State of Healthcare is worse than I thought

[Netboy Extraordinaire]

For a guy that has seen more Hospital Bills than the law allows, I got the most comical and sad one of all today. On the 18th of January I was passing tremendous amounts of blood. My wife took me to Frankfort Hospital at 11am because I started stumbling into walls and such. When I get there I literally collapse into a wheelchair and they take me straight back. My blood pressure was 65/45 and I was in and out of consciousness. There was 3 people sticking needles in me to get an IV started. After 16 attempts they get one started in my neck. They immediately started giving me fluids and then blood because my Hematocrit and Hemoglobin was 1/3 what it should be. I was given 6 units over the next 24 hours and they had to transfer me to a bigger facility to find out where I was bleeding internally. UK was on Divert and I was 3rd on the list so they sent me to U of L into there Critical Care Unit. I was there from Jan 19 at 4pm to Jan 21 at 10am, 42 hours total. While there I had

1 Endoscopy
2 units of blood
3 bags of saline
3 bags of protonix
1 chest X ray

Total Cost before insurance billed was $23,227.52

2 units of blood was $2,901.12
Pharmacy $5,965.28
Lab $4,709.38
Room Charge $4,814.00
Plus other stuff

Unbelievable, nothing like meeting your $5,000 hospitalization deductible the third week of January. These charges are outrageous

[Trophyhunter8]

They probably charged you 4 x the actual cost. So you could pay for the next 4 freeloaders that won't work and just stay home and have kids. So they can make more money off the government, than we make.

[kydonky]

They probably charged you 4 x the actual cost. So you could pay for the next 4 freeloaders that won't work and just stay home and have kids. So they can make more money off the government, than we make.

This is why we have Obamacare. If everyone has insurance the will not be freeloaders. Everyone will be paying their share.

[GeoFisher]

This is why we have Obamacare. If everyone has insurance the will not be freeloaders. Everyone will be paying their share.

So...........tell me how Obamacare will HELP lower the costs the providers are charging.

My take is that PROVIDERS charge what they do because 80% of all serviced health care needs are PAID by gubment. AND since GUBMENT pays pretty much everything billed.......CHARGES are high.

GET GUBMENT out of healthcare......PERIOD.

Later,

Geo

[waterdog101]

say what you will about Obama care, but some one has to try something. at least the man is trying something instead of just talking. I cut my finger with a saw, about 10 years ago, a long time before Obama care. waited in waiting room about half an hour, and it took the doctor about 10 minutes tops to stitch it up. charged me 1800. for that. and I left the hospital knowing 100% that I had just been robbed. and Elnut has just been robbed also, 42 hours 23 grand. and they are free to do as they like.

[DJD]

Yes healthcare costs are out of control but doing something for the sake of doing something isnt a good idea. Many other options on fixing the cost of healthcare and getting the gubment more involved is the absolute last thing that should be done.
Think long and hard about this. We are gonna be held hostage to the mismanagement, abuse, fraud and general incompetance of gubment red tape. Elections are going to be dominated by healthcare costs and how to fix it just like the other gubment programs. Why would anyone think it's ok to get another gubment program in our lives??? Why????
I'm sorry this idea of them being further involved in my business is CRAP!!!
What's next healthcare credits? Or uhhh Looky here tax payers we are in debt up to our ears so from now on we will apply a tax to all office visits and meds so we can pay the other debt we have jacked up?!?!? I mean it's like Obama has sold our soul to the devil if this law remains. The devil of course being the greedy, crooked, selfish, arrogant, greasy gubment officials. It's a mistake from day one.

[psprowler]

For a guy that has seen more Hospital Bills than the law allows, I got the most comical and sad one of all today. On the 18th of January I was passing tremendous amounts of blood. My wife took me to Frankfort Hospital at 11am because I started stumbling into walls and such. When I get there I literally collapse into a wheelchair and they take me straight back. My blood pressure was 65/45 and I was in and out of consciousness. There was 3 people sticking needles in me to get an IV started. After 16 attempts they get one started in my neck. They immediately started giving me fluids and then blood because my Hematocrit and Hemoglobin was 1/3 what it should be. I was given 6 units over the next 24 hours and they had to transfer me to a bigger facility to find out where I was bleeding internally. UK was on Divert and I was 3rd on the list so they sent me to U of L into there Critical Care Unit. I was there from Jan 19 at 4pm to Jan 21 at 10am, 42 hours total. While there I had

