Another Obamacare Socialized Medicine Nightmare.

[Nice Squirrel]

Just got my bill for my stupid broken leg, surgery and hospital stay. $73,710.00. Thank goodness for the health insurance I got through the health care exchange. $500 deductible is all I have to pay.

How can the bankruptcy courts manage?

 

[dismal]

Just got my bill for my stupid broken leg, surgery and hospital stay. $73,710.00. Thank goodness for the health insurance I got through the health care exchange. $500 deductible is all I have to pay.

How can the bankruptcy courts manage?

It's a good thing Obama invented this "insurance".

 

[SimpleDon]

How can the bankruptcy courts manage?

It's a good thing Obama invented this "insurance".

Wasn't Obamacare based on RomneyCare which was based on a proposal by the Heritage Foundation? I don't see how Obama can claim to have invented it with this pedigree.

 

[untermensche]

Wasn't Obamacare based on RomneyCare which was based on a proposal by the Heritage Foundation? I don't see how Obama can claim to have invented it with this pedigree.

He never claimed to have invented it.

"Obamacare" was the name put on the legislation by the right. Of course the joke is on them.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Every time I hear somebody say "Socialized Medicine" I think of a bunch of friendly doctors partying and being social.

 

[dismal]

It's a good thing Obama invented this "insurance".

Wasn't Obamacare based on RomneyCare which was based on a proposal by the Heritage Foundation? I don't see how Obama can claim to have invented it with this pedigree.

Yes, I completely forgot that Obamacare is right wing ideas. So any success of Obamacare is a success of right wing ideas.

 

[Ford]

Wasn't Obamacare based on RomneyCare which was based on a proposal by the Heritage Foundation? I don't see how Obama can claim to have invented it with this pedigree.

Yes, I completely forgot that Obamacare is right wing ideas. So any success of Obamacare is a success of right wing ideas.

Therein lies the delicious irony.

The Affordable Care Act is built on a foundation that was erected to counter Hillary Clinton's health care reform proposal in the 90s. Obama implemented the Heritage plan, and should Hillary decide to run for the White House in 2016, she will quite possibly wind up defending the very plan that was designed to sink her own health care reform proposal.

 

[Narapoia]

Wasn't Obamacare based on RomneyCare which was based on a proposal by the Heritage Foundation? I don't see how Obama can claim to have invented it with this pedigree.

Yes, I completely forgot that Obamacare is right wing ideas. So any success of Obamacare is a success of right wing ideas.

True, but don't get too far ahead of yourself - while it's better than your old shitty system it's still waaay more shitty than the public health systems across Europe/Canada/Aus/NZ. So as you said, the relative decrease in local shittyness might be due to right wing ideas but the remaining gulf of shittyness when compared with other countries is also due to right wing ideas.

 

[barbos]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

 

[Bomb#20]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

You're judging by what it costs to set a Russian's leg. Americans are total wusses about it. We scream and whine so pitiably that all the doctors just find us really really annoying and none of them are willing to set an American's broken leg for less than $73K.

(Unless the bill is paid by an insurance company, of course. In that case the doctor will send the patient a pro forma $73K bill but in fact will settle with the insurance company for $7.3K. That procedure isn't so annoying because then the American with the broken leg won't be such a pussy. Huh. I guess that means the reason for all the annoying screaming and whining is actually the $73K. It's a vicious circle.)

 

[barbos]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

You're judging by what it costs to set a Russian's leg. Americans are total wusses about it. We scream and whine so pitiably that all the doctors just find us really really annoying and none of them are willing to set an American's broken leg for less than $73K.

(Unless the bill is paid by an insurance company, of course. In that case the doctor will send the patient a pro forma $73K bill but in fact will settle with the insurance company for $7.3K. That procedure isn't so annoying because then the American with the broken leg won't be such a pussy. Huh. I guess that means the reason for all the annoying screaming and whining is actually the $73K. It's a vicious circle.)

Does patient know how much insurance company actually paid for his broken leg?

 

[Bomb#20]

You're judging by what it costs to set a Russian's leg. Americans are total wusses about it. We scream and whine so pitiably that all the doctors just find us really really annoying and none of them are willing to set an American's broken leg for less than $73K.

(Unless the bill is paid by an insurance company, of course. In that case the doctor will send the patient a pro forma $73K bill but in fact will settle with the insurance company for $7.3K. That procedure isn't so annoying because then the American with the broken leg won't be such a pussy. Huh. I guess that means the reason for all the annoying screaming and whining is actually the $73K. It's a vicious circle.)

