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as i've mentioned here once or twice, i was hospitalized for an extended period of time a few years ago. it's not something i think about much these days--until the subject of healthcare comes up, that is.
it went like this:
back in the autumn of 2004, when it got so bad i couldn't stand it anymore, i drove myself to cedars-sinai, where they took one look at me and my insurance and admitted me right away.
testing revealed the presence of a particularly potent batch of bacterial meningitis which had happily taken up residence in my spinal column.
i was flat on my back for two full weeks, over the course of which time my doctor and every specialist in his rolodex [first rule of medicine: don't let good insurance go to waste] examined, poked, prodded and tested me in ways i can't even begin to describe here; lemme just say that virtually no square inch of mkf's virgin territory was left unmolested.
at the end of those two weeks, full to the brim of the industrial-strength antibiotics they'd been iv-ing into my veins the entire time, i was pronounced well and ready to go home.
i remember being uneasy with this decision, because i sure didn't feel well--but what the hell, they were the professionals, it was thanksgiving week and i was dying to get outta there. i figured i could rest up over the long weekend and be ready for work monday.
yeah.
sunday night i was back in the hospital, and it was critical this time--that first course of antibiotics had apparently only succeeded in killing off all but the really tough bacteria, which little critters had used the holiday respite granted them by my doctors to regroup, multiply and come back strong for the kill. this time my doctors didn't fool around; they brought out the big guns--some super-duper, last-resort antibiotic that, within a week, brought me back from the brink.
this time when i was sent home, it was with a picc installed in my left arm and two weeks' worth of daily doses of iv penicillin administered by this really cool british nurse who came by every day around 2:00.
and then, i was well--until i got the bill, that is.
and this is where the quiz comes in--your task, readers, is to take a guess as to the total amount of money cedars-sinai hospital and its army of specialists deemed it necessary to charge mkf and his insurance company in order to relieve mkf of the burden of his pesky spinal meningitis.
before you answer--because i wanna make sure you have all the necessary facts in order to make your best guess--let's recap:
- private room at the hospital to the stars--22 days
- army of specialists
- shitload of tests
- shitload of iv antibiotics
- daily half-hour homecare visit by lvn--14 days
and there you have it--a room, some bad food, some doctors, some tests, a traveling nurse, some drugs. note that there was no surgery of any kind.
tell me--how much?
i remember the day i got the envelope from the hospital--thick, straining to hold its itemized, tri-folded contents--ripping it open and just sitting there in numb, open-mouthed shock as i stared at the total.
i remember going over each page line by line, appalled by the numbers--$4,500 a day for just the crappy little room?
i remember repeatedly calling the hospital's billing department and my insurance company, trying to find somebody--anybody--in either place who'd review with me the line items of my hospital bill i'd found so objectionable. nobody would, because nobody cared.
i remember pointing out to my doctor that not only had all the buddies he'd called in to feed at the trough ended up being totally useless, but that had they given me the right antibiotics in the first place, i might have been spared at least a week of agony and additional hospital bills.
and, finally, i remember thinking that all the pundits were right--an american can work and save his entire life, and if he's not covered, see it all wiped away with one short illness.
there's something deeply, fatally flawed in our american system of healthcare, folks--and until our dumbass, cowardly, bought-and-paid-for politicians are actually willing to take on the insurance industry, the ama, the aba and big pharma and really get down-and-dirty and solve it, i'm not about to support some half-assed quick fix that'll do nothing more than drive up costs even more and allow the government to intrude its ever-seeking tentacles even further into our lives.
* * * * *
oh, and the answer to the quiz? if you guessed even a penny less than $318,000, you are as sadly naive as i once was.
7 comments:
My initial number was 275K...guess I wasn't too far off the mark.
The total it costs to try and save a 28 year old's life in the trauma ER for 2 hours? 175K.
It's not surprising. What I find appalling is that hospitals (doctors, specialists, etc) will allow doctors to have priviledges at their facilities without regard to the member's insurance plan. This is where we get into trouble with ridiculous bills--they seem to think they can charge whatever they want because they're NOT PARTICIPATING PROVIDERS.
Does this make sense? I'm blogging with 8,000 people standing in my cube.
I knew it was going to be huge but, adjusting for the fact this happened some years ago, I had estimated a quarter of a million. Unlike Judi, I won't claim to have been close since I think $68,000 is real money.
Some of he morning news programs are beginning now to feature horror stories of people cut off from coverage by certain conditions, pre-existing or not, in an attempt, I think, to balance the view being fear-fed to the public about the death panels and all that juvenile, self-serving crap. But I have a sense that it's too little too late.
In Europe, yes--demon, and demonized, Europe--there's an old and very wise saying: "Say something three times and it's true." Death panels has been said a lot more than three times and I'm sure the well has been fully poisoned by now. It's very sad and I am now confident that however the great charade now being enacted for the media works out, the average American will be as badly off, or even worse off, than before.
And this from a "glass half full" guy.
are you sure that's Europe and not Beetlejuice, sweet Will? ;)
and yeah, it terrifies me to think that there's the possibility that i could be dropped because i'm bipolar. as i stated before, i was all but uninsurable because of my diseased brain. my extra body parts and the accident they stemmed from--no problem. Sure, Mrs. C, we'll cover your physical ailments just not your mental ones.
'cause that makes sense.
sorry. i'm a bit bitter today. i had to fight with my insurance company and pharmacy because of medications.
I guessed $300,000.
I would have guessed $500,000 if it had happened recently.
That is one terriffying story and I pray to God I don't ever have to go to a hospital for ANYTHING! That's maybe asking for too much, but so far so good on this.
Shockingly expensive, and almost barbaric what they put one through as well. You poor man. God bless ya.
How much were the mints they left on your pillow every night?
Quoting the final number is a lot like quoting me the sticker price on a car...it doesn't mean much.
Whenever I get a billing statement from my insurance company...I see what was charged and I see the contracted for payment...and the latter number is usually 75 or 80 percent off...Like a Barneys warehouse sale.
But the larger point is valid: When there is no incentive for anyone to lower the total cost, the incentives to run up the bill will run up the bill.
The problem with Obamacare is that it is really about two very separate things: trying to ensure that every American has health insurance (goal number one) and then secondly trying to tap down on the costs of health care generally (goal number two).
Goal number two is virtually dead in the water after a Summer of angry town halls (the khaki riots), death panels demagoguery, and Republican perfidy.
Whatever chance we had for reform of health care has been killed. A big part of that is a lot of seniors fear that "change" will result in their health care being cut...forgetting that the present course is unsustainable for medicare. But you vote against seniors at your peril.
to judi, chuck and will: you ask me, it's a sad state of affairs when it's just assumed that any hospital stay of more than a week or so will cost upwards of six figures.
wat: i agree-shockingly expensive, even now.
noblesavage: the reason the final number doesn't mean much to you is because you have insurance.
yeah, the providers jack up the costs since they know they're only gonna recover a fraction of whatever they throw out there from the insurance company.
thing is, had i been uninsured, i woulda been on the hook for the entire amount. and--thanks to harry and nancy and all those other warm, fuzzy democrats who colluded with the republicans and the banking lobby to fuck over working-class americans with the recent bankruptcy "reforms"--i would owe that amount until the day i died in debtors' prison.
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