cab21 Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-18/news/ct-oped-0918-page-20110918_1_ron-paul-health-insurance-tea-party so i was sent this story, it says a person who did not have insurance, racked up 400K in bills and died from pneumonia. 50k was raised for the bills and his estate got charged with the rest, to pay whatever way the estate wants, from paying from its assets or raising more money. the writer of the article used it as a example of wanting a national healthcare system. my thought is "what did the 400K buy? 400K and the man still died. if that money is to be privately paid, that's one thing, but to suggest that others should pay to buy whatever was bought through a state? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wuzzums Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Price of a consult: 100$ (it's about <30 minutes of work) Price of an X-Ray: 20$ Price for treatment: 800$ (for 10 days with the most effective, and expensive, drug... and also added the manual labor, i.e. some nurse that all they have to do is stick a needle in you twice a day, the actual drug costs about 400$ for the whole treatment) Price for hospital stay: 200$ per day => 2000$ in total (I just used the pricing of a 4-5 star hotel would use) Total: 2920$ I'm hoping the article was intentionally misleading when it implied he racked 400 000$ from pneumonia alone, because otherwise something is terribly wrong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorBlux Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Price of an X-Ray: 20$ Dude I wish. Last X-ray I had cost me $180 (before insurance) and another $200 (before insurance) for the consult, and a one hour surgery cost me $1700 (after insurance) and another $400 (after insurance) for the anaesthesia specialist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wuzzums Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Dude I wish. Last X-ray I had cost me $180 (before insurance) and another $200 (before insurance) for the consult, and a one hour surgery cost me $1700 (after insurance) and another $400 (after insurance) for the anaesthesia specialist. I know the US is messed up. I was using the pricing of medicine and medical services from my country which are reasonable. The actual work that goes in is very little. Consult: <30min including the paperwork X-ray: pressing a button Additional tests: about 2h of work Treatment: the patient can do it themselves (all drugs come with instructions, doctors don't know any more than it is written on the prospect) or a 10 min job for a nurse to stick a needle in if necessary 4x a day at most (nothing more, nothing less) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobra2411 Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Healthcare in the US is a giant scam. Many people think it's due to non-payment but according to statistics gathered by the state of California non-payment is less than 2% of the total billing. Charitable work is also just under 2%. In all, "free" services are less than 4% of billing. http://truecostofhealthcare.org/ The problem is that they are monopolies supported by the state. Their actions in any other business field would be illegal. By simply making them accountable under current laws; the same laws other industries are held to, the system would collapse and I suspect prices would be at least 5 times less than they are now. I can only imagine what the cost would be in a truly free society with DRO's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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