Does patient know how much insurance company actually paid for his broken leg?

If he cares enough to wade through a pile of incomprehensible paperwork, he can probably find that information buried deep in the fine print. I was nominally billed over $30K for a biopsy; the actual charge to my insurance company was about $6K.

It's a game the industry, insurers and government all seem to enjoy. It screws over the uninsured, who find themselves $73K in debt unless somebody in the racket either takes pity on them or judges the debt uncollectable and exercises his discretion to waive some or all the charges, which frequently happens. Meanwhile, America has any number of MDs qualified to set a broken leg and willing to do it for what they'd charge in Russia, driving taxis.

 

[barbos]

Bomb#20, Would not it be nice to fix this problem?

 

[laughing dog]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

Well, the OP bill is for "my stupid broken leg, surgery and hospital stay. $73,710.00.". It doesn't say what the surgery was for or how long the hospital stay was. So, while it does sound like a lot too much for a broken leg, it may not be.

 

[NobleSavage]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

That was my thought as well. I broke my leg, had surgery, and was in the hospital for 4 days. My bill:

$8K for the room, $2k a night
$10K for the surgery
$10K or random shit
$500 for going into to the emergency room.

This was before Obamacare and I didn't have insurance. Once they realized I didn't have insurance the bill was cut in half.

 

[Sabine Grant]

Bomb#20, Would not it be nice to fix this problem?

The fixing has been presented and in great details by :

http://www.pnhp.org/

Single payer. It is the most effective way to eliminate the inflation of health care cost. Most effective way to facilitate access to health care. Most effective way to eliminate the current 31% overhead cost. Mind you such proposals laid out by pnhp were formulated by health care professionals themselves.

 

[Sabine Grant]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

That was my thought as well. I broke my leg, had surgery, and was in the hospital for 4 days. My bill:

$8K for the room, $2k a night
$10K for the surgery
$10K or random shit
$500 for going into to the emergency room.

This was before Obamacare and I didn't have insurance. Once they realized I didn't have insurance the bill was cut in half.

In 2010 after the loss of an adequate employer provided plan (it was reduced to a "crumb" group plan), I had to pay out of pocket the cost of a PET/CT Scan (since the plan offered no coverage at all for imaging procedures). Paying it up front the day of the procedure, my cost out of pocket was 1200 dollars. If covered, the insurance would have been billed ...8000 dollars! Since the plan did not cover the surgical cost for an excision of several lymph nodes, the surgeon being aware it would be cost out of pocket, billed me only for a third of what he would have charged the insurance company. We were also able to negotiate the anesthesiologist fees. However, no reduction on the fees for the use of an ambulatory out patient surgical facility (1000 dollars). Mind you that a with diagnosis of the indolent(low grade) NHD Lymphoma B Follicular, I had no other alternative and was stuck with being dependent on my husband's employer Group Plan. The AHCA exchange market allowed us to secure adequate insurance despite of my diagnosis. And quite a timing since lymphoma re surged 4 months ago and the RX plan covers the monoclonal treatment (via infusions) applied to my type of lymphoma. Had such happened last year, I would have been SOL, a sitting duck with no access to a vital oncology treatment.

Last year, cataract surgery. If the Eye Care Plan was adequate and my co pay for each eye was 170 dollars, we were hit with no coverage under the medical care plan for anesthesiology fees and use of an ambulatory outpatient surgical facility (2000 dollars for each eye). We were able to negotiate the anesthesiologist fees but not the facility fees.

When I found out that the plan did not cover any of the cost for the use of the surgical facility, we had to cancel the procedures and delay them for 3 months until we were able to come up with 4000 dollars to be paid up front.

The main complaint I have seen from insured Americans under the AHCA regards high deductibles. Even under our Silver Plan, we still have to cope with a 12000 (6000 for each of us) dollar deductible. But the choice my husband made in which plan to contract was dependent on whether the RX coverage would assume the cost of the monoclonal Rituxan as were are both aware that my type of lymphoma is incurable and will keep re surging every 3 to 4 years. If not more frequently. We had to prioritize based on that. Based on the billing detail I received from our insurance provider, each dose of Rituxan administered via infusion (once a week for 4 weeks) cost 5000 dollars! Mind you that the Rituxan protocol extends over 2 years. 4 weeks every 6 months.

