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Ask HN: What’s something that has no right being as expensive as it is?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s something that has no right being as expensive as it is?

#3
Healthcare in the US.

I went to the ER with my partner over a bit of a scare with some intense abdominal pain late at at night a few months ago. We were mostly ignored for about two hours in an empty ER room, and she received a chest x-ray and blood work. She had to go to the bathroom and one point, and they let her take off the pulse monitor on her finger. She didn't put it back on later and it was left flatlining for the remainder of our time sitting there.

They couldn't diagnose anything, and they ended up sending a bill (after insurance) for 3k+ of "level 5" (apparently the highest) emergency room care.

I don't claim to know much about how medical billing/expenses work, but it's just really sad and frustrating.

Re: Ask HN: What’s something that has no right being as expensive as it is?

#4
Re-useable stuff: we have these silicon containers as a substitute for sandwich bags, they are ridiculously expensive. Cloth diapers vs disposable. Places where there is kind of an inversion, and the re-useable version, which at some point would have been used by those too poor to get something disposable (like diapers) is now a luxury item.

Re: Ask HN: What’s something that has no right being as expensive as it is?

#6
post #3

Healthcare in the US. I went to the ER with my partner over a bit of a scare with some intense abdominal pain late at at night a few months ago. We were mostly ignored for about two hours in an empty ER room, and she received a chest x-ray and blood work. She had to go to the bathroom and one point, and they let her take off the pulse monitor on her finger. She didn't put it back on later and it was left flatlining f…

That was to be my first response as well.

It is expensive and growth is significant. Not sustainable in my view.

Re: Ask HN: What’s something that has no right being as expensive as it is?

#8
post #3

Healthcare in the US. I went to the ER with my partner over a bit of a scare with some intense abdominal pain late at at night a few months ago. We were mostly ignored for about two hours in an empty ER room, and she received a chest x-ray and blood work. She had to go to the bathroom and one point, and they let her take off the pulse monitor on her finger. She didn't put it back on later and it was left flatlining f…

Something similar happened to my dad when he had a stroke. Someone showed up to clean the room 4 hours later because he had been coding for so long they figured he was either dead or transported.

In your girlfriend’s case, they’ll sell that record to a subrogation company as well. If she ever gets into a car accident or has a back injury, she will get weird calls to try to get her to say something happened that night that would be another insurer’s responsibility.

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