$1,000 for a toothbrush, $140 for ONE tylenol, and (more!)

[Amonester]

$53 for a pair of disposable gloves!?!

This morning, Elizabeth Cohen had a look at hospital bills, and she couldn't believe what she saw (total rip-off of hospital CORPORATE THIEVES).

cnn video there: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2010/03/01/cohen.health.care.bills.cnn

(Such robberies have been going on for years, so she just 'woke up' about them last week?!?)

[liberal N proud]

1. But the real problem with health care cost is law suits

Just ask any GOP Congressman

:sarcasm:

[Monk06]

12. Yeah apparently not enough lawsuits.

[my2sense]

2. Yes, all while

the republican talking point blames cost on consumers. Sickening.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. Hospitals, drug companies and medical equipment companies are thieves!

[demtenjeep]

3. My last bill

was 69 thousand dollars. I did not even look at the itemized list. I just thanked God I had insurance

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. It pays to shop around, and price these things out BEFORE you go

to the hospital. Buyer beware & all that, it's high time people take personal responsibility for this sort of thing.

:sarcasm:

[doc03]

5. I was hospitalized a few years ago on a

work injury that was covered by compensation. When I got out of the hospital they billed me $350 for a couple Tylenols and some cough medicine they gave me for a cold. They said the cold wasn't covered because it wasn't related to my compensation claim. My brother broke his leg a few years ago so when I went to the hospital to pick him up I took some crutches I already had. The hospital had already given him crutches for $300 I told them we already had crutches and didn't need them. They refused to take them back because they had been taken out of the plastic bag and they said they couldn't be used.

[Demoiselle]

6. Oh sure. Everybody knows how easily you can pick up an infection from crutches!

Good freakin' grief!
(I'm being sarcastic here, of course.)

[Caretha]

7. Oh goody

a post I finally get to complain in!

I had a bad nose bleed between Xmas & New Years, it just wouldn't stop. No doctors available, the clinic I went to said they only "packed" and that wasn't going to do it for me. I left the clinic and went to the hospital. I ended up sitting in the emergency room for 3 hours.

Dirty chair, surrounded by everyone else with their & their children's contagious diseases for 3 hours. Finally I was shown into a room...dr came in 10 minutes later.

To make a long story short, they ended up cauterizing 3 broken vessels in my nose, gave me some nasal spray and sent me on my way. The doctor attended me approximately 15 minutes.

Emergency room visit = $326.66 (the nasal spray was $12.00)

Doctor bill = $405.00

Total for a bloody nose $726.66

Something is definitely wrong with this picture.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. It's surprising no one has complained before now

cough!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. Support stockings $100

what do they do to make them - have silk worms?

[Caretha]

14. It is not that I think my story is unique

it's that I think my story, or anyone else's story like this should be repeated ad nausem unitl everyone with an ear to listen ....does.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. if the media took pity on people instead of spinning and hate

[Ben2010]

24. Health Care Cost

I agree that we have a lot of problems with hospital and Doctor charges in the current system. Most of the Doctor charges can be explainable, but a lot of hospital charges are ridiculous.

Any one know if the new health care bill that is proposed by the congress now, has some way to fix this issue?

Thanks,
/Ben

[sharesunited]

8. That's actually the cumulative effect of cost shifting.

Those prices reflect the provider's attempt to recoup free, uncollectible, and under-reimbursed care.

Seriously, that's what it is.

[KT2000]

13. in my rural area there is

one hospital - supposedly public.
They have been busy buying up clinics and cornering the market on new clinics and testing facilities. Just got a bill for an office call where the doc ordered an EKG (assist came into the room, ran it and left). Since the clinic is owned by the hospital it is charged as an out patient procedure and I have to pay for the "treatment room."
Next time they see me I will be unconscious and near death - no way am I subjecting myself to any more of their creative billing.

[lpbk2713]

16. The Wal-Mart model as applied to the medical field.

The big hospitals and clinics buy out the smaller clinics and private practices so they can monopolize
the market and then they really soak the public and the carriers once they have a good lock on it.

[KT2000]

18. On no - I thought

it was just our crooked administrators. This is just depressing - there will be nowhere left to go. Already canceled the screening test for fear of what they would do to that bill since I would be unconscious. I do not trust them anymore.

[KingFlorez]

17. This has been a problem for ages

Unfortunately, it's never received much attention. Health care has become more and more of a racket all the time.

[democracy1st]

19. K & R

[frustrated_lefty]

20. They should pick up a $3 pair of gloves from Walmart

and stick them in the patient's intestines! That must be nearly as sterile!

The price seems a little high to me, but we're talking about individually wrapped, individually sterilized...probably gamma irradiated...gloves designed and packaged to slip over a surgeon's gown. They're probably nitrile, but, no doubt, dish gloves would satisfy you in the midst of open heart surgery.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. And the toothbrush and Tylenol...?

[Odin2005]

21. That is obscene!

:puke:

[femrap]

23. Don't let anyone enter your hospital

room because there is a charge for it.

I told them to stay out. If I need help, I'll buzz for it.