Ms. Ed gets hospital bill

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3126701

Ouch.

This has got to hurt, what with Ms. Ed the unappellated eohippus being the lowest-paid R.N. in America, with an annual salary of $24,000, $6,000 of which goes to paying for her medical insurance.

Of her remaining $18,000, one has no idea how much goes to support and maintain her four automobiles.

Horse with no Name  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:07 PM
Original message

The high cost of healthcare
   
I just got my hospital bill. Five days in the hospital.

$19,418.

Right off the top, they cut $4631.03 for a "managed care adjustment".

The bulk of the bill was in pharmaceuticals. Didn't get a complete breakdown, but I am supposing if a Tylenol costs $10...it makes sense that they billed my insurance company $8737.12...just for 5 days of medicine.

Donnachaidh  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:16 PM
Response to Original message

1. years ago I worked for a medical parts company
   
I was required to deflash and clean small tips that are used in cataract surgery. I was *required* to complete 1800 an HOUR. I don't know how much the medical supply company paid for these parts. However, five years after I left that company, a friend had cataract surgery, and she showed me that she had been charged 75 DOLLARS for *1* tip - the very same silicone part I had been required to pump out thousands per hour.

Seventy Five Dollars for what amounted to nothing more than 3 cents worth of silicon.

elizfeelinggreat  (458 posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:25 PM
Response to Original message

2. gotta love that for-profit healthcare.

It always amazes me how much the insurance company gets shaved off their bills while anyone without insurance is basically robbed.

penguin7  Donating Member  (887 posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:32 PM
Response to Original message

3. Can someone with health problems get health insurance after they have lost their job and their Cobra runs out?

Just wondering.

Horse with no Name  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:33 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. No.

elehhhhna  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #3

7. usually each state has an ins. pool of last resort, but it's expensive.

hunter  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 07:07 PM
Response to Reply #3

10. It's no fun when that happens.
   
Our family has traveled down that road.

Everything you believe about handling money "responsibly" flys right out the window. You do everything right, you care about your credit rating and all that stuff, and then society tosses you into the same pit as all those people it has labeled "irresponsible."

Hah, hah! Guess what? It IS reasonable to walk into the ER knowing full bloody well you can't pay for it... what do they want people to do, crawl away and die somewhere? (Why yes, I think they do.)

reggie the dog  (779 posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:36 PM
Response to Original message

5. Wow, my wife stayed in the hospital with our baby for five days conting the day she gave birth.

We paid a whopping ZERO Euro.

But we have that socialized health care so many americans hate.

franksolich detects a bouncy; the NHS, when paid, is paid in pounds, not euros.

magellan  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 07:04 PM
Response to Reply #5

9. Please export some of your reason and wisdom to us
   
Or just buy our government. It's for sale, you know. Highest bidder. Send an EU team of lobbyists.

We're paying $4400.00/year for catastrophic (bare minimum) coverage, and it comes with a $10K deductible. And we're lucky; this is CHEAP compared to what some US families pay.

Please. I'm on my knees begging you.

Lone_Star_Dem  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:36 PM
Response to Original message

6. Wow. Street drugs don't even cost that much!
   
I hope you're doing all better! Or, as well as can be expected after seeing that bill.

OurVotesCount-Ohio  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 06:47 PM
Response to Original message

8. *GASP*
   
I hope you have good insurance. Pharmaceuticals through hospitals are outrageously priced..especially something as ordinary as Tylenol that must cost them all of .30 a pill that they will gladly pass on for $8-$10 each.

We have a 70/30 plan and are currently awaiting DH's medical bills for his recent hospital stay.

Horse with no Name  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-08-08 07:29 PM
Response to Reply #8

11. We're about to find out how good it is
   
I didn't go to the "preferred" hospital because frankly, I probably would have died if I had.

I chose to stay "in network"...but it will cost me to have done that.

