That sounds a bit steep. But guaranteed that was not what was paid.

I had out patient surgery for which the hospital billed $36,000. Medicare paid about $3500.

But still...

if you are uninsured or have so called consumer driven health insurance (high deductible, low actuarial value insurance - basically for rich healthy people- only wealthy people can afford cheap insurance) and the pregnancy is somewhat complicated and "stretches over two plan years" .

thats how a lot of young women and even couples are forced into giving up their infant children, if they give up their child the faith based adoption broker (who apparently, according to my old friend who is an 'adoptee rights activist' have amonopoly on faith based baby brokering) pays the bill, and gets to resell the baby for >$100,000

they even have bidding wars, etc.

"Every baby is precious!"

Medicare paid about 2400, supplemental paid the remaining 600.

The remainder was erased, I guess because Medicare and the hospital agreed to lower pricing. Too bad Medicare can't also negotiate drug prices.

required surgery and time in the hospital.

The tendency is to force the use of private for profit insurance, ever since 1998, new government anything that might compete wth private insurance has been prohibited.

She has all kinds of hardware in that leg now. I don't know what the final cost to reconstruct and rehab but I bet it was close to 150 K.

A broken bone is not always just a simple broken bone.

I'm glad for both these women that they got treatment and can walk again. My friend was a runner and that is no longer possible.

Before I had insurance I had an chest X-ray. that cost me $250.00 and the doctors visit was $50.00. After I got on company insurance I looked at a bill and the X-ray still said $250.00 but insurance paid only $15.00 and I payed nothing.

As long as hospitals or pharmaceutical companies are involved, anyway. I bet the same care would have cost 1/10 as much in any other country.

weaseled their way in our lives. Why is it cheaper to everyone when insurance is involved?

Non-insured get full bill.

was not common untiil World War Ii and the ensuing labor shortage as the US ramped up its manufacturing capacity to supply the war in Europe and Asia. Workers were in short supply and thats when health insurance started being offered to workers.

people should be aware however that the government still pays a huge portion of medical bills because when it comes time to pay oftentimes for one reason or another insurance companies dont have to.

Currently the government pays around two thirds of all healthcare costs in the country. insurance which is mostly paid for by employers and and private individuals split the rest. this is one of the main reasons why it would literally be cheaper to give everybody free top quality health care than what we do now.

See http://www.pnhp.org/news/2016/january/government-funds-nearly-two-thirds-of-us-health-care-costs-american-journal-of-pub

....that we, the taxpayers, are the ones who will fund it. Just as we fund Medicare with our taxes now. How we are supposed to rein in the galloping costs of hospitalization I am not sure, but until we do, stories like this will continue to show up.

The important part of it, afaic, is that 99% of the bill is covered by the collective insurance plan my taxes pay for. You're welcome.

That said, there are some holes in the narrative. Somehow I would expect a simple fracture to not take much of a hospital stay. How bad was this leg? My gods. Was there surgery, did she need pins in it, what the hell?

And she needed to go to a nursing home after? I have a friend who absolutely shredded her shoulder in a bad fall and ultimately needed a joint replacement and she sure as hell didn't go to a nursng home despite the severity of her injury. Simple hip replacements get sent home rapidly as well.

Just one more small personal note: appendectomies normally get you a 24 hour stay these days, but I was in for nearly a week because my appendix was perforated and I was well on my way to peritonitis and death. I'm sure there was quite a large difference in the relative costs of those two kinds of appendectomies.

All the best to your friend in her recovery. Tell her from me that I would far rather my taxes go to her care than to the Dept of Defence.

Single payer for everyone would put Medicare in a MUCH better bargaining position vis-a-vis these greedy providers!

before they shipped her off to the rehab hospital -- which is not included in the astronomical figure!

I'll spare you the details, although medical stuff generally fascinates me, but quite a bit of info is at the link. You really do not want this to happen to you. It's not "just a broken leg." Now I know why one old friend of mine became bedridden after her fall, and remains so today.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00521
Your thighbone (femur) is the longest and strongest bone in your body. Because the femur is so strong, it usually takes a lot of force to break it. Car crashes, for example, are the number one cause of femur fractures.
>snip<
A lower-force incident, such as a fall from standing, may cause a femoral shaft fracture in an older person who has weaker bones.
>snip<
Most femoral shaft fractures require surgery to heal. It is unusual for femoral shaft fractures to be treated without surgery.

Or did in 2012 when I had two stays at one, nine days each time.

It was a nasty femoral fracture that required tricky surgery and complex hardware to repair, and that should cause me considerable hassle the next time I have to pass through a metal detector (No, TSA - I'm not a terrorist, I'm cyberwoman), but it only required a four day stay in the hospital, which did not include life support, intensive care or any medication patented after 1980.