I compared the cost addressing all aspects of monitoring and treating my type of lymphoma with how that would all amount to if I were in France. I would benefit of 100% coverage as a cancer patient, under our single payer system. No co pays, no deductibles. Rituxan and other monoclonal being obtained via our single payer system and at 1/3 of the cost in the US. No co pays on imaging procedures (currently my co pay is 1400 for each PET/CT Scan). No co pays on biopsies and lab tests. No co pays on any surgical outpatient or in patient procedures related to my diagnosis. And access to one of the best oncology care in the world.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

That was my thought as well. I broke my leg, had surgery, and was in the hospital for 4 days. My bill:

$8K for the room, $2k a night
$10K for the surgery
$10K or random shit
$500 for going into to the emergency room.

This was before Obamacare and I didn't have insurance. Once they realized I didn't have insurance the bill was cut in half.

In 2010 after the loss of an adequate employer provided plan (it was reduced to a "crumb" group plan), I had to pay out of pocket the cost of a PET/CT Scan (since the plan offered no coverage at all for imaging procedures). Paying it up front the day of the procedure, my cost out of pocket was 1200 dollars. If covered, the insurance would have been billed ...8000 dollars! Since the plan did not cover the surgical cost for an excision of several lymph nodes, the surgeon being aware it would be cost out of pocket, billed me only for a third of what he would have charged the insurance company. We were also able to negotiate the anesthesiologist fees. However, no reduction on the fees for the use of an ambulatory out patient surgical facility (1000 dollars). Mind you that a with diagnosis of the indolent(low grade) NHD Lymphoma B Follicular, I had no other alternative and was stuck with being dependent on my husband's employer Group Plan. The AHCA exchange market allowed us to secure adequate insurance despite of my diagnosis. And quite a timing since lymphoma re surged 4 months ago and the RX plan covers the monoclonal treatment (via infusions) applied to my type of lymphoma. Had such happened last year, I would have been SOL, a sitting duck with no access to a vital oncology treatment.

Last year, cataract surgery. If the Eye Care Plan was adequate and my co pay for each eye was 170 dollars, we were hit with no coverage under the medical care plan for anesthesiology fees and use of an ambulatory outpatient surgical facility (2000 dollars for each eye). We were able to negotiate the anesthesiologist fees but not the facility fees.

When I found out that the plan did not cover any of the cost for the use of the surgical facility, we had to cancel the procedures and delay them for 3 months until we were able to come up with 4000 dollars to be paid up front.

The main complaint I have seen from insured Americans under the AHCA regards high deductibles. Even under our Silver Plan, we still have to cope with a 12000 (6000 for each of us) dollar deductible. But the choice my husband made in which plan to contract was dependent on whether the RX coverage would assume the cost of the monoclonal Rituxan as were are both aware that my type of lymphoma is incurable and will keep re surging every 3 to 4 years. If not more frequently. We had to prioritize based on that. Based on the billing detail I received from our insurance provider, each dose of Rituxan administered via infusion (once a week for 4 weeks) cost 5000 dollars! Mind you that the Rituxan protocol extends over 2 years. 4 weeks every 6 months.

I compared the cost addressing all aspects of monitoring and treating my type of lymphoma with how that would all amount to if I were in France. I would benefit of 100% coverage as a cancer patient, under our single payer system. No co pays, no deductibles. Rituxan and other monoclonal being obtained via our single payer system and at 1/3 of the cost in the US. No co pays on imaging procedures (currently my co pay is 1400 for each PET/CT Scan). No co pays on biopsies and lab tests. No co pays on any surgical outpatient or in patient procedures related to my diagnosis. And access to one of the best oncology care in the world.

You're making way too much sense.

On another note I'm considering buying food insurance. That way if I find myself unexpectedly in need of a loaf of bread, I can be certain it will cost me no more than $119.00.

 

[barbos]

Is it just me who thinks $73K is a bit too much for broken leg?

That was my thought as well. I broke my leg, had surgery, and was in the hospital for 4 days. My bill:

$8K for the room, $2k a night
$10K for the surgery
$10K or random shit
$500 for going into to the emergency room.

This was before Obamacare and I didn't have insurance. Once they realized I didn't have insurance the bill was cut in half.

So you paid $14,250? that seems reasonable price for fixing broken leg.
Still wonder how much it would be if you were insured.
How you broke you leg?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

So folk know it was a compound tim-fib break with pins and the whole 9 yards.