Health care costs are RIDICULOUS!!!!

qt_rn · Jun 18, 2011

weird though cause i don't recall any comments that were positive, but do rmember it was all about the 'wait' thing that they were up in arms over.
i think that people who felt/did have a bad experience tend to complain and express their opinion more than people that are happy with the care they receive...kind of like when you get bad service at a store or from a certain company you tend to tell more people than if you were satisfied, unless you were extremely happy with everything and wanted to shout from the roof tops how happy you were with service, etc. if that makes sense?
btw if your mother was a certain age, and did not work or have high income she would have recieved the care from medicare/medicaid without that long of a wait.
i didn't realize there were programs that help out many people in the us, the system seems very confusing, especially when your not from that country =) she isn't old at all, 57, so not quite a senior but she got laid off a few months ago, so maybe she would have been approved, maybe not. good info to know though, thank-you for the insight!
not sure, but i think most people that are against obama's health plan are because of some of the clauses it contains that are not good. parts of it most people agree with, and other parts just aren't for the ave. taxpayer, or lower middle income people. alot of things are wrong with it that i am just freaked abt, and i do believe in helping be my "brothers keeper"...but it does seems to hurt the middle class alot!
hurting the middle class definitely isn't a good thing! i hope that they can work the policies out so that the middle class isn't affected so much. as far as i knew, obama was all about helping the middle class. i haven't read the policies, so i guess i can't really comment too much on them. middle class always seems to get screwed, even here
by the way, if ins. is obtained at work, it usually only costs a couple of hundred for entire family and so it's not thousand a month.
i was under the impression that not a lot of work places provide insurance? kind of like here, where a lot of jobs are part time or casual, and therefore a lot of people are not eligible for benefits? i myself work part time at a local hospital but am not eligible for health benefits (prescription, vision, dental), even though i put in full time hours. but a few hundred is much better than several hundred or a 1000!

thanks for the insights!

nicu4me · Jun 18, 2011

Had chest pain work up resolved while still in ER. Had to have stress ECHO do not do them on Sundays. Had to stay overnight, told MD that even tho I work for healthsystem that it would be too much. Still paying it off. ended up with migraine from nitro that they took off. By the time they had a bed ready vs were obviously stable. He said he would send me out AMA because he wanted me to stay. I am STILL paying that off, my healthsystem threatens all teh time, I am paying all that I can because my health premium is 250.00 pay period/q 2weeks. I told them how can we accept so much public aid and give out bus passes and food vouchers and such and we keep babes wayyyy tooo long for convenience of parents or potential adoptive foster families. Heck kids been there 6 months and no contact from parent, know we are going to foster care, just start the process at 6 months. 3,000 or more per day. I finally told them between what I pay and what I can pay is alot, they said payroll deduction, I said no we are not always guaranteed our hours depending on census. and threw in there why do we give out car seats, etc., when parents have $$$$ to smoke, do drugs, etc. lets stop people that freeload. HOWEVER, I would not want to actually be so pooor as to qualify for medical assistance. Sounds like I should be grateful my chest pain was ok, but really 12 hours of monitoring in ER, plus cardiac levels drawn, let me go, I will come back on Monday for the stress echo.

VioletKaliLPN, LPN · Jun 18, 2011

i buy my own insurance, have for almost 10 years now. i bought it at age 19, when i only had asthma and depression at pre existings. bcbsnc ppo is what i have.

right now i pay 235.47 a month. my deductible is 3500, max oop is 6500. i have the 6500 in an account just for health care, just in case!

copays are 25 ov, 50 urgent care, and 150 er. that 150 is "global", it covers everything in an er, except for mri's, cardiac caths, that type of thing which would fall under deductible.

10 20 30 45 rx copays.

for my health conditions i spend oh, 500 a year for rx's thanks to generics and copays.

i always choose urgent care over er, and i make healthy lifestyle choices in an attempt to stay out of the hospital.

i keep my own coverage because i like the consistency and benefits.

it may sound like a lot of money for such a high deductible, but that only comes into play for hospitalization, which i avoid.

conroenurse · Jun 18, 2011

Geez, so sorry, but are you saying you had to leave AMA and so insurance made you pay all? If so, I'd have stayed...and work would just have to find a agency nurse. USED TO BE I'd crawl to work if I had too, but am so over that end at the present. ALSO ck your hosp, and see if they don't have employee help with bills like that.

I know we do at big hosp. here.

mappers · Jun 18, 2011

There are NOT a lot of programs that help Amcericans in situations like your mothers. At 57 and just laid off, she would not be eligible for Medicare. She would have to loose her house and all of her savings, including retirement savings to qualilfy for medicaid. She would be eligible for COBRA for 18 months but would most likely have to pay over $1000 a month for it or at least over $500. And before Obamacare, any pre-existing condition would have made her uninsurable as an individual.

The recently unemployed and underemployed are at real disadvantage when it comes to healthcare in this country.

