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A day spent as an inpatient at an American hospital costs on average more than $4,000, five times the charge in many other developed countries, according to the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurance industries. The most expensive hospitals charge more than $12,500 a day. And at many of them, including California Pacific Medical Center, emergency rooms are profit centers. That is why one of the simplest and oldest medical procedures — closing a wound with a needle and thread — typically leads to bills of at least $1,500 and often much more.
At Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, Daniel Diaz, 29, a public relations executive, was billed $3,355.96 for five stitches on his finger after cutting himself while peeling an avocado. At a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., Arch Roberts Jr., 56, a former government employee, was charged more than $2,000 for three stitches after being bitten by a dog. At Mercy Hospital in Port Huron, Mich., Chelsea Manning, 22, a student, received bills for close to $3,000 for six stitches after she tripped running up a path. Insurers and patients negotiated lower prices, but those charges were a starting point.
California Pacific Medical Center’s 400-page chargemaster for this year contains some eye-popping figures: from $32,901 for an X-ray study of the heart’s arteries to $25,646.88 for gall bladder removal (doctor’s fees not included) to $5,510 for a simple vaginal delivery (not including $731 for each hour of labor, or $137 for each bag of IV fluid). Even basic supplies or services carry huge markups: $20 for a codeine pill (50 cents at Rite-Aid or Walgreens), $543 for a breast-pump kit ($25 online), $4,495 for a CT scan of the abdomen (about $400 at an outpatient facility nearby). Plenty of other hospitals set similar prices.
They looked at CEO paychecks in 2009 alongside hospital size, quality and other data from 2008, figuring salaries and bonuses might be tied to the prior year's figures.
The study included 1,877 CEOs from 2,681 private, non-profit hospitals across the country. The average executive earned about $596,000.
Unity_99
Canada model, England model, (well minus their euthanasia practices, don't take the bad), French, NORWAY, Australia, New Zealand, there's a whole world out there that is not like the US with healthcare, and stitches are covered. No extra billing.
jrod
reply to post by redhorse
Actually Medicare/Medicaid is ran very efficiently. Arguably the most efficient large scale government program. Almost all Americans pay into it, but only a few qualify for it.
ObamaCare does nothing to address the inflated prices us Americans are forced to pay for healthcare. My last visit to the ER was about 8 years ago, I got a few X-rays saw the doctor for about 1 minute and was billed over $1000, I received no treatment. I did not have insurance and that is now one of many dings on my credit report.
The US needs universal healthcare. We are way behind the rest of the world in terms of health care. A single payer system is not a bad idea, but most Americans have been sold on the idea that universal health care or a single payer system will turn the US into a socialist country and strongly oppose it.
jrod
reply to post by starfoxxx
If you want the US to be a first world country, we need first world health care. We do not have that.
jrod
reply to post by starfoxxx
If you want the US to be a first world country, we need first world health care. We do not have that. Every other modernized country in the world has some form of universal health care. Why can't the US?