We got a hospital bill today from when Tim was hospitalized in Erie for two days after his stroke. $36,000. For two days.
PS: All those tests? Billed separately. $36,000 is for the hospital stay alone.
That's insanity.
Tim went up to talk to 'Carrot Top', the fellow we've contracted to do our basement for the new house. Saturday, we are all meeting up on site. Carrot Top will direct the excavation. Once the excavator has the directions, he'll start work. Once the excavating is done, the basement will be poured. The new build is getting under way. It's always a bit of a shock. The house build has always seemed so far into the future. Some day has become next week.
They still haven't found the suspect in the murder case. The news says that he has several active warrants on him for some pretty violent crimes, including child endangerment. The woman he is said to have killed has three children with him. How scary it would be to try to make sure those grieving children are protected. His address was also a shock. He lives not far from our friends Levi and Mattie.
Will you finish the basement and live in it while you build the house?
ReplyDeleteNope. It was considered. But we have a house to live in. We'd have to figure out where to put all our furniture. We'll stay right where we are. The basement will be finished, the house framed, and roofed and enclosed. Tim can spend quiet moments wiring and plumbing it. Once that's done, we'll go ahead and start moving furniture in. It gives us an opportunity to mindfully decide what goes and what we sell.
DeleteGood grief, talk about think of a number for that bill! Hope the new build all goes to plan.
ReplyDeleteWorrying that the murder suspect has an address near Levi and Mattie . . . Hope he is caught soon.
I don't think the murder suspect is in the area, to be honest. He'd be foolish to hang around. His truck was found near the river. I think he's grabbed a kayak from somewhere and floated down river. The river is lined with camps. He would have plenty of places to hole up for a time.
DeleteThanks Be for our National Health Service...and the politicians in power in Westminster want it privatised!! Mind you...none of them use it!
ReplyDeleteHope your neighborhood becomes safer soon .
Privatisation means that profit becomes the focus of the agency. If you have any opportunity to fight it, you should. I really do believe our neighborhood is completely safe. We take common sense precautions. William is walked to and from school, cars locked, doors locked, but it is not something we give a lot of worry to.
DeleteNHS here might be struggling but thank goodness we don't get a huge bill whenever we use it.
ReplyDeleteExciting to have a new build home - different to all your renovations
The charge was 36,000. Medicare paided over $34,000. We are responsible for 'only' $1600. It's just that Tim is one patient. Medicare is struggling right now, and there are doubts about its future feasibility. The answer is not for the government to pour more money into, in my opinion. These ridiculous costs need to be reined in.
DeleteMake sure the hospital submitted it's bill to all of your insurances, Medicare, hopefully a supplement?, or Advantage plans leave balances due. Put the bill in the concrete. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteFor all the tests and stuff, what we owe, in total is still in the thousands, and Tim has set up a payment plan.
DeleteThat IS insane. Whenever I grumble about the UK's underfunded NHS I need to remember the alternative.
ReplyDeleteUp until Ronald Reagan, hospitals were not allowed to make profits. That simple thing kept hospital costs in check. As soon as they were allowed to earn profits, health care costs went insane. They've got the perfect set up. People are sick. They want to get better.
DeleteThe medical bills are unreal. And it explains why a monthly insurance premium for a 62 year old man like myself is 883.00 before my ACA subsidy which knocks it down to 153.00.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for the ACA. It's helped a lot of people.
DeleteThankfully, we donn’t see hospital or doctors bills. Especially this year with two surgeries and tow scopes. The next (second) surgery will involve an overnight stay.
ReplyDeleteThe size of the bills was staggering, really. If you were a person being treated for heart issues, you probably should not be opening the bills.
DeleteGood luck on your next round. You have really had a time of i.
Trying not to be political but in my lifetime, all Congress/Presidents have done is argue over who is going to pay for healthcare instead of trying to fix the problem of why it is so expensive. Maybe someday we can work on the latter, but like our gun problem, I'm not very optimistic it will happen anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be able to sleep at all with a concrete pour just days away. I would be worrying about all the what if's that might happen or things that I forgot, etc. I hope your house building journey is a smooth and pleasant experience.
It won't be. There will be glitches and snafus and short tempers and blisters and scrapes. But it will get done.
DeleteI always wonder what it really costs as the insurance settles and the total paid is always so little compared to the actual billed amount. It never makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the new house. It's stressful but you guys are so experienced! It will turn out great!
It really costs what they charge you. Except because we're retired, the money is coming from the taxpayer. It still rankles me that a hospital should make so much in profits.
DeleteFor some reason, I had no idea that you were building a completely new house. Have I not been paying attention?
ReplyDeleteSo was that bill before or after some sort of insurance paid their part?
Well, I don't talk about it much because that was always something to be done after this last renovation is complete. Except that the stars magically aligned and it is happening now.
DeleteI think the bill crosses the line from insanity to criminal. I don't understand health care for profit. Health care should be a right. Our system is not perfect, far from it, but no bills after you've had a stroke, a baby or cancer. Hope the cement pour goes well. How far away is your new build from where you live now?
ReplyDeleteThe new house will be about 1/2 hour from where we live now. It is a neglected property Tim bought some years back.
DeleteDid your Medicare and insurance pick the bills up? I had surgery last year and ended up paying 16.00 for some minor thing. My bill was much higher than that.
ReplyDeleteThey did. We had pages and pages of billings. The hospital stay caught our eye because it was so eye-poppingly huge. My point is that $36,000 is unreasonable for a two day hospital stay. In the end, the total of what we owe is about $2200. But Tim is one patient. Multiply that by the millions of baby boomers using the system as well. There is no reason for hospitals to be raking in that kind of profit from taxpayer money. That is ridiculous.
DeleteI was going to say this is insane but I see you've already covered it by calling it insanity.
ReplyDeleteNuts.
DeleteWow that is a lot of money. What happens if people can't afford it? The Australian health system might not be perfect but we don't end up with bills like that.
ReplyDeleteThey will turn your bill over to a collection agency. Then it's a nightmare. We had a bill turned over to a collection agency. It was for an odd amount, and Tim recognized right away that it had been paid. Except that once a bill is in collections, you can't get it removed from collections. The hospital finally admitted their mistake and released the bill.
DeleteFrom today’s Washington Post: “An insurer’s [denial of coverage] letter was sent directly to a newborn child denying coverage for his fourth day in a neonatal intensive-care unit. “You are drinking from a bottle,” the denial notification said, and “you are breathing on your own.” If only the baby could read.” Are you all sure you don’t want to move to the USA now? 😂
ReplyDeleteSounds about right. Let me tell you about the hoops that parents have to jump through when their baby dies. The parents need to get a social security number for him, and death certificates and birth certificates. In the eyes of the insurance company, the child didn't exist unless this information is submitted. And if you do not prove your child existed, they will not pay anything.
DeleteWe're going to be renovating 2 bathrooms downstairs for my mom and I am NOT looking forward to the construction or the price.
ReplyDelete