1 Endoscopy
2 units of blood
3 bags of saline
3 bags of protonix
1 chest X ray

Total Cost before insurance billed was $23,227.52

2 units of blood was $2,901.12
Pharmacy $5,965.28
Lab $4,709.38
Room Charge $4,814.00
Plus other stuff

Unbelievable, nothing like meeting your $5,000 hospitalization deductible the third week of January. These charges are outrageous

Can you get an itemized bill? 3 bags of saline would be 150.00 at our hospital, and 3 protonix drips would have been roughly $600 total. Well under a grand and we are much smaller than UofL - a 25 bed critical access hospital.

[kydonky]

Yes healthcare costs are out of control but doing something for the sake of doing something isnt a good idea. Many other options on fixing the cost of healthcare and getting the gubment more involved is the absolute last thing that should be done.
Think long and hard about this. We are gonna be held hostage to the mismanagement, abuse, fraud and general incompetance of gubment red tape. Elections are going to be dominated by healthcare costs and how to fix it just like the other gubment programs. Why would anyone think it's ok to get another gubment program in our lives??? Why????
I'm sorry this idea of them being further involved in my business is CRAP!!!
What's next healthcare credits? Or uhhh Looky here tax payers we are in debt up to our ears so from now on we will apply a tax to all office visits and meds so we can pay the other debt we have jacked up?!?!? I mean it's like Obama has sold our soul to the devil if this law remains. The devil of course being the greedy, crooked, selfish, arrogant, greasy gubment officials. It's a mistake from day one.

I think mismanagement, corruption, fraud and incompetence is as common in the private sector as anywhere else. Look how gas prices are manipulated, look at USB bank, AIG, Countrywide mortgage, Goldman Sacks, Leaman Brothers. Then you have the billions of $$$ spent on healthcare for every unethical scumbag to try and get a piece of. Pill clinics in Fla. prescribing drugs they know are destined for abuse on the streets and on and on. So we need someone to oversee healthcare or you will be treating your arthritis with snake oil.

We have 100% of citizens using health care and around 40% paying for it. It's time everyone contributes to healthcare.

[lroberts]

This is why we have Obamacare. If everyone has insurance the will not be freeloaders. Everyone will be paying their share.

Who do think will pay for those covered freeloaders???? Still the taxpayers who have jobs! Dumb statement by you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kydonky]

Who do think will pay for those covered freeloaders???? Still the taxpayers who have jobs! Dumb statement by you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taxpayers pay for those freeloaders now. There are 100,000s who do not buy insurance because they would rather spend money on bigger houses, cars, toys, etc. When they have a healthcare crisis they receive treatment and hospitals & health providers distribute the costs and adjust billing accordingly. Medicaide kicks in when they spend down. You pay, I pay. Many of these people do not intend to be freeloaders, they are healthy now and figure they do not need health ins. But 10,000s and 10,000s have unexpected health problems and end up being the "freeloaders".

Just saying that everyone needs to pay their share. It's basic insurance 101. The bigger the insurance pool, the wider the risk is spread and the more affordable insurance costs.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrSplitshot]

I struggle a lot with the healthcare debate.

There are 50.9 Million People in the United States without Health Insurance, or 16.3% of the population. While there are some people with incomes above the poverty line who choose not to take insurance because they feel the cost is too high or because of other factors....and while there are some young people that don't take health insurance because they think they are invincible....I'd bank that the grand majority of the uninsured are the unemployed, the under-employed, and the poor. We consider a lot of people "voluntarily uninsured" because they have incomes above the poverty line, but my God...the poverty line for a family of 4 in the US is something like $22,000! Yes, a guy making $29,000 a year for a family of 4 is above the poverty line...but try paying for things at today's prices for a family of 4 on $29,000 a year without help. Figure that you bring home at most $500 a week, $2,000 a month. Rent. Utilities. Transportation/gas back and forth to work. Groceries, medicine, diapers, basic necessities, clothes for the kids...money to put new brakes on the car when they wear out. Now, figure the weekly cost of the family health insurance plan coming out of that $500 per week. It's tough. The guy isn't "voluntarily uninsured"...he just can't freaking afford $150/week to come out of his check. Yes, Mom could work...and then give every bit of her bring home to daycare for the kids. Okay, some people like to throw around "Get a better job, you bum, so that you can afford to support your family!"...but (1) at least the guy is working, and (2) at the very least his kids shouldn't suffer without healthcare for something that's not their fault.