The ONLY thing that MIGHT save me...is that I went 3 hours away, voluntarily, but my admission was classified as "emergency" because of the diagnosis.

We will find out before too long on that.

I dunno.

One of course hopes Ms. Ed gets well soon, because we miss the unappellated eohippus when she's absent form Skins's island.

One also hopes Ms. Ed checks to see what her favorite hangouts, abortion clinics, charge for a Tylenol.

[Carl]

Was talking about health care while playing golf this past Sunday with a fairly lib friend and he remarked that the problem was malpractice costs.
I left it alone because if I had brought up the politics of it I am guessing he may have backed away from what he knew to be the truth.

I have never seen any primitive even acknowledge that aspect of health care costs let alone discuss it.

[franksolich]

I dunno, Carl; I'm considering the source, the original poster.

And when considering the source, it occurs to me that there's not a dime's worth of truthness in it.

Remember who Ms. Ed is; along with the burdened primitive, one of the two biggest liars on Skins's island.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know the lying titty primitive, but the lying titty primitive's such a stupid liar his lies are easily and quickly found out.  But Ms. Ed and the burdened primitive lie in small increments, over a period of time.

Remember that Ms. Ed is allegedly an R.N. who works many hours.

And then some months ago Ms. Ed posted that her medical insurance premiums of $500 per month were 25% of her income (i.e., $24,000 a year, $6,000 going for the insurance).

There's no R.N. in America, unless a nun in some vow-of-poverty religious order, who makes anything close to $24,000 per year.

It could be true that Ms. Ed makes only $24,000 a year, but if that's true, then Ms. Ed is no R.N.

Twenty-four thousand dollars a year seems like what one might pay a keyboardist.

And the mechanisms of Ms. Ed's posting on Skins's island are strongly suggestive of a person who makes a living punching keyboards.

So she's either an R.N. and lies about her income, or really makes only $24,000 a year, and lies about her occupation.

I tend to think the former over the latter, because Ms. Ed owns, free-and-clear, four automobiles, and an income of $24,000 per year, minus $6,000 in medical insurance, couldn't support, maintain, and insure four automobiles.

Her list of lies is a lengthy one, but just one more example; last autumn Ms. Ed wrote about buying a couple of "ricks" of firewood, alleging winters in northern Texas get pretty cool, a lot of snow and all that, too.

Then recently Ms. Ed wrote about a snowfall--even posted photographs of it--talking about how rare snow is, in eastern Texas.

Now, Ms. Ed is either in northern Texas (allegedly originally from Oklahoma), where winters can sometimes get cold, or Ms. Ed is in eastern Texas, where snowfalls are rare.

I tend to believe she lives in northern Texas, given that she talks a great deal about Dallas-area issues.

My point being, this complaint about the hospital bill could be made up; Ms. Ed has told so many lies that if she wrote that she walked the dog in the morning, I wouldn't believe it.

What's really stupid about the lies Ms. Ed and the burdened primitive tell is that they're lies about perfectly innocent and harmless things; things where it's okay to be honest, no need to lie.

[Chris_]

Was talking about health care while playing golf this past Sunday with a fairly lib friend and he remarked that the problem was malpractice costs.
I left it alone because if I had brought up the politics of it I am guessing he may have backed away from what he knew to be the truth.

I have never seen any primitive even acknowledge that aspect of health care costs let alone discuss it.

You should have casually said "that is how John Edwards made his fortune."

[delilahmused]

I dunno, Carl; I'm considering the source, the original poster.

And when considering the source, it occurs to me that there's not a dime's worth of truthness in it.

Remember who Ms. Ed is; along with the burdened primitive, one of the two biggest liars on Skins's island.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know the lying titty primitive, but the lying titty primitive's such a stupid liar his lies are easily and quickly found out.  But Ms. Ed and the burdened primitive lie in small increments, over a period of time.

Remember that Ms. Ed is allegedly an R.N. who works many hours.

