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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

#121

Post by carschno »

hungryforcodes wrote: post #80
rakmos wrote: post #52

This hits home for me.. my son (now 4 years old) was born very premature at 29 weeks and some change. He spent 7 weeks and 4 days in the NICU. The total hospital bill that was charged to insurance (before settling it between themselves) was roughly 960_000$. If you include the additional services and whatnot in the few months following being discharged from the hospital he was a million dollar baby. Complete insanity…

That's insane. At most it would have cost just a few thousand in many countries in Asia with comparable medical competencies. So is there a new strategy of going to non-western countries to deliver babies and have expensive surgeries? Of course I don't need to mention that in Canada and most countries in Europe this wouldn't have even been an issue. That would be pedantic. /s

Not entirely true any more, unfortunately. Many (Western) Europeans go to countries like Poland, Hungary, Turkey for treatments that are typically not (fully) covered by health insurances, like manydental or laser eye surgery.

There are private clinics specialized on Western European patient with staff speaking fluent English, German etc.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#122

Post by xyzzyz »

adrianN wrote: post #84
marcinzm wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a lot of negative stories about the British health system including people waiting 6+ months to see doctors (while in pain or having other symptoms that lower quality of life significantly). If you think an American universal health system will be somehow better than that then I suspect you're a lot more optimistic about the US government than most people. edit: I do love echo chambers, someone asks a ques…

Shouldn't the point of comparison be the current state of US healthcare, were many people don't get to see a doctor at all because they're uninsured and poor? (Or at least that's the impression I get as an outsider from discussions on the Internet about the topic)

If you are actually poor in the US, you qualify for free or highly subsidized healthcare. US has plenty of those social welfare programs, and people online typically are well off enough that they aren’t even aware of them.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#123

Post by gruez »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #29
_huayra_ wrote: post #2

I 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.

There are many problems with our Canadian system, it's certainly not perfect. And single payer is not the only way to approach this problem. But I'm overall happy with its compromises in our system. Like any economic resource, it's rationed. But it's rationed, generally, on the basis of need. And that "from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs" philosophy may be the ideological curse on…

>In a way it's a form of feudalism, tying people physically to their employment.

uhh, what? Is employment in general "a form of feudalism" because people depend on it to fund their basic needs?

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#124

Post by modin »

roland35 wrote: post #18

My first son spent a week in the NICU since he had to be on antibiotics, otherwise was fine. The hospital entered in my insurance card incorrectly so we were billed as uninsured. Turns out a week at the NICU for a healthy newborn is about $40,000! It took almost 2 years of back and forth with my insurance provider and the hospital to clear up that bill. The hospital kept sending to to debt collectors too which was pa…

> And to make it even more annoying, the hospital later changed it's policy on newborns on antibiotics - if they are otherwise healthy they don't need to stay in the NICU anymore.

That sounds like a good policy change thou? Whilst I understand it must've been a grave ordeal to sort it out, I'd try to be glad for the families in similar situations now that wouldn't have to suffer from this any more instead of being annoyed.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#126

Post by mabub24 »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #22
_huayra_ wrote: post #2

I 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.

There are really bad things with the current system, but you asked a question. People are exposed on a regular basis to the DMV, the SBA, to Social Security or to Medicare. Then they compare that experience with the avg experience with a commercial insurer, and it does feel like a better experience (of course, if their employer can afford it) Worse, there are stories of friends in places like CAN, where insider docto…

> People are exposed on a regular basis to the DMV, the SBA, to Social Security or to Medicare. Then they compare that experience with the avg experience with a commercial insurer, and it does feel like a better experience (of course, if their employer can afford it)

And yet, people will also defend SS and Medicare/Medicaid till the ends of the earth. I personally find the only people that endlessly rag on social services, and to a large extent, government services, are people that have money and usually a lot of it. It's fine to argue for stopping inefficiencies, but to argue that the only way to stop inefficiencies is the complete abolishing of a government service is the peak of a particularly American argument. The argument usually comes from a place of "I have money, why do I have to put up with this, why do I deserve this?", which is an odd position to take. Americans usually carry the view that quality of service should scale with how much money you make or have, but that leads to a perverse view where worse off people, or low wage earners "deserve" the care they get in a dog eat dog world. When you have socialized healthcare options, that mindset comes across as bizarre if also irrelevant. "Deserving" never comes into the discussion aside from the idea that everyone deserves healthcare, which is the starting premise/assumption anyway.

> Worse, there are stories of friends in places like CAN...

> The system in the US is a mess, but those people reason that its the least worst option of the available choices.

The odd thing is, Canadians might criticize the Canadian healthcare system, but I have never met a single Canadian who would suggest the American patchwork is the "least worst option". It's that kind of reasoning that a lot of people from outside the US find nearly delusional.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#127

Post by CountDrewku »

inglor wrote: post #100
rakmos wrote: post #52

This hits home for me.. my son (now 4 years old) was born very premature at 29 weeks and some change. He spent 7 weeks and 4 days in the NICU. The total hospital bill that was charged to insurance (before settling it between themselves) was roughly 960_000$. If you include the additional services and whatnot in the few months following being discharged from the hospital he was a million dollar baby. Complete insanity…

In Israel we have public healthcare. I was born at week 32 and spent about 6 weeks in the NICU - everything was free. It's not always great and I do pay for private insurance in case I need something urgent - but everything emergency is absolutely covered. I believe it's this state in most developed places that are not the US?

Everything was not free, you just didn't pay directly for it while you were at the hospital.

I don't understand why the word free always gets thrown around for country's with socialized medicine. You are paying for it.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#128

Post by 55555 »

RHSeeger wrote: post #103
55555 wrote: post #12

5,000 USD for sildenafil. In India this would cost 1 dollar. That's the generic/chemical name for viagra. A complete scam.

> 5,000 USD for sildenafil Without insurance, it goes for about $20 for a batch of 30 in the US. You need to go to goodrx to get a coupon, but there's no cost or signin to that. Sure, it's stupid, but the cost is most definitively _NOT_ $5,000. If the hospital is saying it's charging 5,000 for it, then it's an example of "we'll put a huge number here, then bring it way down when it's time to pay". Which is also stupi…

Sure, I get it. But I think this is one of those cases, like with identity theft, where you and I are just so used to the status quo that we can't accept how messed up the whole thing is. It feels normal, and we know how to work the system, so it's okay.

If aliens landed they'd think we're really strange.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#129

Post by gruez »

Rucadi wrote: post #44
_huayra_ wrote: post #2

I 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.

There are countries with private healthcare that works (And IS better than public healthcare). The problem is specific to USA.

>There are countries with private healthcare that works

list them?

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#130

Post by andrepd »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #29
_huayra_ wrote: post #2

I 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.

There are many problems with our Canadian system, it's certainly not perfect. And single payer is not the only way to approach this problem. But I'm overall happy with its compromises in our system. Like any economic resource, it's rationed. But it's rationed, generally, on the basis of need. And that "from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs" philosophy may be the ideological curse on…

Absolutely. If the NHS and National Insurance weren't already invented I'm positive they would never be implemented today. I mean can you imagine someone like Clem Atlee in power today?
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