$700,000 hospital bill

[mrmpa]

My brother got an infection in late December. He was in the hospital until January 31. He returned to the hospital on February 4 and was in for about 2 weeks.
He called me yesterday to tell me he received the bill and it was for a little bit over $700,000. His copay is about $2,400. His employer supplied insurance will pay the rest of it.
After he was done telling me about the cost he said "and we don't need insurance in this country." He started laughing, because he knows he's lucky and the people against the Health Bill are insane.

[Fridays Child]

1. The insurance company won't pay more than 25% of that amount, at most.

That's how it works, in my experience, anyway. Only the uninsured get hit for the full amount. The system is a big, broken, rotten, fucked up mess. HCR, however imperfect it may be, will at least begin to address some of these issues.

[Orrex]

6. +1

[TexasObserver]

7. +1

[dencol]

12. Well, the uninsured are silly if they every try to pay.

A not-at-fault car accident with insurance companies that fought payment tooth and nail destroyed my great credit, and left me with insurmountable bills I could never even think of paying off. So I don't even try. They can all go to hell! And since losing my job for being gay, I quit paying my credit cards, too. I will not do anything to sustain this unjust system that is raping the middle and lower class if I can help it... so help me God.

[ejpoeta]

13. i had cigna when i had my daughter. my part of the hospital bill for myself is $200.

when looking at the bill for myself and my daughter, i noticed things like they charged me for the labor and delivery room and charged her for the labor and delivery room. i noticed these things because abby didn't have insurance and by the time we got insurance it wouldn't go back that far. but i found out the hospital has a financial assistance program which we have applied for and hopefully they will cut our cost by at least half. the bill was $1600 jut for the hospital. bob is taking a loan out of his 401k to pay the bills. i still say i wanted to send the bills to the people who want to take the choice away from me to have kids.

[Nordmadr]

14. That does seem to be the case. A small example of cost

curiosity. I have a hiatal hernia which causes acid reflux. I take a prescription medication omeprazole for it. I have a $5 co-pay for the generic, and the insurance company gets billed close to $100 a month for this. I can go to the drug store and buy over the counter Prilosec (active ingredient omeprazole) for $20 or so. Anyone have a good reason why the same basic medication has such an overall cost differential? I use the script because it saves me money; but the system certainly does not make sense. If the insurance company was billed an equivalent amount as the same medication costs over the counter (at retail), I imagine insurance could be much cheaper.

[WCGreen]

2. I know what you mean...

I had a 350k stay back in 2004. I think the whole cost to me was about 5k.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Good to see your brother is fine

and welcome to DU

:hi:

[mrmpa]

4. Thanks & so far it's been very interesting

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. DU always is

You can learn a lot here, we all do.

Hell we at times function as a full fledged news bureau

[girl gone mad]

8. The insurance industry is the reason his bill is so high.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. You're right

Insurance companies tell providers "We'll pay 35% (or some other percentage) of your customary charges." The providers then raise their "list price" so that the 35% adds up to what they want/need.

For example, suppose a procedure should rightly cost $350. The provider will list it at $1000, just to get the $350. If they listed it at $350, insurance would pay $122.50.

[ChicagoSuz219]

10. I wonder if they'll keep him on the insurance...

...after HCR I think they'll have to; before not-so-much.

I'm glad he's okay.

I have a friend who went to Denver for a weekend seminar, got bit by some insect, his arm swelled up like a balloon. Wound up having surgery, several days in the hospital & an $80,000 bill!

He moved to Europe.

[area51]

11. "people against the Health Bill are insane."

Really?

People against a bill that enslaves the American public to serial-killer, for-profit, unregulated insurance companies are insane?

Actually the insane ones are against single-payer health care.

Try doing a little research.

You might want to start here to educate yourself.

[mrmpa]

15. They will

He had changed his carrier effective 1/1/2010 & he's employed by the Feds.

[ecstatic]

16. According to many on DU, there is no difference between a 2k bill and a 700k bill

"Either bill will lead to bankruptcy." I say bullshit!

[Stuart G]

17. Kick

:kick:

[lpbk2713]

18. They do it because they can.

Simple as that.