Posted on 08/03/2010 6:34:26 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
It's actually what I witnessed, not what I experienced. It starts with a long-standing debate I have with a very dear friend who is a little left of center. She maintains that we must have government-subsidized health care or her mother, frankly, would die. She cannot afford her mother's health bills.
I've never really understood this, because her mother lives with her and she earns a great deal of money. Twice what I earn, and I am an educated professional. How expensive can it be to keep alive a 73 year old diabetic who has chronic lung inflammation, nerve damage from several strokes, and some sort of digestive disorder that no one can figure out? Okay, it's pretty expensive. But wait, it gets better.
Last month my friend's mother started vomiting. For several hours, she couldn't keep anything down. Now, my friend rushes her mother to the doctor's office every time she has the slightest problem. Then the doctor recommends she go to the hospital. Cough? To the hospital. Nausea? To the hospital. Stomach pain? To the hospital. The state will absorb the costs, and there is medication for everything. In addition to the medications for all the previous problems mentioned, she is also on meds for blood pressure, itchy feet, restless legs, sleep disorder, and depression. She's on about 13 different pills a day, several times a day.
So anyway, mom threw up a few times and my friend took her to the hospital. At the hospital they hooked her up to a plethora of machines, drew blood for testing, and then for more testing, and then for more testing, and ascertained that she has had a heart attack... some time in the last six months.
Is that why she's throwing up? Maybe. Yes. No. Well, maybe again, we don't know. Let's test for this, let's test for that... the hospital, knowing she is medi-medi, will never say "no" to a test. I'm pretty sure she could have asked for rabies and leprosy tests and they would have gladly run them.
So my friend's mom stayed hooked up to machines for several days. They put her in a private room. They monitored her heartbeat, her blood pressure, her blood sugar, her urine output, her temperatrure, and they ran more tests.
Finally they admitted that they didn't know what the problem was, tweaked the levels of the existing medication she was already on, and discharged her. The cost? $180,000.
My friend pointed at this bill later and told me (with an unmistakable air of "See??") that she could never afford this without government-subsidized health care. Well, no crap, really? I pointed out that for $180,000 they actually did NOTHING for her mother. She got home and started throwing up again. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine which seems to be helping, but... they never found what was wrong, the heart attack was already a thing of the past (more blood thinners and hope she doesn't fall down again because she already bruises like a grape.)
Health care will bankrupt this country. Hospitals knowing they'll get paid will never hesitate to throw millions at any symptom. Remember the scandals of government contractors charging $600 for a toilet seat? Just wait till we see how much a hospital will charge you for, well, everything.
AuschwitzCare won’t treat you, you’ll be sent to their “camps” for the Hussein/Reid/Pelosi “solution.” Sound like 1930’s in Germany to you????
The reason it costs $180,000 was likely due to the fact that there are several million illegal aliens who use the Emergency Room as their Primary Care Provider. They show up, demand service, then leave - and it’s all free.
So, if you are giving away care to illegals; you have to charge the people who CAN pay, out the nose. I’d suggest that if we didn’t have illegals parasiting on the system, that the costs of this stay would be far closer to $5,000 instead of $180,000
“I care about her very much and don’t want to hurt her feelings. But this is just... flipping me out.”
I suspect the one who is really flipping out is the mother who is sicker than a dog. I feel sorry for her. She’s only 73. That’s not very old, too young to die.
I just spent an hour and a half in the ER. Nothing too serious, abdominal pain. One blood test, one urine test, one CT scan. Tab? $2,600.
For the last three years of my mother’s life, my family paid $7,000.00 per month for a private 6 person rehab home. If we had left her in a crappy nursing home it would have cost $10,000.00 a month. We HAD to pay out of pocket. The private care was so much better!
I’d like to know how they can charge $1000 per unit of blood when blood is donated FREE.
My dad is one of many physicians who will stop accepting medicare when Obamageddoncare is underway. They already lose money on it. With the reimbursement cuts proposed, it would kill him (financially). So, expect a law forcing doctors to accept medicare patients. Then, expect doctors to hang up their shingle and give two giant middle fingers to Obama.
Your friend is fortunate they don’t live in Great Britain.
Start printing out all the many stories you see about Socialized medicine - especially for the elderly - in England.
And start printing out all the articles you see about how doctors are giving up their practice because Obama-care is already starting to driving them under.
It’s bad folks. And it’s gonna get worse.
I hope she does.
Forgive me, Gerontologist (I think?)
First thing they do is untangle the pharmacopoeia of pills the elderly have been given by various specialists to treat real or imaginary conditions.
Sometimes they whittle treatment down to just two or three prescriptions and the patient quality of life improves dramatically.
Best regards,
My wife spent 2 days in the hospital after being admitted through the ER where I took her for severe stomach pain.
Diagnosed diverticulitis after a CAT scan.
Bill: $ 17,000.00 ...Antibiotics w/ prescription card, $ 400.00
Seems like the hospitals and Big Phara are begging for Obamah-Care!
Ya EVER wonder WHY that hospital charge $20 for a aspirin tablet? It’s because of LEECHES like your “buddy”! Hospitals have to make a profit or at least break EVEN or they are OUT OF BUSINESS!
Let me break the cost down for you:
$60,000 - malpractice insurance
$60,000 - retainer fee for malpractice attorneys
$40,000 - cost of illegal alien ER care
$20,000 - cost of patient’s medical care
It’s nuts. My wifes Doctor ordered a mammogram and sent her to the hospital for it. $700 {$500 for the hospital and $200 for the tech.} It took maybe 5 minutes to do the test. I can not believe how expensive it is becoming.
I have a friend also whose mother is very similar to what you described. It’s a never ending stream of visits to doctors and emergency rooms. They are guessing at this point what is wrong with her as nothing conclusive ever comes out. It’s a friggin’ joke. The mother plays the system, and my friend, like a fiddle.
The side effects and incompatibility of 13 different medications, which are obviously being prescribed by different doctors, could be part of her problem.
Have known a couple people that almost died this way.
Doesn’t matter. The story is the same over and over. Could be just about anybody.
I know a doc who says people bring in their medicine and it covers a 3 SQUARE FOOT area on the counter in his office. For one person! He usually takes them off of most of the stuff and they get better! We are not meant to have this many chemicals in us.
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