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Never forget being charged 14.99 for one Acetaminophen while in a hospital, and this was years ago. My father had good insurance. He went in for a spider bite
by icantdrive55 9y ago
Never forget being charged 14.99 for one Acetaminophen while in a hospital, and this was years ago.
My father had good insurance. He went in for a spider bite. He needed to stay the night. I arrived and he thanked me for Teddy Bear, and flowers. I told him I didn't send you anything. He said, "Well someone did?"
Weeks later he called me up, and said the gift shop on the hospital send the gift, and charged the Insurance company $230. Billed under something like "psychological affirmations".
Any who--they are thieving entities. It kills me when I meet people, with no assets, who pay their inflated hospital bills out of American pride? They are so strong in their convictions, I don't even bring up a chapter 7. I understand they save live, but don't financially ruin patients.
One other memory. I went in for something. I had great insurance, so I didn't worry about the bill. They gave me a blood test. A week went by, and I got a bill for $900. I called my union, and they the hospital didn't know I had insurance.
My union said my bill would be $10. She said the hospital sent them the bill of $100, and I would pay my 10 percent. I asked, "Why do they only charge you $100?" She said, "It's about Collective Bargaining. Yea--I find it shocking too."
- Gustomaximus 9y agoOne of the best rules for US hospitals (other than universal care) would be for all hospitals to publish prices annually and charge one set price, be it a walk in patient or large union. This should be a reasonable rule if people want to keep capitalist system healthcare. Its not stopping them competing, only applying a transparent and level playing field to the market.
- carlmr 9y agoYep, transparency and charging all patients the same should be regulated. Then it barely matters if the system is private or public, because it would be so cheap that even the uninsured wouldn't go bankrupt from a surgery.
- jopsen 9y agoIMO published prices including all applicable taxes and fees should always be posted. In particularly for consumer facing products. I can't praise the EU enough for making this happen, and making sure said price is written big letters :)
- lostlogin 9y agoCareful, next you’ll have death panels.
- dx034 9y agoI don't understand how charging different prices for the same service is legal. If that would be declared illegal (as it is in many other countries) it would probably already fix a lot. Some insurances would pay more but people without insurance vastly less.
- AndyMcConachie 9y agoIs there a website where people can post their annotated hospital bills and talk about them? If not, someone should make one.