Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 339 posts

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#161

Post by varelse »

Aeolun wrote: post #74
refurb wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well UCSF charged my brother in law $20,000 for an MRI a private standalone MRI clinic charges $3,000 for. Insurance paid UCSF $16,000 after discount. So I’d say the hospitals definitely are a part of the problem. You can imagine what he did with a fund raising letter he got from UCSF asking for a donation so they could continue to help the community…

Meanwhile, the most expensive MRI I’ve ever gotten in Japan was $300 before insurance. Even the private clinic is making bank like there’s no tomorrow.

I had to go to the ER in Hong Kong and I got better service uninsured for $35 US than I've ever gotten in the United States fully insured. And no surprise bills afterwards whatsoever.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#162

Post by mbreese »

helloguillecl wrote: post #8

This is absurd. Even in a country with liberal economics and "free choice" health system (however with universal care, and state regulation), the same stitches in a world-class private clinic in Santiago, Chile would cost 400 USD, before insurance . The clinics there are not the ones Americans imagine from a middle-income country, most of them have better infrastructure and doctors than the ones I know in Europe. And…

> example of the benefits of free market economy

Healthcare is rarely a good example of the free market. Medical decisions aren’t made by comparing costs between providers. And if you’re in rural America, you’re lucky if you have any provider. Price transparency would be nice, but maybe not as helpful as you’d like. Let’s say you’re in the middle of a rural area and the ER says you need stitches — but they cost $6000. What are you going to do about it? Are you really in a position to negotiate? Your choices might just be 1) get the treatment, or 2) go without.

Many things in rural areas cost more than they should. Usually on this forum we talk about the high cost of internet access and the lack of options, but medical is very similar in that regard. Services are hard to find, providers are covering a very large geographic area, and many costs are higher.

It’s not a good example of how a well functioning free market would work.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#163

Post by wil421 »

otagekki wrote: post #4
causi wrote: post #2

Somehow everybody in this system claims they're not the ones making bank on this swindling. The doctors say they're underpaid. The hospital admin says they're underpaid. The insurance companies say they're barely covering their payouts. So who is lying?

The hospital and the doctors. Almost $500 for a tetanus shot is simply not justifiable

I had a tetanus shot 2 years ago and it was not anywhere close to $500. Not even sure if I paid $50. My flu shot was free last month.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#164

Post by code4tee »

donatj wrote: post #63
garmaine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$400 still sounds high, to be honest.

I paid $400 for a plumber to do 30 minutes of work this week. A doctor has more training and a lot higher infrastructure costs and overhead, and thus a higher hourly fee.

And yet ironically, in the US at least, there’s a decent chance that plumber actually makes more than a physician.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#165

Post by boplicity »

knubie wrote: post #65
refurb wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plastic surgery and vision correction industries work pretty well in the US. You see price competition and patients have the ability to shop around and make choices that are important to them (references from other patients, doctor personality, etc). Now contrast that with going to a hospital for a procedure where you have time to shop around. Can you get a price? No. Can you easily get appointments with doctors…

Really any healthcare procedure that is not typically covered by insurance has seen costs go down over time. Things like lasik eye surgery, or orthodontics are great examples in addition to the ones you've already mention. The service and technology gets better while the price continues to go down.

> Really any healthcare procedure that is not typically covered by insurance has seen costs go down over time.

Health "insurance" companies are incentivized to raise the cost of care. Why? Their profits are capped to a percentage of the cost of care. The only way for them to make more money is to have more revenue -- which they do by increasing the cost of care!

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#166

Post by nameunimportant »

trixie_ wrote: post #116
helloguillecl wrote: post #8

This is absurd. Even in a country with liberal economics and "free choice" health system (however with universal care, and state regulation), the same stitches in a world-class private clinic in Santiago, Chile would cost 400 USD, before insurance . The clinics there are not the ones Americans imagine from a middle-income country, most of them have better infrastructure and doctors than the ones I know in Europe. And…

Free market works fine, unfortunately like tuition prices the government got involved and prevented what the free market is good at and driving down prices. Fortunately now there a new price transparency laws which the full the effects haven’t been felt yet and are a step in the right direction.

When I got my tonsils removed my options were the $75k surgery at the private hospital, or waiting 3 months at the public hospital. I actually stopped consulting and took a job so that I could get insurance, and had the surgery two weeks later.

A few years back I broke my wrist while bicycling across England. I was patched up and casted a few hours later, I think the bill was about $200, as a foreign tourist. It wasn't even enough to cover my travel insurance deductible. This would have cost me about $5k in the USA.

I agree that the free market works fine, for those who run the market.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#167

Post by saevarom »

This is insane. I live in Iceland. I recently fell off my bike, got a bad cut on my forearm and needed stitches and extensive cleaning of the wound. I visited my local clinic where a nurse cleaned the wound and a doctor applied 5 stitches. The whole process took about 90 minutes with wait. For this visit I paid 500 Icelandic Kronas, about $3.75. Afterwards the wound got infected which required another $3.75 visit and antibiotics treatment costing about 10.000 ISK,rougly $75.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#168

Post by [deleted] »

donatj wrote: post #136
LightG wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool story. So what you're saying is there is an horrendous creeping bueaucracy cost here. Funny, because that's exactly what free market proponents argue is the cause of inefficiency in publicly managed healthcare systems, and the reason to move towards models based on the US system. Someone is lying.

> Someone is lying. It’s you, to yourself. What we have is not by any stretch of the imagination a free market solution. It’s insane amounts of paper pushers created by the government. The whole insurance system we have is an impractical mess designed to fail. The free market would never have designed something so customer unfriendly, people would have gone elsewhere had competing solutions been allowed to exist. In…

[deleted]

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#169

Post by avianlyric »

wombatmobile wrote: post #142
OJFord wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP is talking about: > any healthcare procedure that is not typically covered by insurance Which I (not American) assume stitches in the emergency room are.

Yeah that doesn’t preclude the farmer from having an opinion about the proposition. Why do you think this discrepancy occurs?

Sure the farmer can have an opinion, but I’m not sure how

> who was charged $6,589.77 for 6 stitches

is relevant when OP was talking about procedures NOT covered by insurance.

Re: The ER charged him $6,589.77 for 6 stitches, cost that led his wife to avoid ER

#170

Post by ludston »

A colleagues son was in a motorcycle accident, and needed some emergency surgery to fix his leg. He was talking about how he was really dreading the hospital bill. I got to go through the joy of explaining to him that because we're in Australia, it's free.

The American healthcare system seems completely nuts from here.

Post reply on HN