17% of all ER Visits in 2009 were by folks who did not have health insurance. If a guy with no insurance walks into a hospital with life-threatening injury, he's going to be treated and taken care of. The bill will be thousands upon thousands of dollars that he can't possibly pay and will end up being written off. The rest of us pay for that through these excessive charges that are given to those who can pay, and who have insurance.

I'm a moderate Republican on most issues. However, I've somewhat changed my mind recently and actually believe that the government has some kind of definitive role in health care. The government has to be there to prop up some people who can't prop up themselves - It's too big a task for the church or for private charities. If left up to free enterprise and capitalism, the guy without insurance who walks into an ER with a life threatening issue would be left to die because there is no profit in helping him and no method of payment. Sorry, but I just don't think that should happen in our world. Health care really shouldn't be run like a business, because businesses don't provide goods and services to people who can't pay. If you can't pay for a 55" HDTV, you just don't get one. If you can't pay to have a metal rod removed from your chest after a car accident, I kinda think there ought to be some kind of recourse to help you out instead of just letting you die. "Life-sustaining" health care should be run like a police department, a fire department, or a government agency that provides a service to the citizens of this country. Diverting money from foreign aid to help pay for the healthcare of our own citizens on our own soil who can't afford it would be fine with me. The sad part is that the government is far too inept and dysfunctional to do it.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...it doesn't say Life (only for those above a line on a poverty chart who can afford health insurance), liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[greenriverman1]

I struggle a lot with the healthcare debate.

There are 50.9 Million People in the United States without Health Insurance, or 16.3% of the population. While there are some people with incomes above the poverty line who choose not to take insurance because they feel the cost is too high or because of other factors....and while there are some young people that don't take health insurance because they think they are invincible....I'd bank that the grand majority of the uninsured are the unemployed, the under-employed, and the poor. We consider a lot of people "voluntarily uninsured" because they have incomes above the poverty line, but my God...the poverty line for a family of 4 in the US is something like $22,000! Yes, a guy making $29,000 a year for a family of 4 is above the poverty line...but try paying for things at today's prices for a family of 4 on $29,000 a year without help. Figure that you bring home at most $500 a week, $2,000 a month. Rent. Utilities. Transportation/gas back and forth to work. Groceries, medicine, diapers, basic necessities, clothes for the kids...money to put new brakes on the car when they wear out. Now, figure the weekly cost of the family health insurance plan coming out of that $500 per week. It's tough. The guy isn't "voluntarily uninsured"...he just can't freaking afford $150/week to come out of his check. Yes, Mom could work...and then give every bit of her bring home to daycare for the kids. Okay, some people like to throw around "Get a better job, you bum, so that you can afford to support your family!"...but (1) at least the guy is working, and (2) at the very least his kids shouldn't suffer without healthcare for something that's not their fault.

17% of all ER Visits in 2009 were by folks who did not have health insurance. If a guy with no insurance walks into a hospital with life-threatening injury, he's going to be treated and taken care of. The bill will be thousands upon thousands of dollars that he can't possibly pay and will end up being written off. The rest of us pay for that through these excessive charges that are given to those who can pay, and who have insurance.

I'm a moderate Republican on most issues. However, I've somewhat changed my mind recently and actually believe that the government has some kind of definitive role in health care. The government has to be there to prop up some people who can't prop up themselves - It's too big a task for the church or for private charities. If left up to free enterprise and capitalism, the guy without insurance who walks into an ER with a life threatening issue would be left to die because there is no profit in helping him and no method of payment. Sorry, but I just don't think that should happen in our world. Health care really shouldn't be run like a business, because businesses don't provide goods and services to people who can't pay. If you can't pay for a 55" HDTV, you just don't get one. If you can't pay to have a metal rod removed from your chest after a car accident, I kinda think there ought to be some kind of recourse to help you out instead of just letting you die. "Life-sustaining" health care should be run like a police department, a fire department, or a government agency that provides a service to the citizens of this country. Diverting money from foreign aid to help pay for the healthcare of our own citizens on our own soil who can't afford it would be fine with me. The sad part is that the government is far too inept and dysfunctional to do it.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...it doesn't say Life (only for those above a line on a poverty chart who can afford health insurance), liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Good post. I would just add one word that can not be left out. ILLEGALS!