December 17th, 2009 → 12:23 am @ admin // 9 Comments
I took my cat to the vet recently, and I think that I got a taste of what it feels like to be an American without insurance.
My cat got really sick and was trying to pee all over the house. I called the 24 hour vet clinic, and his vet advised me to bring him in. When I asked her over the phone how much it would cost, she said that the minimum charge would be $180 for the exam.
When I took him in, the $180 exam involved her picking him up and feeling his bladder. She determined that it was hard, so he had a blockage that would need treatment. This $180 “exam” took about 2 minutes.
Then, she gave me a run down as to what they were going to do with my cat. She told me it would cost around $500. I agreed to the charges.
She took me to the front desk, where I was charged $755. She told me that this was the maximum amount that I would be charged, but I would likely get some money refunded in the end.
I was called the next day and told that they would need to keep my cat for an additional day. I agreed. They told me it would add $60 to the overall bill.
I spoke with the vet the following day, and she told me that I could probably come to pick up my cat that evening. Sure enough, he was good to go home.
So, I went to pick him up expecting a small refund. I mean, $500 plus $60 is less than $755, right? Well, they handed me an itemized bill for $1180. They explained that it was because they had had to give him sedatives, hook up a catheter, give him antibiotics, special food, and other drugs for the duration of his stay. Then, I had to pay for the drugs to take home too.
Is this what it feels like to need health care in the US and not have insurance?
bash
8 months ago
Very similar. The fees in most cities are at least 200.00 just to see the doctor. Most people without insurance don’t go for well visits, but wait until something is seriously wrong with them. By that time, they are nearly guaranteed that their bill will be high and their treatments will be significantly expensive. You also have to think about all of those that are underinsured as well….those people that have insurance, but the insurance plans don’t cover anything until you have racked up 2,000.00 in costs. Everything before that number is out of pocket. This is the same problem with the ‘Medicare Part D’ plan, that Bush signed into law. It covers seniors to 2,000.00, but then stops coverage until you reach 5,000.00. Meaning seniors on fixed incomes must come up with 3,000 to cover their health care costs.
Pied Hussein Piper
8 months ago
I don’t know. I have insurance for my family.
Even my pet. I have S&W.
And to protect me from my neighborhood cats I have Daisy.
kscottmc
8 months ago
You can pay for insurance or you can pay for emergency health care.
Moose
8 months ago
Pet insurance is actually quite cheap. Try getting it. If you can’t afford it then perhaps you shouldn’t own a pet.
Anonymous
8 months ago
Does your cat work. Tell him to get a job.
a bush family member
8 months ago
That is an education problem. veterinary school is in many ways more difficult that medical school.
Decrease the requirements to become a veterinarian and the number of veterinarians will increase. Increasing the supply of veterinarians will drive down prices. It will also provide jobs for more people.
It makes no sense for laws to require an over-educated person to be the only person who can insert a catheter into a urethra of a pet cat.
krolloha
8 months ago
No. That’s called consumer fraud. You see that’s what hospitals and doctors do to the insurance companies, medicare and medicaid and that is precisely why health insurance is expensive.
You see when I was a kid, the hospital was free if you owned a home and paid property taxes. You owned the hospital. And if you were on the tax rolls you only paid the doctor for his or her private bill. And that was usually pretty reasonable.
But you see, the problem is people got greedy when they learned they could charge more and more for services that take the least amount of time or labor. True you paid for expertise, but you know what? It will be worse.
The fact of the matter is, if you get sick, its against the law for a hospital not to treat you if you have no money. You get a better break than your cat.
You’d get a bill but if you had no way of paying the bill, well they still had to treat you.
Your cat would not be as lucky as you.
But I digress. The vet lied to you to get you sucked into this thing. And I will bet the charges for the sedatives and other dressings etc, were definitely obscene.
This is what you get when people lie, cheat and steal merely because they have a professional license. And if the people who regulate veterinarians could assess how obscene these charges were, then vets would be more cautious.
Face it, you were gouged.
Cut Throat B****
8 months ago
I think you’ve got it!
I HAVE insurance. I was doing a charity run and I had to be taken to the hospital for dehydration. It was a nonemergency ride to the hospital from the field and the ride was 4 miles. I HAVE insurance. The portion left for me to pay for that 4 mile ride after my insurance was over $1000. I owed this before I had even seen a doctor at the hospital.
I have pet insurance for my dogs yet it never seems to cover things.
The solution for everyone is to get a job and stop being lazy. Okay. Thank goodness I have a great job. I can’t imagine struggling and then having these things come up.
LaFluer
8 months ago
Got to agree with Moose. It’s pretty silly not to have insurance and your own fault. Just like your weak analogy to put down Americans. 87% of Americans have health insurance (using the most egregious media propaganda). Actually out of that 87% count young adults out of school that would rather spend that extra $200 a month for it on a BMW then their own health. Also it counts people who were out of a job for as little as one week and didn’t have insurance the.
So to answer your question, no it’s not what Americans go through. Oh, by the way was there a PST and GST on that bill also (no tax on health care in the US by the way)?