That's JUST the hospital bill. It doesn't include the nursing home they transferred me to for rehab as soon as it was obvious I was in no danger of dying (a perfectly sensible plan IMHO since it doesn't require sophisticated surgical suites or MRI machines to provide skilled nursing care and physical therapy).

Unfortunately, the hospital I was treated at is notorious nationally for price gouging, although it has a good medical reputation. It's affiliated with my Governor, Rick Scott, which surprised me not a bit.

What he's getting for his hospital's successful work is one extremely crabby retired nurse with a distinct limp who will plague him by living longer and consistently voting for Progressive politicians who want to put in jail for Medicare Fraud.

I figure that's only fair. I'm obviously not going to be buying any new houses or cars soon

....and that your governor gets his just desserts some fine day.

I could tell stories about hospital bills...and prescription costs...

Our system has a long long way to go. Getting anything thru Congress along the lines of affordable and accessible health care has always been like pulling teeth. To think that LBJ thought the American people would be gung-ho for expanding Medicare to everyone else once they saw what a good deal it was for grandma. What was that -- 50+ years ago?

Get well soon.

I wasn't even doing anything fun when I cracked my femur - I wasn't skydiving, bungee-jumping, climbing Everest, or bouncing on a trampoline. I was mopping the bathroom floor, which is normally not a high-risk activity; unfortunately I stepped in a puddle of disinfectant, slipped and went flying into the side of the bathtub...

I'm lucky it wasn't my head. I've never been graceful, but I think I have a pretty good brain. Or at least an entertaining one.

I just have got to come up with a more interesting explanation to acquaintances when they first see me steering a walker and with a huge brace on my left leg.

First, good god that sounds horribly painful. I hope you're mending well, quickly and uneventfully.

As for suffering terrible injuries while doing nothing, I won't list all the times I've managed to do that (not quite that spectacularly, knock wood), but I've managed to completely dislocate my shoulder while making a conversational gesture (no, not that one). Getting our cats into crates when we moved resulted in a 4-day hospital stay for me from followed up with hand surgery and my husband now has a plate and eight screws in his wrist.

My aunt was also frequently assaulted by inanimate objects, including a piano once.

So ... you're not alone 😄

Again, swift and uneventful healing to you!

If you break your femur, you will require constant care for weeks. You will be unable to wipe your own butt, let alone get to and from the bathroom unassisted for at least a week (TMI, I know), unable to bathe or cook for yourself for several weeks, and incapable of driving for months. You will also be in a narcotic fog for much of this time, since a femoral break is excruciating.

So unless you live with an adult who does not work full time, you will be sent to a nursing home. As I said before, this strikes me as entirely sensible. I was fortunate enough to have chosen one of the good ones. My ex - who needed spinal fusion with a similar recovery time - wasn't nearly as lucky, but then he wasn't hooked into the Nurses' Grapevine.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to DU...

than people think- a LOT more.

Everyone who gets a paycheck pays into Medicare. Everyone on Medicare pays a monthly premium, depending on income.

What's your point?

These providers who charge these insane amounts are ripping all of us off!

Medicare pays far less, due to agreements with providers.

"Normal" health insurance usually costs more, and leaves the patients with bigger bills.

Medicare-for-all, or single-payer, would eliminate the profit-taking and overhead of insurance companies. The insurance companies add nothing to the process, except fiscal friction.

Something is missing with this story.

Not that that is NOT a lot of money...but a far cry from 150k.

Now I believe it, since Scott is one of the biggest profiteers from price gouging and fraudulent business tactics.

We've foot the bill for torture, war, genocide, tanks, guns, and land mines.

I'll happily chip in for some poor bastard's ER bill, having had to be saved a time or two myself by medicine and charity.

Of the three the coke running might be the closest to being honest.

so 'our' 99% prolly much less.

That are about 2.00 dollars a piece but you cannot acquire them without the hospital.

20 bucks in medicine, $18,000 in charges, and I wasn't in the slightest anything other than healthy.

'Single payer's the only way.

I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

It has harsh psychological effects that involve wanting to *smash*.

I have been made fun of, but hell, I am alive.

It really makes me wonder who is rabid and who is sane when you are unrelentingly teased about something that happened to you.

to any grievance; we see it here HOW many times a day? Our culture is SO messed up, Aerows, I wish I could think of a place to take my family/grandbabies. VERY worried.

But I take it on the chin because I had the audacity and the stupidity to ask what to do when it happened.

I guess I'm not so bright after all.

where you should have found solace and advice.

in the idea of "toughening you up".

I hope he runs again.

Who was 85 spent 16 hrs in ICU at a local hospital to treat complications from a MRSA infection that she got ironically from a previous hospital stay...The total bill was $85k...

...and they failed because she still passed away...of course they still want their payment.

