I could go on forever about the disaster that is the American health care system. About how our litigious society has made it impossible for doctors to admit mistakes which then fuels discontent and disatisfaction. How litigation drives up malpractice costs which then drives up costs to everyone. How insurance companies are corrupt and artificially inflate costs with their questionable business practices. How a good 20-30% of the people I know in Manhattan don’t have health insurance because they can’t afford it. It’s pretty much a disaster.
Now I don’t remember what things were like back in 1980, but my guess is they were pretty different. Things can’t always have been as bad as they are now, right? I was home last month helping my parents go through some boxes in Austin just before they moved to Colorado full time and we found the receipt from my hospital stay when I was born.
I was born at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, CT 45 days premature. I was soon transfered to Yale-New Haven Hospital for an eight day stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. I was jaundiced and my surfactant was inadequate but a week in the incubator did me some good. The total cost of my 8 day hospitalization? $2964.15. In 2008 dollars that would be $7649.39. Yet today, that same hospital stay would be approximately $14-19,000. And if you look closer you’ll see that my entire hospital stay was covered by my insurance. Would the same be true today? Luckily, I haven’t been admitted to a hospital since then and I’m hoping that doesn’t change any time soon.
So, I spent two hours in the ER this January. I had an IV (antibiotics, Zofran, and some NSAID), saw the doctor for about 10 total minutes and walked out of there with two prescriptions. Final bill, after applying negotiated rates was $1486.35 for the hospital and $252 for the ER doc. And being on a high deductible health plan, I was responsible for all of that.
Additionally, this week, my insurance decided to start to decline paying for all of Reghan’s anti nausea medication because she doesn’t have cancer or hyperemesis gravidarum, even though she feels like crap without it.
Health care blows. I wish I could think of something better that isn’t run by the government.