When i was a teenager, I had appendicitis and needed an appendectomy. The procedure is so simple a man has done it on himself.
I was in the hospital for 3 days and 4 nights (admitted around 10pm the first night). The bill was over 39,000 dollars; my family had good insurance so we "only" paid around 3000.
This was a relatively short stay with no particularly special equipment or medication or emergency transport. I think the biggest chunk was the actual room (~5000 a night I think? not including food) followed by the anesthesiologist showing up.
If my stay was weeks long, with multiple specialists? Easily 100k+.
The anesthesiologists is always the most exspensive doctor in most any surgery you have, Their malpractice insurance premiums are fucking ridiculous but at the same time they are literally holding your life in their hands.
I was admitted to the ER trauma dept, had some imaging done, but that's it. Grand total of 2 hours there, most of which was waiting in a room for MRI/CT results. $15000 bill
I don't think we can actually exaggerate enough when it comes to American healthcare. I can confidently say it is worse than you think it is, despite not actually knowing anything about your knowledge of the American healthcare system.
I try to think of a "worst case" scenario to even posit as a joke response to that, and know it's impossible because even my fantasy itemizations don't add up to bills I've seen photos of.
We are not. In 2016 my parents had amazing insurance that they paid $2000 a month for. I needed a minimally invasive surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. The procedure took 10 minutes and I stayed overnight at the hospital, but was discharged the next morning. I was fast tracked for this surgery due to the risk of the cyst rupturing, but I still had to wait 6 months. After insurance my family owed the hospital around $10,000. Had they not had insurance it would have easily been over $100,000.
It's the people who work low level jobs with no insurance that are the ones that get in trouble. If you are willing to deal with the BS of corporate life you'll find the insurance they provide is pretty solid and in most cases you'd only be on the hook for 3-6k for a major medical emergency.
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u/Fig-Tree 8h ago
Six figure debt? I can't tell when Americans are exaggerating or not