly over charged. With 44 thousand already paid, the hospital and those involved have already made a nice profit. The rest of the bill will probably go away if the word "lawer" is mentioned in a few phone calls.

 

[asterism]

A lot of Australians do NOT purchase private health cover because its too expensive - and you might have a surgery that costs $20,000, but your insurance covers only half the cost, and you get stuck with the rest of the bill.
Unless you are rich, you will stick with the public system, which works fine.

If it works fine, why is there a private system?

To bypass the waiting lists, mainly. You can choose your own doctor if you have private health cover, get a private room. You don't really get that much - if you need surgery urgently enough, you will get it.

Then it doesn't work fine if people are that motivated.

 

[Vox]

A 20 Year-Old Got Appendicitis and This Was His Hospital Bill

Love the comment from the Aussie.



$16k surgery yields a $55k bill, of which twenty year-old is responsible for $11k.

No, actually - this doesn't work for me.

welcome obamacare reality.

this is a standard amount of the out of network deductible.

 

[boedicca]

The real solution is competition and transparency in pricing, which ObamaCare and employer provided insurance are designed to conceal.

 

[Vox]

I can't believe the other comments - giving a kid a juice box and a pill, and charging the parents two thousand dollars for it? That's the most expensive bloody juice box ever!

When I was 25, I was in the hospital for a day, didn't have surgery and it cost me $6000.
It fucked up my fiances for a few years, it was great.

People with diseases like cancer have to have fundraisers so they don't lose their home.

And that is just fucking pathetic. If I got cancer, I don't have to raise money for my treatment. I just go to hospital, get my treatment, have follow up appointments, and pay zilch. Zero. Nada. I finish my treatment and get on with my life, no worrying about how to pay that massive bill.

Shame on those conservatives who think that people should just plan for sickness, get a better job, save more etc. No one deserves to get seriously ill, and no one deserves to become even more sick with worrying about how to pay the damned bills.

if you get cancer - under obamacare you will die.