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> If you are old enough medicare will pay almost all of it. And if younger you should have catastrophic insurance You ignore the situation this man was, at 67

by Luc 13y ago

> If you are old enough medicare will pay almost all of it. And if younger you should have catastrophic insurance You ignore the situation this man was, at 67, not eligible for Medicare and not insurable. > So completely and utterly ignore such numbers unless your goal is to be disingenuous. He already pulled strings to get the price of the implant in the US down to $13,000, 'list price, no markup'. Crazy.

ars 13y ago
Medicare starts at 65. I don't know what's going on with this person. I suspect we are not being told everything in order to make a good story. And that's something to keep in mind: The strange stories you read are in the news precisely because they are so unusual. > $13,000, 'list price, no markup'. Crazy. That's what he paid out of the US as well, I guess that's what it costs. Please explain why you said $78k in your original post.
- Luc 13y ago
  > That's what he paid out of the US as well, I guess that's what it costs. Please explain why you said $78k in your original post. No no, you're mixing up different numbers. By the way, the $78k ($13 + $65k) didn't even include the surgeon's fee: "[...] he reached out to a sailing buddy with friends at a medical device manufacturer, which arranged to provide his local hospital with an implant at what was described as the “list price” of $13,000, with no markup. But when the hospital’s finance office estimated that the hospital charges would run another $65,000, not including the surgeon’s fee, he knew he had to think outside the box, and outside the country." " [...] he ultimately chose to have his hip replaced in 2007 at a private hospital outside Brussels for $13,660. That price included not only a hip joint, made by Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings, but also all doctors’ fees, operating room charges, crutches, medicine, a hospital room for five days, a week in rehab and a round-trip ticket from America. " "The Belgian hospital paid about $4,000 for Mr. Shopenn’s high-end Zimmer implant at a time when American hospitals were paying an average of over $8,000 for the same model."

by Luc 13y ago

ars 13y ago

Medicare starts at 65. I don't know what's going on with this person. I suspect we are not being told everything in order to make a good story. And that's something to keep in mind: The strange stories you read are in the news precisely because they are so unusual. > $13,000, 'list price, no markup'. Crazy. That's what he paid out of the US as well, I guess that's what it costs. Please explain why you said $78k in your original post.

Luc 13y ago
> That's what he paid out of the US as well, I guess that's what it costs. Please explain why you said $78k in your original post. No no, you're mixing up different numbers. By the way, the $78k ($13 + $65k) didn't even include the surgeon's fee: "[...] he reached out to a sailing buddy with friends at a medical device manufacturer, which arranged to provide his local hospital with an implant at what was described as the “list price” of $13,000, with no markup. But when the hospital’s finance office estimated that the hospital charges would run another $65,000, not including the surgeon’s fee, he knew he had to think outside the box, and outside the country." " [...] he ultimately chose to have his hip replaced in 2007 at a private hospital outside Brussels for $13,660. That price included not only a hip joint, made by Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings, but also all doctors’ fees, operating room charges, crutches, medicine, a hospital room for five days, a week in rehab and a round-trip ticket from America. " "The Belgian hospital paid about $4,000 for Mr. Shopenn’s high-end Zimmer implant at a time when American hospitals were paying an average of over $8,000 for the same model."