Hospital $840.00

• Anesthesia service 50.00
  
• Radiology (x-ray) 100.00
  
• Surgeon's fee 140.00
  
• ER physician's fee 30.00
  
• Physical therapy 300.00
  

Splint (monthly rental) 50.00
----------------------------------------------
Total (so far) $1510.00

$1,510.00 is the total amount we've had to pay so far for my son's broken arm, including two days in the hospital and physical therapy. We were charged the $300.00 deductible twice because, you see, there's the in-patient hospital admission and then there's physical therapy that, for some unknown reason, is considered "in-patient" as well - even though, the PT is for the broken arm, not something separate!

What if we (his parents) did not have jobs and this happened? Or what if we made only minimum wage? There would be no way to cough up this $1,500.00. The number one reason families file for bankruptcy in this country is outrageous medical bills like this.

I understand that we have to pay some out of pocket, but where is the cap? Next year, that per admission/in-patient deductible is going up to $400.00 per occasion; I suppose the year after that it will go to $500.00. The office co-pay is going up and, of course, so is the premium.

I do not understand why the status quo is okay with some people. Laissez-faire it is on this subject!

Addendum -

All costs in the first post are just the customary up-front deductibles, co-pays, and other various forms of being nickel and dimed before the insurance kicked in at 90%. The total bill for his broken arm would have been $13,852.00 - imagine a bill like that without insurance. Now what is it the millions of uninsured and underinsured in this country are complaining about? Such whiners.

I am dealing with this right now. My husband died with no insurance and I have gotten 6 different medical bills since his death. I've had to do lots of negotiating with the doctors to either write-off the bills, get discounts for paying in full, or setting up payment plans. Most are willing to work with you, especially when they know that you don't have a job, insurance, and the money to pay them very much. It's a huge hassle at the moment, but it will be worth it once everyone is paid off.

My original bills only totaled $48374.66.

WIP:
What did he do to his arm? Multiple breaks, ripped muscles, ripped tendons?

That is a ridiculous price. You realize that this is what the hospital, er, radiology, physical therapy, etc all charged separately.

The Obamacare will not touch on any of those. If the pay rates follow guidelines for Medicare/Medicaid, the doctor will refuse to take you.



Bookworm, my sympathies.

One reason health care is so expensive now is because the government gives the doctors pennies on the dollar for the government programs that already exist and the doctor's/hospitals shift the cost to you.

Private insurance will be driven higher and eventually you will be left with one option. One corrupt, , inefficient, incompetent provider. Fewer doctors, fewer hospitals, less research, and the end of expensive treatments that keep your parents alive.

Go to the USPS and asked them about a lost package or letter. At $20-$30 per hour they will not be able to tell you and you think that a government run health care program would be better? R U Obama Crazy?

Not only will it cost more but you would be lucky if a doctor even sees your son within 12 hours.

quote:

Originally posted by barracus:
WIP:
What did he do to his arm? Multiple breaks, ripped muscles, ripped tendons?

That is a ridiculous price. You realize that this is what the hospital, er, radiology, physical therapy, etc all charged separately.

The Obamacare will not touch on any of those. If the pay rates follow guidelines for Medicare/Medicaid, the doctor will refuse to take you.

barracus,

He was trying to be John Cena...jumped off the bed onto an invisible opponent (landing on the elbow)...you get the picture. The break was above the elbow, so he required a full-arm cast for several weeks. When the cast finally came off, we couldn't get him to straighten his arm with just PT. So now he's in a splint at night that's designed to straighten his arm gradually while he's sleeping and his muscles are relaxed. We've got three degrees to go to get him there! It was a bad break.

I knew the charges would be separate; this is not my first time to deal with a hospital bill. I just think the amount we're paying out of pocket is crazy. Now we're just waiting on a bill from housekeeping, since it seems to be the only department that hasn't sent us one yet.

quote:

Originally posted by The Bookworm:
I am dealing with this right now. My husband died with no insurance and I have gotten 6 different medical bills since his death. I've had to do lots of negotiating with the doctors to either write-off the bills, get discounts for paying in full, or setting up payment plans. Most are willing to work with you, especially when they know that you don't have a job, insurance, and the money to pay them very much. It's a huge hassle at the moment, but it will be worth it once everyone is paid off.

My original bills only totaled $48374.66.

I'm sorry to hear of your husband's passing, Bookworm. It must be terrible to deal with this loss and try to figure out a way to pay off such a large bill at the same time.

WIP,
I did not mean to imply you would not understand the bill. I typed faster than I thought.

The amount out of pocket is better than the full bill. How much does your premiums cost in relation to the bill? My point was that even if we get some kind of healthcare reform, it won't change the status quo much. Add to that, we will pay taxes into it for 4 or 5 years BEFORE any one can get any benefits. If anything changes, it will be 5 years or so from now.


I had to do a similar wheel and deal that bookworm did.

Managed to get a $1300 physical therapy bill down to $850 by agreeing to pay it all at once. The hospitals are not as evil as they seem, its just the whole system is grossly overcharging for everything.

