To put it simply, health care costs way too much. It's not something that can easily be fixed.
In August I got a small but deep cut on my finger, deep enough that I thought it might need a stitch. It was late on a Saturday so the emergency room was my only choice. I put pressure on the cut so the bleeding stopped, washed it gently under the faucet, put some Neosporin and a bandaid on it and headed out.
The doctor removed the bandaid, said it didn't need a stitch, quickly cleaned off the Neosporin with some antiseptic liquid, put bacitracin on it and wrapped it in gauze.
Cost? About $1,200 for the emergency room and $400 for the doctor. Now think about what they did to charge that much: they replaced my Neosporin and bandaid with bacitracin and gauze. Fucking crooks. I was so pissed when I got the bill before leaving that we settled on $125 total, and I think even that was too much.
$1,600 to replace my bandaid? What the fuck?! They did what I did at home for free. I just went because I thought maybe it would need a stitch - a single stitch, it was a small cut. I'm definitely in the wrong business if people can get away with ridiculous charges like that. I'll do it for half price! What a bargain right? I'll give people bandaids for half price and I'll even use brand name antibiotic ointments! $800 per patient, I'll make a fortune.
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