Medical Costs

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 10/20/2018 at 08:13 • Filed to: health

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Some medical math. Thus far my wife’ medical issue has cost $208k. Our insurance plan discounts amount to $127K and our insurance provider has paid $78K. We maxed out our $5k out of pocket requirement 11 hours into her first hospital stay. I’m grateful for having pretty good insurance and being able to fund our HSA. Not everyone is so fortunate.

Svend > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 08:58

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I know the health service here in the U.K. isn’t free as we pay for it in our taxes but looking at those figures is crazy.

I’ve probably cost the U.K. health service more than that in my time, I was born coeliac (now in remission for some 25 years) and so had many tests over the years and tubes put down my throat, etc.. and of course growing up doing stuff kids do has meant I’ve used our A&E (your E.R.) dozens of time, etc...

Even my step father who’s had to be taken into hospital twice in two months, plus a total of four weeks in the hospital (he came home yesterday), two lots of ambulance transport and third ambulance team to assist taking him down the narrow stairs on the first occasion. He’s had tests up the high heavens to find out what is wrong from blood tests, skins tests, scans, lumbar puncture, etc...

My mother having a heart attack in January.

At no point did any of us even think for a moment about the cost of the care.

We still pay for prescriptions in England (they don’t in Scotland and not sure about Wales and Northern Ireland) but they got a policy of a one off fee each year of £89 (I think it is, each) get their meds delivered in ‘blister packs’ with it all set out ready to go.

Travel insurance for holidays is high but that’s the nature of the beast as they are both wheel chair users and have heart trouble, etc...

I sincerely ho pe your wife is on the mend very soon.

shop-teacher > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 09:02

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I hope she’s doing better.

Yeah, the bills get obscenely huge, very quickly. The birth of my first daughter went big-time sideways. The ordeal was basically an 8-day long tank slapper, which fortunately everybody emerged from just fine. It was a $102 k birth. We too are fortunate to have good insurance, in the for m of a very high quality HMO. It only cost us a $150 co-pay.

djmt1 > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 09:05

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$208k! Bloody ‘ell that’s a shit load of money. Stuff like this makes me feel like a right twat any time I moan about how much   sandwiches costs at hospitals.

Seriously Everyone in the UK should be sent a copy of our total NHS costs at the end of the year to give us a proper reality check just how privileged we our.

Svend > djmt1 10/20/2018 at 09:17

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I can’t get my head around any other form of health care other than universal as a primary option.

Yes we still have private if we want to be seen faster for certain things but even then it’s not too much, in fact start as little as £10 a month going up to rather high £52 a month if you don’t want to pay any excess.

But that’s the great thing, private care is an option.

Which is why we need to put more pressure on government for funding the great service the NHS does. 

LongbowMkII > djmt1 10/20/2018 at 09:22

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Y’all pay less anyways since the majority of our costs is jus t bloat. $80 Tylenol and all. Don’t get me started on executive/bureaucrat 

LongbowMkII > Svend 10/20/2018 at 09:23

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It’s worth going to the streets for. 

wafflesnfalafel > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 09:32

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I t must be all those fancy nurses in the pic that cost so much... positive thoughts in your family’s direction.

We were forced onto an HSA by my employer last year and it’s been an interesting change. 10k max pay - it ends up basically being a cat plan. But it keeps my family  from going bankrupt if I get hit by a bus ...

RacinBob > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 09:45

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I see from the history that this all started back on 8/20. So this has been an eventful 2 months. May this 12 months from now be just another bump in the road.....

The Dummy Gummy > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 09:48

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It’s insane the costs the US bears. For comparison, my good friend had his child in Australia with his wife for free. Our medical bill was $48k.... that’s fucking nuts... 

smobgirl > LongbowMkII 10/20/2018 at 10:13

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Typenol  was literally $105 a pill on my itemized receipt 8 years ago. Percocet was only $5.

facw > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 10:29

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Yep, my shoulder surgery was around $50k after after the insurance’s negotiated discount, and they ended up paying out more than $80k for me that year. In perhaps even more wasteful news, I have prescription med (that is really helpful) that costs $1000+ a week (which of course my insurance covers most of, I have a $50 copay) . I don’t think prices on that are actually much lower in the UK though. I think that the government using its huge leverage to negotiate better rates is the way to go.

