🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:16:45 -0600, Dave Garland
<dave.g...@wizinfo.com> wrote:

>On 2/13/2018 8:44 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
>> On Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:05:31 -0600, Dave Garland
>> <dave.g...@wizinfo.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 2/13/2018 10:20 AM, Huge wrote:
>>>> On 2018-02-13, Dave Garland <dave.g...@wizinfo.com> wrote:
>>>>> On 2/13/2018 2:48 AM, ma...@mail.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>> [20 lines snipped]
>>>>
>>>>>> That "meanest woman alive", whatever her name was, toured ERs looking
>>>>>> for a cheap one.
>>>>>> (Helmsley?)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Good luck with that these days. They'll have you sign a paper
>>>>> guaranteeing to pay the bill, but refuse to tell you what the bill
>>>>> will be.
>>>>
>>>> It'll be wrong anyway. And come in dribs and drabs over months, possibly
>>>> years.
>>>>
>>> True, that. It did. A simple procedure resulted in bills from 4 or 5
>>> completely different organizations spread over 6 or 8 months. Just one
>>> of the reasons why American health care is the most expensive in the
>>> world.
>> 
>> Three stitches and a tetanus shot--$500 from the doctor, I forget what
>> for the med, and $2000 "emergency room fee".
>> 
>Yup. Of course, if you'd found the doctor on your own, it would have 
>been cheaper. But you presumably didn't have the luxury of time to 
>spend calling around to see who could take you and how much they'd 
>charge. Some medical problems are like that.
>
>The inflated emergency room fee was probably one of the ways that 
>hospital covered the cost of people who didn't have insurance, and 
>couldn't pay. They are required to treat everybody who comes through 
>the door.

Many emergency rooms are a separate company. And the fee is more
likely to cover people who go to the emergency room and don't pay.