Yellow Jacket Times - Jefferson County Public Schools

What’s the most expensive thing you can do? Buy
The Actual Cost of Living
a car? A house? Wed a beautiful woman that likes shiny
Jerry Johnson
things? The answer is none of these. The most expensive
thing you will ever do is die. I’m not talking about that
expensive funeral you’re going to
leave your loved ones. No, I’m
talking about what leads to it.
According to a study by Harvard
in 2005, medical bills are the
cause of over 60 percent of all
bankruptcies. This doesn’t just
happen to people without health
insurance. Even the people with
what the government and CEOs
call “insurance,” can find
themselves in debt from an
unseen hospital stay.
I’m sure I know what you’re
thinking. What causes all these
expenses? Let me start with the small stuff. Information from Pat Palmer, from Medical
Billing Advocates of America, shows the insane costs start with little things. Here are a few
examples. The marking pen, used to mark body parts for surgery, marks up your bill by
$17.50 (no pun intended). One use of a blood pressure cuff, which I learned to use after one
day in a high school pre-med class, will run you $20. Another unnecessary charge is the
“oral administration fee,” or what one might call shipping and handling. Yes, there is a
charge of $87.50 for a nurse to bring you your pills.
Next is most likely the largest impact on the superfluous health care costs. This is the
obvious; the doctor’s cut. The California Association of Health Plans reported that 24% of
hospital bills went to a doctor’s bank account. If you have enough luck and need surgery,
you may need an anesthesiologist. While I’m sure they have a lot more responsibilities, an
anesthesiologist basically gets paid an average of $321,686 per year
(careers.stateuniversity.com) to watch vital signs after they put you to sleep for surgery.
This, along with other doctor fees, also adds to the most convoluted bill you will ever
receive.
I’ve thrown out some stuff that
shows where these costs come from, but I
don’t believe this shows how ridiculous
prices are. To really get your jaw to drop,
here are some numbers. Try to control your
amazement. The average cost per
emergency room visit is $1,327. Keep in
mind, that per does mean just one trip. The
price per outpatient visit will be around
$2,224. That cost rose 10.1% from 2009 to
2010. Then the heavy hitter is inpatient
admissions. For more than what my car is
worth, the average cost for this is a
whopping $14,662. All of these numbers
are brought to you by a report from the Health Care Cost Institute.
It’s a sad time in American history when we have to worry more about medical bills
than medical problems. With over 900,000 people in the beautiful USA going bankrupt from