Health at any price (but thankfully a low one)

[dorchadas]

The bills have started to come in from my appendectomy, and because this is America I'm getting several different bills from different places. That's normal and I wouldn't usually make a post about it, but the contents of the bill is worth remembering for how stark the difference between pre- and post-insurance pricing. These are the bills I've gotten so far:

• Anesthesiologists pre-insurance: $2750
  ---Anesthesiologists post-insurance: $57.72
  
• Diagnostic Radiologists pre-insurance: $455
  ---Diagnostic Radiologists post-insurance: $170.07
  
• Physician pre-insurance: $458
  ---Physician post-insurance: $23.96
  
• Labs pre-insurance: $481
  ---Labs post-insurance: $5.43

Total cost pre-insurance: $4144
Total cost post-insurance: $257.48

Something something greatest healthcare in the world...if you can pay for it. I'm very lucky that the AMA's insurance plan always pays for everything--it never denies any claim, because the nice thing about working for an organization run by doctors is that they think that a doctor should be the one deciding on appropriate care, not some insurance claims agent who has a vested interest in making money for the company. But you shouldn't have to work for a group of doctors to get the same benefits.

Also, if you're not familiar with American health insurance, a lot of physicians work at hospitals but aren't directly employed by those hospitals, so they bill separately. Furthermore, insurance companies are notorious for denying these claims even if they explicitly authorized treatment at the hospital, because obviously getting anesthesia has nothing to do with anything else that happened that day Same here with the diagnostic radiology, which was a separate charge from the surgery or the anesthesia.

I'm glad that I don't have to pay thousands of dollars for my surgery, but it's because I'm lucky with my employment. Everyone should be that lucky.

Comments

[helvetica]

Yikes- such a relief you have insurance wow. An american friend of mine had to have their gall bladder removed and they had no insurance and the end bill was $32,000!!! I'm glad your insurance is doing good by you :)

[dorchadas]

Ugh! Those are the stories I'm used to from American health care. Great if you're rich, terrible for most people. Even those with good insurance go bankrupt if they have a serious health problem.

[norfolkian]

I agree that everyone should have good health insurance and it's very lucky that you only had to pay $257.48 instead of thousands! For some people even a few hundred dollars will be a lot though. I hope Joe Biden brings in some healthcare reforms.