How do you answer this man?

Question

Here's the short vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVVqX6x2tHQ

I think it's a sad state of affairs when a 6 day stay at a hospital costs more than a the same amount of time at a 5-star hotel with a private maid, chauffer, and butler.

Why do some people try to pass the blame for high health care costs to illegal immigrants? Indigent health care is usually a county responsibility. That may explain why your property taxes are higher, but not why it costs so darn much to see the doctor.

Answer 1

$340,000 for 8 days in the ICU? That is just FRIGHTENING! That could happen to ANY of us!

I think the real problem is how we look at health care in the US. In the US, the measure of success is profit, just profit. Return on investment. If someone tells you his uncle is a 'successful doctor', you know he doesn't mean his uncle has healed a lot of people, alleviated a lot of suffering, he means that his uncle has made a lot of money!

Consequently the primary goal of how the system is run is to ensure good profits for healthcare providers and drug companies, not to insure good care or to make health care available to everyone.

This is a civilized country. Nobody bleeds to death on the steps of the emergency room. Hospitals and ERs are required to treat people (to a certain extent) whether they can pay or not. Consequently the expense of treating those who can't pay (and that is a larger percentage of us all the time) is folded back into the costs charged to those who -can- pay. This is why a Tylenol costs $25.

Just since GW Bush has been in office, the cost we pay for health insurance has risen by 70%. And it was considered a crisis before that!

We have to look at the whole problem differently. We have to see the primary goal as providing health care, good outcomes, a healthier population, NOT simply as profits for big health insurance companies. Sadly, all the proposals that have been floated by politicians have not done this, they all have mostly to do with the govt. buying insurance for -some- poor people at the going rate, in other words, increasing the profits of the providers to make the system more 'successful'. Even Bill Clinton's plan did this, and Hillary's new plan does it too.

Answer 2

I have a brother and a nephew who are Dr's , I know that they pay over $100.000 per year for their insurance, but, if you divide this amount between all of their patients it would only increase the patients amount app $5 so how do they justify charging $120 for a office visit plus any thing else they do such as to check your temp, for another $50 or a shot $50 plus the cost of the shot about $25 and I can buy a dose of penicillin for about $3 at the pharmacy??? to me it is nothing but greed, and when we talk about what the insurance pays or medicare pays it is very exorbitant, I had a eye surgery did and medicare paid over $10,000 for the use of the hospital's operating room , I was in the room 26 minutes, and I still paid about $800 on the room, there was not any thing that I saw that could be rated as super equipment in this room , or do they want every customer to pay for the equipment each time it is used? The same operation on the other eye in Manila Philippines cost me $550 that included the doctor, and I was treated like a king, some one is damned greedy is my contention,

Answer 3

You must be young,healthy and insured...not to mention financially secure. From my own experience, I can tell you that those "cost" you refer to are a direct result of not only the uninsured who receive treatment that they cannot pay for...but the increase cost comes from the cuts in Medicare/Medicaid payments to providers as well as the cuts in pay from Commercial insurance companies like BCBS, Champus,etc. What most people don't understand is that the hospitals do not receive even 1/3 of the charges billed in most cases. The insurance companies, as well as Medicare and Medicaid do not pay for medical services based on the amount of charges...there is no 80/20 split. The hospitals only receive payment based on the DRG (Diagnostic Related Group) which pays a set amount based on the "average" cost of what that same diagnosis at area hospitals in the region. The hospitals then have to "write-off" the difference between what the insurance companies "allow" and the actual charges. At the end of the hospital's fiscal year, they are allowed to recover only a small percentage of those charges that are 'written-off'. So regardless of the actual charges on that bill, the hospital never collects that amount.

Answer 4

It's sick and sad and unfortunately in the control of the hospital, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies. The rest of us are stuck without a choice. We can either pay an exorbant amount for health care or hope that one day that we don't end up in the hospital.

Answer 5

isn't it a vicious circle? the problem is with insurance. we all think our insurance is costly but what about the doctors that have to have expensive malpractice insurance. They get sued over something stupid so their insurance goes up causing them to raise prices causing our insurance to go up. I think the problem is insurance and lawsuits.

Sorry for the guy that lost his insurance. unions often cause companys to close due to their greedy high demands.

BTW are drugs included in the hotel stay? JK

Answer 6

Blame it on Licentious people and the condition of tort law now a days. Get rid of frivolous lawsuits and outrageous awards and theprice of med care will come down.

Answer 7

My sis-in-law just had surgery for cancer. Her bill for an 8 day stay in isolation and ICU was $340,000. Luckily she has insurance.

Answer 8

You have to understand where that cost is coming from. You know all those illegal aliens and other people who run to the emergency room for evey little thing and do not have the means to pay for it? Well, there you go. The costs get passed on to those who can afford to pay.

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Answer 9

That just broke my heart