The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

My daughter recently had a telemedicine office visit with a specialist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. For 41 minutes of telemedicine we were billed $1011.00.

Bismarck mainly introduced some rudimentary social security to decrease worker support for socialist parties, so it was a reaction to socialism (albeit not directly the USSR) from the start. However before WW2 it was very limited in all countries (and much smaller scale than for example what's currently available in the US) before the 40's and 50's.

First, it's not front-and-center; it's small at and the end. But, for those of you who may wish to do more other than comment:

> My wife and I 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.

https://sterlingstrong.foundation

--

My daughter - at 7 (she's now 12, okay, and quite happy) - had a week-stay in the hospital with Kawasaki Disease. That was easily the worst week of my life. The cost of just the treatment, without the hospital room charges, etc., was $26,000 per dose, and she needed several rounds (3, IIRC). To make matters worse, she was allergic to the IVIg, which added additional complications and costs.

I'll be honest, I don't begrudge Doctors and nurses for being paid very well. I'm very good at my job and I expect to be well compensated. I also expect to be better compensated than most SWEs. I also expect SWEs who are better than I am to make more than I do.

Nor do I begrudge pharma companies for making some serious bank of some very expensive R&D (without that profit, would we even have a COVID vaccine?).

What does bother me is:

* Not having a say. When you're rushed to an ER, you can't price shop, you aren't thinking about insurance coverage (if you're conscious at all), and you can't refuse treatment if it's between "bankruptcy or death".

* I don't care how much info is out there on the internet. I will never, ever, ever have as much knowledge or experience related to my health care as my Dr. The best I can do is mention things I've read, thumb-in-the-wind, use my spidey senses, ask questions, or get a second opinion. But, at the end of the day, if my doctors say "you need X", they are the expert.

* A lot of prices insane due to (IMO) fallacious thinking. Yes, an MRI costs ~$1M. But, at $1000 per image, that sucker has (most likely) paid for itself in months. And the upkeep there-after is not $1M/year. The cost of a single scan should be a small percent of `upkeep + salary of those involved + modest yearly profit`. And that should be normalized and enforced across the entire country. If your hospital bought a better MRI or pays their employees more or have a better Dr interpreting the results? They charge more, but it's likely +/- $50 to the patient.

* Pharma prices are obviously a bit different. An individual pill may only cost them $2, but the first pill cost $500M. I do believe there should be supply and demand involved, but not in the typical way. I don't think "demand" - for medicine - should be based on need. For example, it should be illegal to price gouge someone who will die without your cure. However, if there are only 1000 people in the country with a particular disease, the "demand" doesn't exist to justify the cost of developing a cure. So, in that case, yes, I can understand charging more.

At the end of the day, I don't know that I want 100% universal coverage in the way Canada and Europe have it. I think what we have sucks, and I do think that coverage for children (say < 18) should be 100% covered. No parent should have to ever weigh the cost of their child's health. But, what the US does have is a system that does encourage doctors to be better, pharma to develop cures, etc. I think we have to be able to come up with something that is the best of both worlds.

The marginal cost to the patient for having that treatment was zero.

Meanwhile in the US the federal government spends 8% of GDP in tax payer funds on health care, for things like Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, etc. That's the same as the UK pays for health care, counting public and private expenditure combined. You are already paying the cost of an entire first world health care system in your federal taxes, and as an employee you and your company also still have to pay for your own private health care to actually get any treatment for yourself.

This is a systematic issue though, not an intent problem. Why do the middle class end up paying for it while the rich which own 40% of the assets don't? Due to lobbying and constantly electing politicians that are the same over and over again. The top 10% in the US own 70% of the assets. Just make the rich pay their taxes and the situation is resolved but we just keep gouging the middle class. Middle class should establish a fund to pay for lobbyists.