Quote:
Originally Posted by MrSparkle001
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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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My wife uses our insurance all the time. I always love seeing the costs of the bills they would charge if we were not on a plan. THEN show that they negotiated down to a next to nothing amount.
Baby doctor bill: 500 bucks
your insurance paid: 125
you paid:25(copay)
you owe:0
Why don't you just charge the 150 bucks for everyone? Why do insurance companies get to bargain, and some poor schlub who breaks his arm is fucked for the foreseeable future because A) his arm is broke, and B) no way to pay for it, so it will go to collections fucking up his credit so he can't get a bank loan for a house or a car or an idea to make him more financially stable?
I am almost sure that is how we get astronomical health care cost projections. It smells like a shitty insurance company/economist number game bullshit. I hate how actual facts are always skewed by SOMEONE playing a game on each side of the fence. There is no possible way that having my wife talk to a doctor for 20 minutes, get some weight, and take an ultrasound on a machine that is used 24/7(thus being profitable) costs 500 bucks. I am getting to the point trusting math is difficult.
And i fucking love math.