And then some months ago Ms. Ed posted that her medical insurance premiums of $500 per month were 25% of her income (i.e., $24,000 a year, $6,000 going for the insurance).

There's no R.N. in America, unless a nun in some vow-of-poverty religious order, who makes anything close to $24,000 per year.

It could be true that Ms. Ed makes only $24,000 a year, but if that's true, then Ms. Ed is no R.N.

Twenty-four thousand dollars a year seems like what one might pay a keyboardist.

And the mechanisms of Ms. Ed's posting on Skins's island are strongly suggestive of a person who makes a living punching keyboards.

So she's either an R.N. and lies about her income, or really makes only $24,000 a year, and lies about her occupation.

I tend to think the former over the latter, because Ms. Ed owns, free-and-clear, four automobiles, and an income of $24,000 per year, minus $6,000 in medical insurance, couldn't support, maintain, and insure four automobiles.

Her list of lies is a lengthy one, but just one more example; last autumn Ms. Ed wrote about buying a couple of "ricks" of firewood, alleging winters in northern Texas get pretty cool, a lot of snow and all that, too.

Then recently Ms. Ed wrote about a snowfall--even posted photographs of it--talking about how rare snow is, in eastern Texas.

Now, Ms. Ed is either in northern Texas (allegedly originally from Oklahoma), where winters can sometimes get cold, or Ms. Ed is in eastern Texas, where snowfalls are rare.

I tend to believe she lives in northern Texas, given that she talks a great deal about Dallas-area issues.

My point being, this complaint about the hospital bill could be made up; Ms. Ed has told so many lies that if she wrote that she walked the dog in the morning, I wouldn't believe it.

What's really stupid about the lies Ms. Ed and the burdened primitive tell is that they're lies about perfectly innocent and harmless things; things where it's okay to be honest, no need to lie.

The only way she could earn that low of a salary is if she was one of those orderlies in a nursing home who just change bed pans. According to the All Nursing Schools website, the average hourly rate in Texas (in 2006) was $25.00 hour. It also says:

"Additionally, according to 2004 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nurses earned an average of $52,330 per year. The middle 50 percent averaged between $43,370 and $63,360. The bottom 10 percent earned under $37,300, while the top 10 percent made more than $74,760."

One figures the longer someone has been employed in an industry, the more one earns, especially if one is part of a union (I assume nurses are since they tend to go on strike now and then), but it appears even beginning RN's don't earn a measly $24,000 a year. I suppose she could work part time, or maybe her wages are being garnished or something.

Cindie

[jtyangel]

reggie the dog  (779 posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:36 PM
Response to Original message

5. Wow, my wife stayed in the hospital with our baby for five days conting the day she gave birth.

We paid a whopping ZERO Euro.

But we have that socialized health care so many americans hate.

'

And let's talk about what's on the back end of that socialized medicine, sh*thead. How if your wife had complications her care would have undoubtedly been 'managed' and her treatment doled out only if absolutely necessary and sometimes not even then. Or how older folks get their care managed via number crunching as to how to proceed with their treatment. Cancer patients who have tumors removed then told they don't need follow up chemo or radiation. Or patients with masses who wait MONTHS while their cancers metastisize to get a scan or exploratory surgery just to see what the mass is and if it is cancerous. Yeah, nationalized healthcare. Great as long as your healthy and young and don't need to see a doctor that often. 

[franksolich]

And let's talk about what's on the back end of that socialized medicine, sh*thead. How if your wife had complications her care would have undoubtedly been 'managed' and her treatment doled out only if absolutely necessary and sometimes not even then. Or how older folks get their care managed via number crunching as to how to proceed with their treatment. Cancer patients who have tumors removed then told they don't need follow up chemo or radiation. Or patients with masses who wait MONTHS while their cancers metastisize to get a scan or exploratory surgery just to see what the mass is and if it is cancerous. Yeah, nationalized healthcare. Great as long as your healthy and young and don't need to see a doctor that often.

I still think it's a bouncy.

