Recently, one of our friends from the dog park had an attack of colitis and ended up in the hospital for a week. The cost for just room and board at the hospital for 7 days? Are you sitting down? $52,000. Think about that for a moment, let it sink in.
If the conversion chart I used is correct, that’s more than 33,000 pounds. Or nearly 40,000 Euros, nearly 51,000 Australian dollars, more than 53,000 Canadian dollars. Regardless of the currency equivalent, it’s a lot of money for just room and board. In other words, it doesn’t include lab tests, scans, doctors’ fees and all the rest of it.
No surprise, then, that most bankruptcies in this country are due to medical care bills. Fortunately, this woman has great health insurance that probably costs her and her husband an arm and a leg each month. Her part of the bill was under a thousand bucks.
Suppose she had been uninsured? Well, the law stipulates that anyone can be treated in the emergency room of a hospital whether or not they have the ability to pay. In 1999, when Rob leaped off his windsurfer onto a beach and landed on a broken beer bottle, the treatment in ER- without any kind of surgery, just drugs for infection and stitches by a podiatrist – cost more than two grand. We didn’t have health insurance and paid it off at a hundred bucks a month.
In 2007, when Megan broke her ankle, the treatment for a cast and a couple of follow-up treatments – no surgery- was over two grand. We paid it off in installments. In 1989 when Megan was born, we had catastrophic health insurance. I discovered it didn’t cover anything related to maternity. The price for two nights in a hospital to have a baby, without complications of any kind (except a long labor): more than $8,000 – and I hate to think of what it would cost more than two decades later.
If you are a self-employed individual in the U.S., in your forties or fifties, your health insurance – depending on your deductible and the details – will cost you more than $12,000 a year. And you’ll still have to pay some of the fees. If you are 65 years old or older, then Medicare kicks in and pays 80% of most bills after a small deductible is met. You pay around $100 a month or about $1,200 a year. But not every doctor – or even every state – will take patients on Medicare. If you make less than $25,000 a year (I think that’s the cutoff now), then you qualify for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor. And that’s basically it. Those are your options.If you don’t fit somewhere in those categories, then you are an outlier, a mutant.
After our daughter was born, we dropped our catastrophic health insurance. Had we kept it, we would have paid out nearly a quarter of a million dollars in the last 20 years. And we wouldn’t have been able to send our daughter to college, travel, buy new computers when we needed them, and might not have been able to get a mortgage on a home or own two cars.
And yet, if you’re a member of Congress who serves even just one term, you qualify for premium health care for life. You make about $175,000 a year and are, of course, privy to many perks – like lobbying money from special interest groups. If you weren’t rich when you entered Congress, you probably are rich when you leave.
Since parts of Obama Care were implemented – with the full program going into effect in 2014 – I’ve noticed that doctors are more willing to give you discounts for office visits when you’re private pay. Large operations like the Cleveland Clinic – which has offices all over South Florida – are willing to work with you on the cost and payments. By 2014, all Americans will be required to buy health insurance – or pay a penalty. Those who are against the program say it won’t change anything, that emergency room freeloaders and illegal immigrants will still be raising the cost for people with insurance.
But the problem with health care in America isn’t freeloaders or immigrants. It’s greed. Until profit is removed from health care, until private health insurance is eliminated from the equation, until the government extends Medicare to all, this system will remain profoundly flawed. Bankruptcies from medical care will continue to proliferate, people will continue to suffer through unbearable pain, and others will simply die. Aren’t we, as a country, as a human collective, better than that? I mean, really. We profess to be a christian nation, yet so much of what we do and don’t do is the antithesis of care for your sick, your wounded, your elderly, and disabled. Care for those who can’t care for themselves.
Some years back, my sister – a nurse – applied to work for an insurance company. Her job would be to look for anything in a patient’s medical history that would be grounds for dismissal in a claim. She didn’t take the job because she didn’t think she could live with herself. Many more years back, I was a social worker who approved or disproved – people who applied for Medicaid, food stamps, help. I lasted less than a year at that job and here’s why it ended: a married couple ended up in my office, seeking medical and financial help. They weren’t Medicare eligible yet. He had heart problems, she was a diabetic, they earned next to nothing. But the social welfare rules at the time stated that because they were married, without children living at home, I had to deny them.
In this country, if you want great health care, then run for federal political office – or go to prison. Yes, health care in prison is free.
Most of us know that the Christian God is a punishing, vengeful, war-like God, who could find no other means of “saving the world from sin” than putting His Son to death in the most tortured, inhumane, lingering death, which is the fundamental basis of my lack of Christianity. That crucifixion is the essential symbol of their religion, and for me, it is a barbaric symbol, not a symbol of “peace and love”. We also know that thoughtout the centuries, more individuals have been killed and murdered in the Name of that God and Christianity than for any other cause, including eight million Wiccans over a period of time. So it is reasonable to assume that these same folks who follow that religious path constitute the leaders of this nation of ours, and they base their actions on the manner in which they interpret their Scripture. Please understand: antyChristians who may be reading this….I’m not in a war against Christianity and most certainly not against Jesus, who was and is the universal human symbol of Peace. I’m in a private war against the people who claim to follow Him and yet commit heinous acts, and those are the leaders in this country who are guiding us to slaughter like a huge herd of sheep. It’s pretty ominous.
