The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
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Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#2I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#3A quarter million US dollars.
Of course the hospital never expects to receive this amount of money. Either they will negotiate it down for uninsured patients, or they will accept a lesser amount from the insurance company.
Insurance companies like this over representation of costs because:
1. If you have a percentage copay (edit: "coinsurance"), say 10%, they will tell you to pay $25k because it's 10%, but they might only pay $75k. In this example you clearly paid 25% but they tell you it's only 10%.
2. A quarter million dollars is terrifying and you better not ever lose your insurance.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#45k on sildenafil citrate? That's better known as Viagra.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#5A quarter million US dollars. Of course the hospital never expects to receive this amount of money. Either they will negotiate it down for uninsured patients, or they will accept a lesser amount from the insurance company. Insurance companies like this over representation of costs because: 1. If you have a percentage copay (edit: "coinsurance"), say 10%, they will tell you to pay $25k because it's 10%, but they might…
> If you have a percentage copay, say 10%, they will tell you to pay $25k because it's 10% [of $250k], but they might only pay $75k [after negotiating the $250k down to $75k].
That's fraud.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#6Anyone who has ever spent any significant amount of time in any hospital knows just how crazy & broken the system is. It's absolute madness. Sometimes it seems like the worse part comes in the months after you get out when random bills start coming and other random bills end up in collections for no apparent reason.
I see at the bottom of this article they "are creating a charity to help bring awareness to the issue, to help sick children and their families, and to try improve the system in whatever way we can... we can use all the help with can get."
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#7I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.
The people who are against universal healthcare usually pitch it as an argument for "choice", as if I'm going to compare prices when I have a ruptured appendix. It's also usually couched in anti-government sentiment, where they draw comparisons to "lines at the DMV", as if other countries with universal healthcare have people dying while waiting in line for care, something that also doesn't happen.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#8I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.
Single payer healthcare systems in Europe were introduced a long time ago. Back then, politics was different, not least because of an imminent threat of the Soviet Bloc just around the corner and a need to answer it by "carrot", too, not just "stick".
They are now status quo, but in another version of history, where such systems would have to be introduced today, I am not certain whether they could clear the political obstacles, much like the U.S.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#9my sibling was born premature and spent 78 days in the hospital when born. I was a young child myself so I haven't a clue as to cost but it put my parents into bankruptcy.
Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU
#10I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.
Your comment misses the point. There are two reasons why this bill is so high: 1. Some doctors and some hospitals are make tremendous amount of money - hospital revenue is about $1T and doctor revenue is about .5T. 2. This country has an insatiable demand for expensive healthcare.
There’s no country with universal coverage where a child with little chance for survival would have received this level of care.