Merry Freaking Christmas. What to expect for ONE night in the hospital when you don't have health i

reply to post by CALGARIAN


Frankly, I like the guy, and find him absolutely charming. My comments are based on what he said in one of the debates in the scenario about the 30 year old guy in the ER. He indicated he should be refused treatment due to lack of money, claiming "personal responsibility, and the usual rhetoric from tea partiers.

I really like his ideas on foreign policy, but his domestic policies seriously scare me. Anyway, it's neither here nor there. I won't vote for any of them, but if I had to, he would be the one.

Starting off, that is really sad and I hope nothing but the best for the person this happened to. I am curious as to why the billing has dates that range over a months period of time if it was just a 24 hour visit to the hospital. Just wondering.

I went to the ER and had to have some xrays, blood tests, some fluids (2 IV bags) and they gave me a couple of pain shots and antibiotic shot.. I was there for 3 hours. My bills was $2,317.43, including the separate bill for the ER doc......I have no insurance, so when I get sick, I usually suffer through it, and wind up in the ER if it gets too bad. Thank God I don't get sick often. It's horrible.....we have to neglect ourselves because of this in the U.S.

reply to post by TSearchX


if you look at the information next to the dates, one is for the actual day there, one is for a payment, and 2 are for billing adjustments.

Last year Christmas day my throat started hurting, it wasn't like a regular sore throat, but it wasn't really bad at the time. Over the days it started to swell, by the day after New Years day it was so swollen I could hardly breathe, I couldn't talk it was so swollen, so I went to the ER. I was in there for about 2 hours, they took my blood pressure and temp, they gave me some Tylenol, for the pain, and the doctor ordered me a prescription of antibiotics. I didn't have any money at the time they wanted me to give them $200 dollars just for that day, then they would bill me the "rest"!! I can't imagine how much they were planning to charge me in all!

I applied for medicaid that day and Medicaid paid for my visit.

It's pretty bad here in the US, outrageous medical cost for those who can't afford insurance.

I have ordered some "Fish" antibiotics from Amazon they work great! and they were a fraction of the price I paid for my antibiotics and they are the same thing the doctor gave me!! I paid $120 for the prescribed meds!!

reply to post by Alaskan Man

And this is why i dont get why americans are mostly against free health care. Here you only have to pay a small fee even if surgery is involved.

Originally posted by angeldoll
reply to post by Alaskan Man

 

Oh, I just noticed your last comment. I apologize. I thought someone who strongly supported a candidate would know more about their policies.

edit on 12/17/2011 by angeldoll because: (no reason given)

Wow I'm just going to dismiss you as a troll at this point. You're just pulling stuff out of thin air and calling it a fact, then you tell me i don't know about the candidate i support after linking you to his stance on what you claim to know about.

Well heck as long as anything said without backing it up counts as the full truth.... angeldoll hates puppies! If you know anything about angeldoll you'll know he/she likes to adopt puppies just to abandon them. PUPPY HATER!

Good medical care should be available to all American citizens............as food and shelter.

But we are still a society of greedy it's okay for someone to earn 10 billion for flopping around on a stage singing vs someone that cleans the toilets, makes the hamburgers, coffee and breakfast muffins..............people are so short sighted.

So apathetic, so mind conditioned they don't even see the inequality.

I at this point give up trying to point the masses into the correct direction.

Those that are able to smooth talk make the most. Those that do the real work don't.

So be it...................you all get exactly what you deserve.

Stupidity to the max.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


yep good old medical care when it's not regulated and accountable.

I had a friend that sold drugs for a large drug firm.............she was able to buy a 2.3 million dollar house.

Our system is corrupt and needs to be reviewed and changed.

Regulation and accountability are the key..............hello, no brainer here.

reply to post by Argyll


It is not free in the UK the money is made from the 50 million taxes you have (btw wtf is a TV tax? really?) and the care is not as good or should i say its better to pay for healthcare as well.

My wife is from the UK and she told me she paid for extra healthcare because she got faster and better care.
The US system is bad but only because the Insurance companies and (as seen in the op) the hospitals price gouge the hell out of everything. $200 for 2 Tylenol aspirin.

There is no such thing as FREE healthcare.

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
Friend of mine had to spend ONE night in a Hospital

This is his bill for just under 24hrs.

