Why Your Stitches Cost you $1,500 Dollars!

[KoKo]

Why Your Stitches Cost you $1,500 Dollars!

The United State has fallen behind other nations, failing to provide affordable health care to its citizens. Americans spend $477 billion a year MORE on health care than other advanced countries. So why do we pay so much compared to other wealthy nations? This infographic is part one in a two part series which dissects the state of our health care system and presents some alarming numbers.

MANY CHARTS...for those who LOVE WONK and CHARTS!

http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/medical-costs-1/

[onehandle]

1. We pay that much because we are so 'rich.'

I am so damn rich.

You guys are rich too, right?

[kas125]

2. My youngest kid fell and had to get three stitches above his

eye when he was about a year and a half old. That was nineteen years ago. When we got the itemized bill, the "suture kit" cost several hundred dollars, I want to say six or seven hundred, but I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it was totally outrageous. I told my ex that if the kids ever needed stitches again, I was bringing my own needle and thread to the emergency room!

[justgamma]

3. I have an itemized bill from 35 years ago.

When my last child was born. She was in the hospital for a week with jauntice. I had a tubal and my appendix out and was in for 5 days. The total cost for delivery, surgery and medications, etc?

$875.00


Cataract surgery last year. 3 hours in the hospital. Total bill? $5785.55. My share after the insurance. $2100.00

It's outrageous!

[Caretha]

4. Bloody nose January 2010

Nose would not stop bleeding. Went to emerge ny room 2 times. I left the first because I decided I would rather bleed out at home after waiting 3 hours than in the emergency room. Second visit to the emergency room I got to see a doctor in about 30 minutes. Doctor spent 15 minutes with me to cauterize 2 vessels, one in each nostril. This lovely procedure cost me....$457 for the hospital emergency room and $425 for the doctor.

Cost of bloody nose = $882.00.

[Shanti Mama]

5. Athroscopic knee surgery in India -- $2,000

My 15 yr old daughter tore her meniscus. We live in Nepal.
So we traveled to Delhi over spring vacation and she had the surgery done by THE BEST surgeon in Indian. An amazing man, lovely, exudes trust. The entire bill was just under $2000, but we had to pay separately for the massive amount of blood work done the day before. That nearly broke the bank at about $80.

[JCMach1]

7. Open heart surgery... is down to around $2000 in India as well.

The biggest medical bill I ever got here in the UAE (I have private insurance) was $90. That was for the pain meds when I was in the hospital for 8days with a 1cm kidney stone. That included two surgical procedures.

[ejpoeta]

10. when they do stories about people having things done abroad

they ALWAYS makes sure to say that you never know what you are going to get in these countries they have such inferior healthcare!! so unsanitary!! i don't understand how they have so many people snowed that ours is the 'best' system ever!! well, true, we have the best care for those that can afford it. the rest of us get a treat em and street em attitude.

[jmowreader]

11. We DO have the "best system ever"!

It's called the United States Army Medical Department.

The civilian one? Let's put it this way: I have probably used fifteen tons of paper in the past year printing the locations of parties people threw to raise money for medical expenses. Please explain to me how this is even marginally acceptable.

[ejpoeta]

12. maybe the rich folks get their jollies off watching the rest of us 'sacrifice'

from the comforts of their yachts!

[jmowreader]

15. Maybe it's that the people who profit from the current system have better PR people than we do

If you take a function that is being correctly run by the public sector and privatize it, it gets worse.

Case in point: the Idaho state prison system. It was a decent prison system when the state of Idaho ran it. Well...at least the medium-security joint at Orofino that my niece worked in was a good jail and I have no reason to doubt the rest of them were also good. Of course this is Idaho, and of course Idaho is owned by the Republican Party, so they had to privatize the prison system. Now, the prison system is almost irreversibly broken (the main prison in Boise is known far and wide as the Idaho Gladiator School) and it costs the state more per bed every year now than it did when the system was public.

And then there's the healthcare system. Read this: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html

[ejpoeta]

16. that's because when you add a middleman with a profit motive the cost will

go up. they have to get their cut. don't know how people think that will somehow equate to lower cost, but middlemen add to the price.

[rpannier]

18. While they travel to Britain, Switz, Argentina for their meical care nt

[midnight]

6. Tax payers pay for the research and then have to pay double of what is created?

[JCMach1]

8. Then we need to stop paying for the rest of the world then...

[eridani]

9. Because the health care business model here is a water stand in the middle of a desert--

--that sells water for $10,000 a bottle.

[marginlized]

13. Your Health Care is controlled by lobbyists and interest groups:

So what are the bottle necks in the industry? Drug companies? Insurance companies? The AMA?

We have a great educational system, you would think we could be turning out medical professionals at all levels. We could be building new medical schools. How stressed and overworked are your nurses and especially young interns on residency? Wouldn't you rather have a well rested professional taking out your kidney?

Krugman's editorial from 4/21 says it best: Patients Are Not Consumers
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/opinion/22krugman.html?ref=paulkrugman

[guruoo]

14. Interesting to note, only one negative comment to Krugman's analysis. nt

[Earth_First]

17. I recently had my blood pressure and temperature taken, total cost: $395

I was told to see a specialist in the morning or go to the emergency department.