A woman had a baby. Then her hospital charged her $39.35 to hold it.

[KamaAina]

Not The Onion!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/pregnancyparenting/a-woman-had-a-baby-then-her-hospital-charged-her-dollar3935-to-hold-it/ar-BBwYQP4

This is a bill for a recent labor and delivery service in the United States. And it includes a $39.35 charge for holding the baby after delivery. Really.

The image of the bill, now shared widely on Reddit, shows a charge for “skin to skin after c sec.” The Reddit user who posted it explained more in a few comments. He wasn’t exactly mad about the charge — he said the hospital did a great job delivering his son. Instead, it more of spoke to the absurdity of American health care....

He made dozens of phones calls to different billing offices, but couldn’t find anyone who could tell him how much an uncomplicated birth would ultimately cost. Here’s what he wrote about it:
What struck me the most about my quest to learn about hospital prices was the fact that consumers have no way of knowing where a hospital stands on the vast pricing spectrum. Consumers have few options to interact with pricing until after they have received treatment. It's significantly easier to find out how much it costs to park at a hospital than how much it will cost to get treatment.

All of this results in a system where consumers are totally divorced from prices. This is dangerous because prices are a key ingredient to a healthy market. We rely on prices in every industry to communicate value and drive competition. A lack of transparency can lead to an artificial inflation of prices, making consumers pay more for treatment that is of no better quality.

http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBwYYbo.img

[CBGLuthier]

1. The american health care system sucks. Period.

[NanceGreggs]

4. As an American ...

... living under the Canadian healthcare system, I have to wholeheartedly agree.

I spent six months bedridden in 2007 as the result of being given a medication I am fatally allergic to - no one's fault, as it was the first time I'd been given it, and had no way of knowing what the consequences would be, nor did my treating physicians.

Six month's worth of consultations with specialists, ER visits, and at-home care were all covered.

Last year, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. He required extensive and expensive tests and treatment, round-the-clock care at home and later in hospital, consults with specialists, and assistive devices such as a walker, wheelchair, shower-and-bath hold-bars, special railings on stairways, and at-home visits from doctors, nurses, and social workers to help with bathing, shaving, and other personal needs. We were even given a homecare worker to do laundry, dishes, and household chores, so that my time could be devoted to his care.

We would have been financially devastated by my illness alone - we would have lost our home and our savings as a result of his.

We paid nothing. Our provincial healthcare coverage paid for everything. Now that my husband has passed, I can retire knowing that my financial future is secure because whatever assets we had - like our house - will not be liquidated to repay medical debts.

My husband and I were Americans living in Canada. I cannot tell you how many times we said to each other, "Thank God we're living here."

[JanMichael]

9. Thank you for that. Most peopele in the USA have no idea and are filled with propaganda.

What's funny is most Americans do not believe that they are subject to Propaganda! Most cannot spell it...

[NanceGreggs]

12. I have always maintained ...

... that the biggest (and perhaps only) obstacle to accepting a Canadian-style healthcare system in the US is the propaganda spewed by the RW, along with the failure of the MSM to call them out on it.

My husband and I watched in horror during the lead-up to Obamacare, as "TV journalists" allowed Republicans to misrepresent the Canadian system without ever fact-checking the veracity of their claims.

We heard GOPers tell Americans that it takes 18 months to get a doctor's appointment in Canada, that the gov't has to approve your doctor's treatment plans before they are implemented, that the gov't "assigns" you a doctor that you have to see, etc.

I can see a doctor within minutes of feeling a need to do so. It can be ANY doctor in the province. And the "government" doesn't even know I've seen a doctor until the doctor bills them for his services, which can be months after my appointment - which the gov't promptly pays for, no questions asked.

It's the LIES that have kept Americans from embracing a healthcare system that not only works to their benefit, but costs the taxpayer far less than private insurance does.

The "exorbitant taxes" I allegedly pay for my healthcare are negligible. In addition, Canadian doctors are guaranteed payment for their care. They don't waste their time filling out forms for hundreds of different insurance companies, and know that ONE bill to the gov't will be promptly paid. They never face the prospect that the hours they spend with a patient might not be compensated due to the whims of an insurance company.

This system works.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. I can't imagine what that cost...

would have been here. I was grousing about the $50 for each therapy visit (3 times a week) after my wife's knee replacement. That is $900 in six weeks- kind of hard to sustain (that is almost a mortgage payment). I hate to see what the insurance company paid.

[Solly Mack]

11. (((Nance)))

[redstatebluegirl]

2. I am sure there will be lots of posts here like this one.q

My husband had a nose bleed that would not stop. I took him to one of those 24 hour "doc in a box" places where they checked him over and packed his nose with cotton. The bill for this 30 minutes was $750. The bill for the cotton packing for his nose was 150!!!

The healthcare system is nuts, they have gone completely crazy collecting large fees from insurance companies and frightening people into paying large bills that make no sense.

[Ilsa]

7. I had to argue with a nurse at a clinic

about getting a replacement Rx for an antibiotic the APN prescribed for me that was giving me allergic symptoms. The APN offered to examine me (hands, torso, pribvate parts), but I declined, explaining that I knew from the itching on my hands and privates that it was an allergic reaction. They tried to charge me and my insurance another $150 just for walking in and getting the replacement script, no exam.

[scscholar]

3. I wouldn't pay forty bucks to hold a baby

What a rip-off. /s

[milestogo]

5. Maybe the charge is really to cover the medical procedure called "handwashing"

which takes place before holding the baby.

[Texasgal]

6. This is where the problem lies.

No one knows how much certain procedures cost, so the insurances get billed an insane amount of money.

There are also many procedures and surgeries that you are not allowed to have unless you have insurance. It's CRAZY!

[Takket]

8. that's not bad considering they charge about $100 for a Tylenol