Today, I bought that Time Magazine issue that Melissa mentioned The lead story is on health care in America. And wow, it’s a depressing eye popper.
About the “Christian” business…..oddly enough, the people throughout my life who have most closely walked the walk taught by Jesus are NOT Christians. Several of them are Hebrew, or of the Jewish faith. One is completely agnostic. Virtually every Christian in my acquaintance, (and I was born into and raised in a Southern Baptist Christian home, so I have known very many Christians and still do), are hate-mongers, racists, promote war, accept capital punishment, gossipers, etc. I could go on and on but won’t. When I listen to these people “preaching” their views, my thoughts go to the gentle Man from Jeruselum, and I remember His Teachings, and I find myself wondering how these folks can refer to themselves as His disciples. Obviously I am not Christian, but I DO think He was among our greatest Teachers, and that those Words from Him are guides for us to try to emulate. Few are able; fewer even try. Nuff said from me.
Check out the latest TIME magazine….huge feature on this stuff.
Todd, The United States of America does not present itself as a Christian nation. It DOES, contrarily, in the original Pledge of Allegiance, state, “One nation, under God”. However, we are a country that is comprised of myriad religious denominations and diverse spiritual paths, and each of these has a Supreme Being or Creator or Universal Power that is called by myriad Names. Regardless of our individual spiritual convictions and personal religious truths, each of us is innately guided by our Soul to try to follow its intended journey. And none of us…none…knows as a certainty that another’s convictions are wrong. The Bible is not the only Holy Book; there are as many Holy texts as there are spiritual paths, and there are truths to be found in ALL of them. Christianity is not the only path, and its increasing lack is not the cause of this country’s current chaos. IMHO.
That christian nation business is what I included in the post. I hear politicians say this constantly and it’s usually the ones whi profess to be christians and vote against everything that might help others.
“We profess to be a christian nation, ” There lies the problem, have any of you ever met a true christian? There are millions who make the claim; however, I’ve met few that truly live up to biblical standards.
My lengthy comment may have ended up in “spam” because I mentioned that a “REVOLUTION” against the establishment might be the order of the day. We know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we’re being monitored, so TPTB perhaps saw my remark as a call to arms against the governemnt and shoved it into the spam garbage pail. Nothing surprises me anymore. Nothing.
I am currently in a struggle with the healthcare system. I was injured an electrical accident in spring 2012. As of today, I still have not received appropriate care for my injury. I now have a permanent seizure and complex neurological disorder, triggered by normal household electricity. We’ve lost our home because of this: the accident has caused stray current to run through all the metal in the building. I can’t be near the building without seizing. And the electrical consultants can’t fix the stray current problem.
Our network of care ,determined by our insurance, won’t treat me. The injury is “over their heads”. (Their term) Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona has declined my request for treatment at the only clinic in the US to treat this injury: the Chicago Electrical Trauma Research Institute. Their doctor determined , last week (10 and 1/2 months after the injury was occurred), that there was no evidence an injury occurred. An insane ruling, given the ER visits, hospital admissions and specialist consults in the past 11 months, and the amount of seizure meds I have to take. The case manager even said to me “The next thing you’ll do is ask us for money.” I assured her I would NEVER take money from a company that harms human beings. (*crickets* at the other end of the line.)
The bottom line: the CETRI clinic costs $9,600.00 for the first 2 days. I need cash, or coverage to step foot in it.
Meanwhile, my husband and I are trying to avoid homelessness. In order not to have chronic seizures, I need a single family home to live in. We can’t afford one here with our 3 incomes. (We are in a house temporarily.) We have no family to help us, and no place to go. I have called every social service agency, our senator’s office, FHA, HUD, many charities, lawyers, etc. So far, no help. 🙁 We can’t rent or sell our condo because we are liable if someone gets hurt from the stray current.
This is a living hell.
Debra – glad you posted this. This comment, like an earlier one of math’s, went to spam. I just found it.
I am so sorry you are going through this Debra. You are right – it is a living nightmare in this country – with the banks foreclosing and ruining the economy and insurance companies being handed the gift of everyone now having to have insurance. Single payer was the only way to go to fix things and instead another layer was added to the greedy system that is our healthcare.
so Megan broke her ankle twice,, once in “07” then again “11” yeah me I know something about the age of 27/7/11 (yrs/mnths/dys) funny since it had something to do with substance abuse,, it was 4/20 before the next birthday….. go figure….
2 x blank =14. let’s see if I can get this one wright,,,, gong
Megan broke her ankle in 07, and in 09 rob broke his foot.