Fribblet · Jun 18, 2011

i buy my own insurance, have for almost 10 years now. i bought it at age 19, when i only had asthma and depression at pre existings. bcbsnc ppo is what i have.
right now i pay 235.47 a month. my deductible is 3500, max oop is 6500. i have the 6500 in an account just for health care, just in case!
copays are 25 ov, 50 urgent care, and 150 er. that 150 is "global", it covers everything in an er, except for mri's, cardiac caths, that type of thing which would fall under deductible.
10 20 30 45 rx copays.
for my health conditions i spend oh, 500 a year for rx's thanks to generics and copays.
i always choose urgent care over er, and i make healthy lifestyle choices in an attempt to stay out of the hospital.
i keep my own coverage because i like the consistency and benefits.
it may sound like a lot of money for such a high deductible, but that only comes into play for hospitalization, which i avoid.

good for you! (and i don't mean that sarcastically. :) )

DogloverinCA · Jun 19, 2011

Don't forget to add in the cost of the uninsured drug seekers who drive up all those costs just trying to get high legally from the ER---with their made up complaints-we all pay for that! Do you think they have insurance or money in their pockets?! Also, the paper pushers that administer the hospital--the secretaries, CFO's CEO's, DON's, coders, med records, etc. They all have to get paid too...

VioletKaliLPN, LPN · Jun 19, 2011

I swear I had a point....

I make health care a priority. Controlling my asthma so that I do not need an $$$ ER visit is important to me. Exercising every day, eating as healthfully as possible, and making good choices, are priorities.

I believe that many people could afford health care and health insurance if they considered a priority, sadly, many feel that a 450$ car payment is the priority.

MickeyTong · Jun 19, 2011

. bcbsnc ppo is what i have.....
right now i pay 235.47 a month. my deductible is 3500, max oop is 6500......
copays are 25 ov, 50 urgent care, and 150 er. that 150 is "global", it covers everything in an er, except for mri's, cardiac caths, that type of thing which would fall under deductible.
10 20 30 45 rx copays.
i always choose urgent care over er....

excuse me, i'm foreign. i understood the conjunctions in what you wrote, but the rest was meaningless gibberish. sorry.

MickeyTong · Jun 19, 2011

There are NOT a lot of programs that help Amcericans in situations like your mothers. At 57 and just laid off, she would not be eligible for Medicare. She would have to loose her house and all of her savings, including retirement savings to qualilfy for medicaid. She would be eligible for COBRA for 18 months but would most likely have to pay over $1000 a month for it or at least over $500. And before Obamacare, any pre-existing condition would have made her uninsurable as an individual.
The recently unemployed and underemployed are at real disadvantage when it comes to healthcare in this country.

The rest of us look at the USA with awe and drooling wonder at its many achievements, innovations and "yes we can". Except for health care for Mr and Mrs Ordinary Citizen and their kids - then we think: your government has warped priorities.

elkpark · Jun 20, 2011

By the way, if ins. is obtained at work, it usually only costs a couple of hundred for entire family and so it's not thousand a month.

Please note that the amount you see listed on your paycheck stub for health insurance is v. rarely the full cost of the health insurance premium -- it's only the portion the employer deducts from your paycheck. Employers typically claim that they are paying the bulk of the health insurance premiums for their employees (although, really, in the larger sense, that money is income you have earned but never see, because it's taken "off the top" and given to the insurance company) because that enables the employers to take a tax write-off on that money (if they paid you the additional money as salary/wages and charged you the full amount of the insurance, then you could write off the cost of the insurance on your taxes -- they want to keep the tax benefits for themselves). If you want to know the full price of your health insurance (which I guarantee you is quite a bit more than "a couple of hundred" a month for a family), I encourage you to ask your HR department.

Altra, BSN, RN · Jun 20, 2011

i think why i was soooo shocked, is that when i had to get my health requirements for Nursing school, a CXR cost me $60 and a complete physical $100 at the local urgicare.... btw... that was before i bought the required insurance.... 2 years ago....
Im simply stunned that health care costs have risen exponentially in just 2 years...

My boyfriend was recently in the hospital for almost 3 weeks. The total amount of his stay was almost $170,000!
Granted he spent the majority of his time in the MICU for 3,100 a day. Not to mention the stents that he had placed in his aorta we about 20,000 a pop and he had two of them. He also had a chest tube placed and those drainage systems are expensive! Not to mention numerous CT Scans, blood draws and chest x rays.. Plus for every 30 cc of Malox they gave him for his heartburn cost 4 dollars and some change a pop! It is craziness how hospitals can charge the patients that go them for help. Even if they do or dont have insurance.. Kinda scary!!

A friend recently went to the ER complaining of chest pain and Nausea
They did a chest X-ray, EKG, and blood work ...
Total bill: $2,860.29
Maybe i'm missing something here....
But WOW!!!!! I think that's a little (a lot) steep!
Its tragic tragic tragic that health care cost are so ridiculous...

OP, you are comparing an outpatient, non-interventional physical exam with an emergency department visit for an episode of acute chest pain. Please think about what all is built into that ER visit that is not listed as a line item on the bill:

EKG with immediate interpretation by an ED physician with, possibly, confirming interpretation by a cardiologist within the hour.

CXR with immediate interpretation by an ED physician and, possibly, confirming interpretation by a radiologist and/or cardiologist.

STAT labwork with immediate interpretation by an ED physician.

Continuous cardiac monitoring by nurses and possibly a monitor tech, if used in that ED.

Continuous nursing care.

O2 & med administration.

The immediate availability and expertise of all physicians, nurses, equipment, meds, and all other interventions needed if that acute chest pain turns out to be an AMI, pneumothorax, AAA, PE or other life-threatening condition.

Do you see it differently now?

Similarly, about the $4 Maalox ... built into that is pharmacy, nursing ... hopefully you get the idea.