A Most Amazing Hospital Bill -1971..

[Stuart G]

I was going through some old stuff, and came across a hospital bill. I was in the hospital for 12 days in a private room for pneumonia. It was from the last week in September through the first week in October 1971. At first they couldn't figure out what it was, so tests and more tests etc, after 5 days in the hospital, they decided it was pneumonia, Ok,stuff happens and I lived through it.

Here is the amazing part. Non profit hospital, fairly modern facility. Micheal Reese in Chicago...total bill $1870 for almost everything. Some doctor's bills were separate but what is going on here? How much has inflation hit? Five or six times. Eight? Nine? So a $2000 car back then, maybe 19,000 today..what about a
Twelve day stay in the hospital? Private room? I can't even imagine. Maybe $ $60,000? $100,000 You tell me.
Thanks..

[Oregone]

1. Oh now, I trust the private middle men bartering have produced the best of all possible worlds

And they will continue to do so

[Posteritatis]

2. A friend of mine in Colorado got nailed by hamthrax in the fall and spent a month in hospital

Pneumonia and various other complications; he's more or less recovered now. Anyway, his bill was six digits and I don't think the first digit was a one.

The last time one of our libertarian acquaintances was spazzing out about the evil socialist health legislation at him, it wasn't terribly well-received.

[blm]

3. amazing...it really all seemed so simple then...then the fascists ruled the 80s and average people

have been getting screwed royally ever since. Wonder why the Teabaggers never get bothered about THAT, and, are actually SUPPORTING the fascists robbing this country and collapsing the middle and working class in pursuit of THEIR luxuries.

[Stuart G]

5. I recall reading that Nixon set up these HMOS??

etc..sometime in 73 or 4..that is when the rocket took off...one more asshole middle man...fuckers.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. Michael Moore talks about that in SICKO. Nixon being involved.

[Stuart G]

9. I'll bet that it is no more than 5000 rich bastards who are

ruining it for the rest of us in this health care/hospital wars.
Those 5000, and their greedy followers and lobby whores, have ruined millions of lives. The illusion that government regulations can destroy the system is what Micheal Moore was about in Sicko. That is all the Republicans know. They are against government intervention. except when it helps them..
I will never, never forget that elederly lady being dumped in front of a public hospital wandering around cause some private hospital wouldn't take care of her. That is what Sicko was about. How can that happen in the greatest health system in the world??? well it ain't so great.

[donco6]

13. I don't get *any* bills from my HMO.

Well, the copay. But my upcoming sigmoid colectomy has a copay of $400. That's it.

[nosmokes]

4. 1 gross of laying hens and a rooster today,minimum.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Mom said the delivery bill for me in 1955 was $100.00.

Vaginal with forceps and Demerol (still didn't knock Mom out).

And my Aunt, the Ivy League Graduate Nurse supervising. From what she told me, she could have done a better job getting me here and sewing up Mom than the crusty old general practitioner did.

But then she went to Yale Nursing School, what did she know??? :sarcasm:

[Caretha]

14. I was born in 1952

in an army hospital. It cost $7.00. Mom had 5 of us and she said I was the cheapest kid she had. I think all the rest cost like $100.

[slackmaster]

8. The system actually worked back then

It's a shame it's gotten so dysfunctional since the insurance companies and accountants took over.

[Stuart G]

10. No truer words have ever been spoken..nt

[Hamlette]

11. accountants?

insurance companies can account for the 30% profit they take off the top but that's not all of it and I don't see how accountants are really to blame here.

[pansypoo53219]

12. HA

i found a late 40's birth bill for my aunt or uncle. not even a full page. more like a note page. i think it was under $100. the nurse got part. but not itemized to death. i should have framed it.