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.
Now, my friend rushes her mother to the doctor’s office every time she has the slightest problem.
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This is the biggest problem, people with “free healthcare” don’t use it like they would if they were paying for it.
This thread might be of interest to you...
I had a colonoscopy about 3 months later - no polyps nothing.
Many years ago I developed an ulcer (real) and the doctor treated it with meds (Tagemet). Then years later I started to have pains that were like what I had with the ulcer. I just treated it with OTC Tagemet and what ever until I felt better. Looks like I had DiverT for quit awhile and not an ulcer.
The only thing I was told to do was to stop drinking beer! Yeah right!
I question the $180k bill.
Thanks for the insight.
Thank you for this! This is exactly what I mean about the medical field today.. test after test after test with NO results ever. All the while the bills PILE sky high. I have seen this far too many times to say its just a isolated incident.
I just plan on keeping myself healthy as possible and staying away from doctors these days.
You need to compare the original hospital bill to what your insurance company paid. I had a problem pregnancy and a C-section and the bill was 65,000. Aetna negotiated it down to about 4000. I could have paid that myself. I don’t need health insurance, I just need the negotiating team. This is why the bill for uninsureds is so high, they have to pay for all the freeloaders and all the insurance discounts.
You need to compare the original hospital bill to what your insurance company paid. I had a problem pregnancy and a C-section and the bill was 65,000.
Quite a difference in costs. I waited in 12 years of total pain to be on medicare to get the surgery because my deductable was sooooo high. I wonder if I should still contact Humana or let the hospital and medicare duke it out.
It sounds like she’s a carb addict. There’s a book called the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, by two doctors who I think are married to each other. Their names are Richard & Rachel Heller. It’s very interesting. I’m kind of a carb junkie too. I’m lucky that I have just enough self-control not to go up too much (I’m about a size 12.) But it really is hard to control. If I eat even one apple or piece of bread, I crave carbs for the rest of the day, and shake if I don’t get them. It’s awful.
That's my plan too. So far, so good! LOL...
I agree it’s messed up.
But I would ask your friend, by what right does she demand we pay for her mother’s health care ?
At our hospital, everyone new gets a private room till the MRSA test comes back negative. Insurance, private pay, medicare, medicaid it doesn’t matter.
The joys of a small town hospital...
That, and I held off going until a Thursday afternoon.
Not a person in the ER, I had to wake the admitting nurse up!
YES - paying for those who don't pay, paying for what Medicaid doesn't pay, and paying for outrageous insurance are what drives medical costs up.
paying for outrageous insurance - should read “paying for outrageous malpratice insurance”
You probably don't remember this thread. I was just taking a trip down memory lane and was reading it again. You know what? The lady died 6 months later (almost to the day.) After another $900,000 (literally) in hospital costs, they finally told her it was time for hospice. The hospice workers gave her some morphine and some pamphlets on what to expect. The mom died within 4 days, before the daughter had even had time to read the pamphlets. A million dollars that lady's last year of life cost. And she was miserable too, the whole time. I don't know what the answer is, I don't even know what the question was. I just know that having seen this, I don't think we are on the right track.
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