If Congress really wants to help, do tort reform, drop waiting times on pre-existing conditions and make insurance companies sell across state lines. BCBS has a strangle hold on Alabama that needs to be broken.

People,

I never said Obama-care was the way to go. I said, more or less, that something's got to give! We the people can't sustain costs like this - that keep going up, up, up.

LoveShack,

quote:

Not only will it cost more but you would be lucky if a doctor even sees your son within 12 hours.

You made this statement in reference to Obama-care, but I don't know of anyone with good medical insurance that can get in within 12 hours now; you'd be lucky to get a call back in that amount of time with some doctors. And most ER's already have a long wait time - can be hours and hours as it is; reform won't change that.

Some form of rationing is going to happen, no matter what. We've got too many Baby Boomers with too many maladies and not enough primary care physicians to care for them. We've got too many fat, careless, smokers that want everyone else to pay for their reckless choices. Unless people start to really take care of themselves (as opposed to having bariatric surgery), we're gonna need more doctors; someone's gonna be waiting in line.

I ask all of you that are apparently against reform, why aren't you screaming louder about lifestyle choices? Isn't the Republican party the party of personal responsibility? Oh, that's right, it only applies to government intervention. When it comes to smoking and eating all the snack cakes you can inhale, you want the government to keep out of your business - that is, until those choices render you "disabled" and you're sucking cash off the tax payers in the form of disability payments, or you end up seeing a doctor with ailments that could have been prevented. Whether you have private or government paid insurance, my premium will go up to treat you! This is the part that the status quo Republicans don't seem to get: individual choices impact all of us!

I took out the Blue Advantage supplement to Medicare for my mother 2 years ago. We had just been paying the 20% out of our pockets and between she and I we were getting it paid. She was going to have to have cateract surgery so we decided we would take out the supplement. At that time it was $56 a month for hospital and medicine (which she has medicine coverage still from my dad's retirement which we kept and would just fill med. on whichever was cheapest). Well guess what...last year Blue Advantage went up from $56 to $71 did add a couple of extra things they were covering so we didn't complain too much. Just got a letter yesterday that it is going up from $71 to $141 starting Jan. Not only are they not adding any new coverage but they are going to start charging copays on everything that didn't have any. I told my mother she would be better off to put the $56 or $71 she has been paying in a special savings account each month and just go back to regular medicare and we would pay the 20% out of pocket. It is ridiculus they are doubling the cost as well as adding co-pays!

But why react with emotion to a problem? Everyone gets stirred up crazy about health care reform. The problem with our health care is multi-faceted. We have bad doctors, bad drugs, bad hospitals and bad treatment decisions driving up costs. Good doctors pay exceedingly high malpractice insurance because of the bad physicians who are allowed to practice. Patients sue over things as minor as farts and fevers. Drug companies pressure the FDA to push through drugs that have unforseen side effects that cripple and kill people. There are, undeniably, problems with our health care system but none so serious I would want to see the ever so incompetent government take it over. If we think it's bad now, all we have to do is look at the U.S. government's track record on managing anything. FEMA, USPS, Social (In)security, Medicare, Welfare and let's also look at what the government spends on common everyday items. $800 toilet seats and $500 hammers.

The system isn't perfect and can stand improvement but what we have is much more desirable than Obamacare.

quote:

Originally posted by 2benzes:
The system isn't perfect and can stand improvement but what we have is much more desirable than Obamacare.

Again, I'm not campaigning for Obamacare here; I just want changes.

I believe in capitalism and think it works, but there are times when government intervention is needed. For example, a little more government regulation probably would have stopped the Enron scandal. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed because of these guys.

We've been convinced in this country that capitalism means it's okay for many people to be poor, as long as there's an opportunity for a few others to make money. The same can be said of our ideas about health care/insurance: in order for some to have, there must be those that go without - around 45 million at last count.

Giving the government control over your health care is like signing away your freedom. I can't wait until all the regulations get passed because some commission has found this is bad for you. As far as personal responsibility and getting fat, hey those are choices with consequence but I want to make those choices not have them made for me. Where will they stop?

To live free means we can not depend on the government for every thing we need. I remmeber my Grandfather talking about traveling all over the country picking up what ever job he could to keep his family fed. I my self worked hard and pushed so that I could get a job with benefits and good pay. I had to sacrifice early on, swallow my pride, fail, fall down, get back up and try again. We don't want to do that anymore, we just want it handed to us. Its not fair I don't have health insurance, its not fair I don't make what they make, its not fair...

Quit looking to the government to fix your problems, look to yourself, your family, your friends. Freedom comes with a price, it is not one just paid for by soldiers but also by the people who are free. We have decided we want security over freedom.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship."

Alexander Fraser Tyler, "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic"

We have a responsibility to this republic to make choices that are not always easy, or popular, but we the people need to make. Do not blame the democrats or the republicans, look in the mirror because it is you and I...We the people who have decided the fate of this country. We have decided that we want nice comfortable pens so that our masters can sheer us like the sheep we have become.