You can argue for mor e market based based reforms (a tiny example is the President’s proposal last week to require drug makers to show pricing in their ads, which might be helpful, though there’s a lot of ways for that to go wrong), but consumers of healthcare aren’t really educated enough to make good decisions about what services they need at the best of times (which is why we have doctors), and sometimes need to making those decisions quickly, while impaired, and with life and limb on the line (See this doctor who was in a similar accident to Andrew Collins and ended up with a huge bill for an out-of-network air-ambulance flight for an example: Taken For A Ride: M.D. Injured In ATV Crash Gets $56,603 Bill For Air Ambulance Trip )

someassemblyrequired > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 10:31

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Hope your wife is doing ok. We need Medicare for All. No reason that the bad luck of the draw should put you in the poorhouse.

We have Tricare (Medicare in all but name) and it is a million times better than any private insurance I’ve had, but the C anadian system is vastly superior - max premium in Ontario is $1000 and it’s a sliding scale, BC and Alberta are similar, and other provinces build the premiums into sales tax instead. Costs are about 1/3rd of the US, outcomes are better and people live longer. There’s no reason to deal with this anymore. And I don’t feel bad about destroying the stock prices of/jobs of people in hospital and insurance companies - they and their employees deserve the misery they’ve inflicted on others .

Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition > shop-teacher 10/20/2018 at 10:38

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I have a friend who’s twins cost over $5,000,000 by the time both babies were at home. The babies ended up staying almost two months in the NICU and she was in the ICU for two weeks. They just turned 10 a few weeks ago.

Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition > The Dummy Gummy 10/20/2018 at 10:38

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I have a friend who’s twins cost over $5,000,000 by the time both babies were at home. The babies ended up staying almost two months in the NICU and she was in the ICU for two weeks. They just turned 10 a few weeks ago.

Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 10:44

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I hope she is doing better. The medical costs in this country are insane, In my opinion it is the single biggest issue we have, and it effects everyone.

Svend > facw 10/20/2018 at 10:47

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In England at least, it's about £9 for a prescription to be made up, but for £89 a year you can get any and all your prescriptions made and delivered for the year. On top of the morphine patches my mother has every three days she has 18 tablets a day (12 in the morning, her heart tablet at 1pm and five in the evening). When the pharmacy delivers, they come with three full shopping bags of meds for my mother and step-father. 

Jay, the practical enthusiast > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 10:58

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Our first child was conceived in Japan. Everything was free. All the doctors visits, medications, and ultrasounds. Not only did we not pay a penny but because of the declining population the Japanese government paid us 300,000 yen (about $3,000 at the time). The payment is meant to offset the cost of raising a child and encourage more Japanese to have children. Me and my wife are not even Japanese but they still gave us the money.

We just had our third child yesterday (here in the US). We paid our deductible of $2700 for the prenatal care and still have a 20% copay. For one night in the hospital it is $10,000 (so we paid 2,000). Add other fees here and there and  just to have a baby in the US is going to set us back about $6,000 out of pocket.

shop-teacher > Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition 10/20/2018 at 12:11

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One one hand, that's crazy. At the same time though, that's not surprising. Glad they're ok!

f86sabre > Svend 10/20/2018 at 12:17

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Thanks. She’s getting there. Looking at surgery, so I bet we double the cost at least.

You mentioned travel insurance. If we are going to be doing something exotic like diving or traveling with either of our sets of parents  I get it. Mainly for the evac coverage.

f86sabre > Jay, the practical enthusiast 10/20/2018 at 12:19

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Congrats on the addition to the family!

Svend > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 12:46

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Because of all their ailments and conditions they are high risk of something happening so having to treat them and repatriation.

Be strong both of you and take care. 

The Dummy Gummy > Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition 10/20/2018 at 15:08

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Dear god.

PG; the scalpel wielder > f86sabre 10/20/2018 at 21:05

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You poor A mericans. I’m glad I work in Australia, would hate to have to watch my patients pay up when they’re sick or re-consider doing operations due to cost . I always get a sense of cost saving measures being taught by american doctors at seminars. Your tax rates are not that much different to ours either. Difference between us and the UK is that we also have a large separate private sector so those that want to pay can do so and get expedited elective treatment, but everyone is given the same high quality treatment when acutely unwell.

Hoping your wife recovers well though :)

Jay, the practical enthusiast > f86sabre 10/21/2018 at 13:32

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Th anks! And I'm sorry about everything your wife and your family has had to go through. I hope the worst of it is behind you.