In that case, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Hubby and I are doing without other vital necessities in order to pay our insurance premiums, but feel we have no choice at this point. You two know what our health issues are. Hubby had kidney cancer in 2011, and the costs of his hospital stay, including the surgery but not the surgeons, exceeded a million dollars. It’s unthinkable. As an RN, I know that a simple disposable bedpan costs the patient sixty-five dollars, to be used for just one patient and then destroyed rather than super-sterilized in an autoclave and re-used. The waste is beyond belief. Had we not had the existing insurance, however, he wouldn’t have been able to have the surgery, and he would be dead. And we pay no deductible at any point except what is taken from our Medicare. But the insuarnce companies have a vise-grip on us, and that includes our life insurance. My husband has been self-employed, owning his own business, all his life. We have no 401K or even a savings account, etc, which means if he precedes me in death, the insurance I have on his life is my only source of security. I was astounded and dismayed when the premium unexpectedly tripled in January, after fifteen years. The rep at the health insurance company told me our premiums will increase annually now. So, we rob Peter to pay Paul, because in our situation at this point we have no options. And it’s horrible. A close friend of mine, an elderly woman of 74, lives on her social security. She is one of these folks who must choose to either buy food for herself, or purchase her medications. She’s very ill. Caught the really bad influenza; it settled in her chest; she has been in-bed sick since November. I fear she may have lung cancer. The cough is relentless. She can’t pay to go to the doctor to get any antibiotics or treatment, and the ER told her that hers wasn’t an emergency and refused to treat her. That’s cruel and it’s sentencing her to death. There are so many elderly in the same place, and it doesn’t have to be like this. I personally think a revolution against the establishment might be in order.
This ended up in spam, not sure why. Anyway, here it is!
Thank you for your experience. It makes me realise even more how lucky I am. As you know I had kidney cancer and a kidney removed last year. My expenditure was nil and I have no private health insurance. In the UK, while working, everyone has to pay a National Health Contribution based on earnings. This covers all our treatment no matter what the cost. I have check ups due in the next couple of weeks and these will also be free as would any future treatment (hopefully there won’t be any).
Our NHS isn’t perfect but none of us in the UK have to worry about medical costs which is a great comfort.
Many criticise the UKs National Health Service but, though it’s not perfect, we are safe in the knowledge that if we do fall seriously ill, or just need to visit a doctor the treatment will be free. I’m very thankful for this. For the country though it is a heavy cost, especially in these difficult financial times but it’s something we have to continue with. Everyone should have access to medical care regardless of wealth or status and without worrying about the cost.
I agree with you completely, Mike. Even an imperfect system like what the UK has far exceeds the state of health care in this country.
I think you articulate the issues around our medical system quite clearly; it’s frustrating to pay so much money for health care insurance over the course of decades, and end up unable to pay for further monthly premiums, so SOL. The entire industry as it’s run by insurance feels like a great numbers bookie game, not a health care system. No, there aren’t easy fixes, I guess, but it’s an area that needs a better premise than profit, I’m with you, Trish.
A great numbers bookie game…that about sums it up perfectly, Adelita
You are right in every way……..why don’t people think about the underlying question, which is, why does it cost so much? Because the underlying issue is greed and exploitation of a basic human need. As you comment, ” a quarter of a million dollars in the last 20 years” would have been a lot of money going to insurance companies. What things cost reflect cultural values (in this case, money, not the health and well being of people).
I had a medical bankruptcy in 2003 over a broken ankle that needed surgury – it came to $45,000.00! That is about 25,000.00 more than I make in a year……..and I’m grateful that bankruptcy was an option. There is an asthma med I need that costs 250.00 in the U.S. – in Nogales, it’s $50.00. That’s pretty amazing, if you think about it.
It’s crazy, and makes no sense, if you think about it……..
I was floored when this woman told me the cost of her one-week stay – and jus for room and board. And why should surgery for a broken ankle cost 45 grand?! And good point about the asthma drug.
I agree on all counts except one: “…until profit is removed from healthcare”…Surely you are not including physicians and medical, clinical personnel in this blanket statement? Physicians, depending upon their specialty, go to schools for more than a decade, and those schools are expensive. These health-care providers offer services for which they are educated, and they deserve to be paid for those services. So, I hope you were directing that statement “…until profit is removed from healthcare” to the Big Businesses end of it. The healthcare PROVIDERS, such as those mentioned, are entitled to receive profits for their work, just as you as authors are entitled to receive profits from your literary efforts. Speaking of the insurance “crap”, and it is certainly that, my life insurance premiums on my husband increased X3 last month, after fifteen years with no increase, and my supplemental health insurance premium also increased for the first time since I purchased it when I started receiving Medicare.
When I called each company to asked about the increases, and the reason behind them, their answer: ObamaCare. So it’s a loaded subject and one that has no easy solution. It all depends upon where one is in the whole scheme of things….and life.
I’m talking about the big business end of it. Of course doctors and medical personnel should be paid. But take HMOs – the business our governor used to be involved in. He got rich off his HMOs, was found guilty of medicare fraud, and still got elected governor. Now that insurance companies won’t be able to
reject people with pre-existing conditions, they will find other ways to make their $ – like with your story about rising premiums.