The NHS, when paid for something, is paid in pounds, not euros.

I think the Reginald primitive made this up.

Remember, primitives lie.  All the time, primitives lie.

[Flame]

reggie the dog  (779 posts) Tue Apr-08-08 05:36 PM
Response to Original message

5. Wow, my wife stayed in the hospital with our baby for five days conting the day she gave birth.

We paid a whopping ZERO Euro.

But we have that socialized health care so many americans hate.

Hey...I spent 3 nights in the hosptial when I had my last baby...zero out of pocket for me, too!  And I have just plain ole regualr insurance through my husbands employer.

And I didn't have to worry about bargaining for whatever treatments might be needed, since it wasn't that crappy socialized medicine that you loser Europeans have!!

[VivisMom]

WTF is with these people being in the hospital all the time? Do they not go to the doctor regularly? Last time (ha! Only time!) I was ever in the hospital, I was having a baby.

[Chris_]

WTF is with these people being in the hospital all the time? Do they not go to the doctor regularly? Last time (ha! Only time!) I was ever in the hospital, I was having a baby.

Wimp!  You are supposed to have a baby at home using a wiccan and a shaman ;)

[JohnnyReb]

You know, when you add things up, healthcare starts to look kindda cheap. The hospital needs to make a profit to stay in business, the doctor needs to make a living, the nurses etc. have to be paid, suing lawyers get their cut, unfortunate patients get a windfall profit, illegal aliens get taken care of....free, deadbeats skip out on the bill, then you have slow to low paying medicaid, medicare and the other socialized medical programs overruns hidden in your bill. When you consider what all and who all's care you're paying for, you're lucky to get out with a charge of $10 for an  aspirin.

Think about it. We already have socialized medicine. It's just that you folks here aren't covered by it.

[VivisMom]

WTF is with these people being in the hospital all the time? Do they not go to the doctor regularly? Last time (ha! Only time!) I was ever in the hospital, I was having a baby.

Wimp!  You are supposed to have a baby at home using a wiccan and a shaman

My shaman was on vacation with my astrologist and my holistic midwife. 

[jukin]

There must be at least twenty layers of lies in the OP.

[DixieBelle]

Oh more lies than an onion I would say.

We do have socialized medicine in this country. Go look at any E.R. or VA or Indian Health Service provider. My mother-in-law, who is Indian, uses Indian Healthcare. It sucks. Big time. It's on par with the NHS.

Besides, I'm calling B.S. because Ms. Ed is full of it as a matter of course.

[jtyangel]

And let's talk about what's on the back end of that socialized medicine, sh*thead. How if your wife had complications her care would have undoubtedly been 'managed' and her treatment doled out only if absolutely necessary and sometimes not even then. Or how older folks get their care managed via number crunching as to how to proceed with their treatment. Cancer patients who have tumors removed then told they don't need follow up chemo or radiation. Or patients with masses who wait MONTHS while their cancers metastisize to get a scan or exploratory surgery just to see what the mass is and if it is cancerous. Yeah, nationalized healthcare. Great as long as your healthy and young and don't need to see a doctor that often.

I still think it's a bouncy.

The NHS, when paid for something, is paid in pounds, not euros.

I think the Reginald primitive made this up.

Remember, primitives lie.  All the time, primitives lie.

I expect you are right, Frank. This just sets me off as I had grandparents in Britain's 'grand' NHS. All is well as long as you aren't old or in immediate need of medical attention. People supporting a nationalized system are totally dishonest with how it works. Our system is not perfect, but it also involves a lot of managed care and dummies solution is to tie that managed care system into a place it will not only NOT get fixed, but be made worse and be saddled up for the rest of our lives into: the government. If they hate medicine now, they are really going to hate it when they realize they can't fix it once the gov. has their claws into it. Then you get what you get unless you do have money for extra special care. Won't that set them off then...they are right back where they claimed to have wanted to get away from and that is a system where the priveleged get the best possible care. They are just fools.

