As I have been discussing for the last several weeks/month I have been in the midst of doing a ton of cleaning on my house. This week while cleaning up stuff in the basement I came across the remaining medical files I have from Patty’s hospitalization and treatment for leukemia and her bone marrow transplant.
What is the most extreme thing is the price of the services provided to her. I didn’t keep all the statements from her hospitalization but did keep several of the ones from the very end of her treatment. What is absolutely amazing is the cost of the health care provided to her in the last 2 – 3 months of her life. This is roughly ¼ of the time she spent in the hospital during her last hospitalization. The total cost for this short period of time was $6,249,522! What makes so much of this even more remarkable is that her quality of life during this time was practically zero. She was on a ventilator and unconscious for about 1 month of those 2 – 3 months.
How does any of this make sense? And this doesn’t include any costs that came before those last 2 – 3 months. I didn’t bother tracking down those bills but I am willing to bet that those costs were another $3 – 4 million. Now I am not saying that Patty’s life was not worth this expense. I am not saying that at all. To me very single cent even through Patty died in the end was worth it.
My thoughts are more on the overall cost of the care provided. Do some of the pills, syringes, gauze and other things really cost that much? I don’t think so. I think so much of it goes into profit and to underwrite the cost of people who don’t have health insurance and into “CYA” programs.
Good god, I am not sure how we ever handle all this healthcare stuff, but the price of these services are pretty ridiculous. How do we as a nation change this? Somehow I think our generation is going to be dealing with this stuff for a long time to come.
Anyway – just a thought for the day.
Thanks and peace to all! ~J.
FYSRD
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(I mean it!)
1 comment:
And it's only going to get worse come the first of the new year. Help all the people who don't have coverage helps increase my premiums greatly....Politicians should have to be in our position. UGHHHHH..
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