But hey....we have the number 1 healthcare system in the world, right?!?

but at least we're still #1 for personal debt and percentage of citizens in prison! Gotta be tops somewhere, right?

I can't believe it's been that long now... but anyway, I had the ambulance ride (they splinted my leg with an ace bandage and two pieces of cardboard and that was $1500 for the splint), I had the ER visit--which is, of course, a separate fee, then I had to have two surgeries: the first surgery was to repair the initial breaks and put a rod in my leg (I stayed in hospital two days after that surgery). The second surgery was to remove the rod from my leg once the breaks had healed--that was outpatient. Then I had weekly visits to the orthopedic surgeon to check on my progress (and to have the cast reset because someone didn't hold my leg straight when it was drying and my toes were literally pointing at 3 o'clock when I woke up from surgery) which wasn't going well at all.

Two casts (one hip cast followed by a walking cast), a very ugly scar and 7 months later, the state of Pennsylvania tax payers had close to a $300,000 tab. I was employed full-time at a small business that didn't provide health insurance, so I had to go on welfare during the time I healed (I was off work for the entire time in the cast--7 months) and medicaid paid for the medical bills. My employer held my job for me though, which was awfully nice of them. Gotta love small towns and small-town small businesses.

over ten years. Price gouging would no longer be allowed, and she wouldn't be stuck with a $15k bill. See how much you would save: www.BernieTax.com

the incident involving wildlife for fear of being teased the shit out of - $18,000 and change.

I'm sorry, medical care in this country is fucking insanely expensive.

The treatment was not a damn picnic (not painful but they made me sick, throw up and mild psychological effects). It also was horrifically costly.

I would invite others to endure it, but I'm not a sadist.

I have a child with special medical needs. Let's talk about his most common, minor cost - his asthma! An inhaler for advair that cost me $375?!?!!!

Worse, we had our annual pulomonolgy visit. During which he did his breathing exam. That meant they had to pull out a new nebulozer mask. It's a pass through charge billed by their medical supplier, not the children's hospital. I received the bill today. $37!!! What. The. Hell!!!

I normally order these online. I can't get reimbursed since I'm going outside of my plan, but right now they're on sale for $2.70, normally around $5. Free shipping if a place a $25 order with any other supplies. Someone explain to me how on earth the supplier can justify a markup from $2.70, even $5 to $37 for exactly the same item?

As it turns out, I won't be reimbursed for the $37either, the vendor isn't an approved supplier.

It is downright cruel.

From ER to OR, then a one night hospital stay. 32,000. He was insured and it was no problem, but, seriously???

On the other hand, I work in a hospital and I can tell you that some patients, indigent or not, stay in the hospital for weeks or sometimes months. They are not kicked out. Once they are admitted, they get the care they need - inxluding social workers and case managers to help figure out safe living situations or get them signed up for medicaid. They also get the follow-up appointments they need with the specialists they met in-house. The doctors do their jobs. Ability to pay doesn't come into it.

The longest stayers I've seen are undocumented workers. One was vegetative from a heroin OD; another had kidney failure and no dialysis center could take him because of his legal status. Both were eventually flown to Mexican hospitals, but that took months.

Other examples of longterm indigent patients are: drug users getting six weeks of antibiotics for an infected heart valve, or not-quite-65 year old people who need nursing home care and have no payor source, also old folks with a history of violence or sex crimes, who are really hard to place in nursing homes; and people who are not competent to make healthcare decisions but have no family and wait weeks for a guardianship hearing by the state.

So it's a mixed bag. The hospital charges like crazy, but also eats huge bills all the time. I don't really understand how the system works - but I'm glad no one is dumped on the street.

Welcome to DU!

Europe for Spring Break. Last summer he went on an African Safari. Not too bad for a GP.

No surgery, no meds, saw only a resident.

Gotta love Massachusetts General.

and potassium supplements when I'm running. I fell face first tripping over a traffic cone and the hospital insisted on keeping me because "I was potassium depleted".

Like hell I was.

They are like damn prisons - they keep the healthy people that have minor accidents as long as they can because they don't cost very much.

Back when my older boys were young, their pediatrician announced that he'd no longer take our health insurance. He'd had so much trouble getting paid, and had endless arguments about any visits or treatments he recommended, that he decided to drop them and charge a low fee if people wouldn't file insurance.

I was just talking with my sister the other day, discussing how it seems there is no way to actually get on the expanded medicaid program, if your state won't put you through (and NC won't do it for me). She has been without insurance for about four months (and won't get ACA again, as she ended up paying a large tax bill for using it), but needs regular doctor visits. Her doctor only charges about $120 for a complete physical, including all blood work.

So now I have a goal to work towards! I'm going to find the money some how to go see this doctor, because I'm in dire need of a physical to find out what's wrong with me.