[mamacags]

When I had my kids I paid $100 with basic insurance through my hubby's company.  Illegal aliens on the other hand get it all for free.  If we didn't have illegals to soak up all of the hospitals profits maybe idiotteacher wouldn't have had an 18K bill.

[jtyangel]

When I had my kids I paid $100 with basic insurance through my hubby's company.  Illegal aliens on the other hand get it all for free.  If we didn't have illegals to soak up all of the hospitals profits maybe idiotteacher wouldn't have had an 18K bill.

Tell me about it...we pay 30/75/100 depending on where you go and 80/20 on any services beyond the doctor's office. When teachers also bitch about their copays of like 5 bucks, that draws my ire seeing as we pay so much more then that in a private business.

[DixieBelle]

I still can't understand why the liberals are so invested in socialized medicine. The cognitive dissonance is astounding. Mountains of evidence are staring them in the face yet they refuse to acknowledge how disasterous it would be. I just don't get it. They are truly like children who refuse to accept reality and even refuse to admit it when it's happening to them!!!

[franksolich]

I still can't understand why the liberals are so invested in socialized medicine. The cognitive dissonance is astounding. Mountains of evidence are staring them in the face yet they refuse to acknowledge how disasterous it would be. I just don't get it. They are truly like children who refuse to accept reality and even refuse to admit it when it's happening to them!!!

My "take" on it is because the primitives, unlike decent and civilized people, believe this life and this world is all there is, and once one is gone, he's gone.

Stupid primitives, trying to understand something Infinite, with finite minds.

I've watched the mountainman primitive, the ThomWV primitive, for a while now, and that guy, at the age of 61 years, is deathly afraid of dying.

Of course, we're all afraid of dying; it's a normal human feeling.

But the day must come, me tomorrow and the mountainman primitive the day after, or something like that.

Primitives so desperately want all-encompassing socialized medicine because they desperately hope that science, medicine, and technology can keep them alive forever.

Most primitives, when they were younger, circa 40 years ago, hoped that science, medicine, and technology would keep them young forever.  Now they just want their false gods to keep them alive, nothing more.

I think that's why, despite Greater Problems in the world, the primitives are obsessed with free medical care.

[jtyangel]

I still can't understand why the liberals are so invested in socialized medicine. The cognitive dissonance is astounding. Mountains of evidence are staring them in the face yet they refuse to acknowledge how disasterous it would be. I just don't get it. They are truly like children who refuse to accept reality and even refuse to admit it when it's happening to them!!!

My "take" on it is because the primitives, unlike decent and civilized people, believe this life and this world is all there is, and once one is gone, he's gone.

Stupid primitives, trying to understand something Infinite, with finite minds.

I've watched the mountainman primitive, the ThomWV primitive, for a while now, and that guy, at the age of 61 years, is deathly afraid of dying.

Of course, we're all afraid of dying; it's a normal human feeling.

But the day must come, me tomorrow and the mountainman primitive the day after, or something like that.

Primitives so desperately want all-encompassing socialized medicine because they desperately hope that science, medicine, and technology can keep them alive forever.

Most primitives, when they were younger, circa 40 years ago, hoped that science, medicine, and technology would keep them young forever.  Now they just want their false gods to keep them alive, nothing more.

I think that's why, despite Greater Problems in the world, the primitives are obsessed with free medical care.

I think you are on to something here, frank. I had the same questions as, Dixie. Not only do they want to just stay alive many are doing it without the resources to try such a hopeless feat, but without many prospects because of age to obtain those resources. They are seeking the ultimate bailout huh? Good luck to them on that cause there isn't a one of us on this rock getting out alive.

[PatriotGame]

Hah, hah! Guess what? It IS reasonable to walk into the ER knowing full bloody well you can't pay for it... what do they want people to do, crawl away and die somewhere? (Why yes, I think they do.)

I guess I am confused here since the unborn can't crawl at all.