Oy vey, all I see is a conveiniently cropped image. Why don't you show the full width of the page? You obviously took the tim to scan it and upload it, and you have demonstrated the ability to obscure personal data. I just can't help but think that you're hiding something. It would be the first time that had ever happened on ATS, but there is a chance that someone, somewhere along the line will misrepresent something on ATS because they have an agenda.

Shalom.

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
This is his bill for just under 24hrs.

Where is the 'Amount Due' / 'Balance Owed' portion?

Better yet ... where it the itemized list of procedures, services, administered medications and misc. type items?

... room charges, suture kits, blood work, etc.

I spent 8 days in the Fountain Valley Shock Trauma unit in Huntington beach, CA after a motorcycle accident back in the early 80's

Punctured lung, broken ribs, fractured rotator cuff, etc.

4 days in intensive care hooked up to near everything machine you can imagine and 4 days in a private room.

All tolled ... over $100K, BUT that was nearly 30 years ago .... and even then, before computerized billings and such ... I received a complete 'start-t- finish' line item breakdown of services rendered, procedural costs, administered meds, etc ... even to the extent of $3.50 a piece for 500mg Tylenols tabs.

30 years ago ...

Certainly, that's not the entirety of the 'bill' (?)

reply to post by Jewcano


Yeah, curiosity killed the cat.

Show me the ICD-9 codes and I'll tell what he was in for.

Curious how he/she got a bill so big, in insurance.

ICD-9 codes will give it away.

His discharge papers will show the codes for the bill.

Show the codes and I will go look in the book for you.

Originally posted by angeldoll
reply to post by CALGARIAN

 

Frankly, I like the guy, and find him absolutely charming. My comments are based on what he said in one of the debates in the scenario about the 30 year old guy in the ER. He indicated he should be refused treatment due to lack of money, claiming "personal responsibility, and the usual rhetoric from tea partiers.

I really like his ideas on foreign policy, but his domestic policies seriously scare me. Anyway, it's neither here nor there. I won't vote for any of them, but if I had to, he would be the one.

That's because the 30 yr old guy had the choice to chose health insurance and he chose not to get. It's all about people making decisions for themselves.

The last job I had I took the health insurance and only brought home $117 dollars in a 40hr work wk. The health insurance was worth it because I came down with a severe hormone deficiency that I'm still battling but now w/o insurance. I made the decision to bring home that much for the insurance. It was my decision such as the 30 year old man decided against health insurance.

Possibly the reason the bill was so high was because the person had no insurance. They may be expecting them to default and they can claim it as a tax loss or file a huge bill to the govt to be reimbursed. These guys are thinking profitprofitprofit every waking minute.

Originally posted by Alaskan Man

Tonsills & adenoids, and nasal polyps removed, and a single night in the hospital - 11/9/2011. Left at 8am the next morning.

Are you sure that is the story?

I'd love to see that page in it's entirety, a billing detail complete with ICD-9 codes would be even better.

And what is with the $101,062.88 contractual adjustment? Sounds like this "person" has insurance, so why would they have to declare bankruptcy?

Shalom.

This is from a post on www.reddit.com.../More discussion going on there.

Oops languge in pic



So um OP is this you or someone else?

Oops missed the post above me.

Originally posted by juleol
reply to post by Alaskan Man

 

And this is why i dont get why americans are mostly against free health care. Here you only have to pay a small fee even if surgery is involved.

Do your country's doctors, nurses, medical technicians,..., and hospital janitors actually work for free?

For anyone that ever gets in a similar situation: ask around about different ways to pay a hospital bill like this. Most of the time, hospitals will be more than willing to work with you, but just make sure that you act sincere, and not like you just want to bum the system.

Its ridiculous how expensive medical care in the US is. 6 years ago I had cancer. 1 year worth of treatments (chemo, radiation, blood work, PET/CT scans, and doctor visits) was $300,000, and my dad had AMAZING insurance at the time. What was even worse was that one month my parents fell behind on the mortgage during my treatments. They didn't have any money because my bills had become too much for just my dad's income (my mom wasn't working because I needed constant care). The bank was going to kick us out, up until my brother was able to magically come up with some money and my parents threatened to go to the local news. My dad went way out of his way to prove why they couldn't pay the mortgage, and yet the bank still had no sympathy. To me, that's the same sick, twisted, down right diabolical attitude that causes medical care to be so expensive. I know someone mentioned it earlier, but basic medical, food, and housing should not be as expensive as they are.