(no subject)

[aidenfire]

I was talking to my mom last night, and she said that she received the bill for when I was in the hospital for a while right before break.

Total cost? $2800.
Cost to us, after insurance? $25.

WOW. 1) insurance is amazing, and 2) holy shit that's so expensive! I mean, I know they ran a lot of tests and stuff but I was only in the ER for like nine hours, how could it cost so much? What do you do if you don't have insurance in the US?

Comments

[florahart]

You die, is sometimes what.

There are a LOT of people who simply do not go to the doctor (ever) even when they KNOW there is something desperately wrong (they feel lumps. they get dizzy every time they stand up. they have chest pains), because they are uninsured and they know the bill would be crushing. And of course, if they wait until it's life-threatening, then the hospital will treat them and eventually write off the bill, so for something acute and non-chronic, that's sometimes a valid strategy, but even then, they know, sometimes, they they SHOULD have gone and gotten ordinary treatment and don't want to be chastised for that, so they STILL don't go. And then they die.

It's SO MESSED UP that this is the basic system we live in, and it makes me mad.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

If you don't have insurance? You pray to find a free or low-cost clinic. You let your health deteriorate until you really are sick and need to go to the hospital, meaning they will write off the bill and pass the cost on, eventually, to other patients who can afford to pay. Sometimes you die for lack of basic preventative care.
It's a truly fucked up system, and those in Congress have proved conclusively that all they care about is getting re-elected and making sure that THEIR SIDE WINS OMG. I love my country, but MAN is it fucked up right now.
and it's not fair. I don't think we should be getting in the rest of the world's shit (sure we should help Haiti of course) but who are we to tell the rest of the world how to run their countries when we can't even take care of our own citizens? That's the height of arrogance and, sadly, I hear the rest of the world sees Americans as arrogant.