Ive seen a few people I know just get raped over hospital cost .They have to rearrange their whole lives to make it .It doesnt feel right that they have called it the best health care system in the world ,its really just the most expensive.Downtown Houstons Medical center has a new Tower going up ,it looks to top all the other buildings around it in cost and size.

I don't know the point of your rant? Hospitals are full of sick people, not people on vacation.


As far as cost? I had day surgery on my right shoulder ( '07 bone spur surgery) that amounted to just under $25K, from the surgeon/hospital/anestethiologist (at the list prices before discount to my insurance company) and I was only there 6 hours total.

I had a one day stay in Dallas about a year ago for some tests.

The cost for one day was $7,500.

Now I must admit I had some really good care, but there was nothing wrong with me when I went in. It was not like I had an operation or was cured of some deadly condition. I was just in for some tests and none of the tests involved any fancy machines.

They did pull blood every four hours and they said that was just policy.

The room was nice. It was no Four Seasons, but then I guess I should not have expected the best for only $225,000 a month.

Health care has become a self-sustaining enterprise, just like our educational system. The War on drugs, terror, and cancer are in this category also.

It is an effort by the insurance companies and health providers to concentrate wealth upwards to Wall St.- just the opposite of "trickle down" economics.

It may be the best healthcare system in the world, if you're rich and sick. Life expectancy and infant mortality figures don't bear this out, IMO. It is not available to the average working schmuck. My biggest single expense is health insurance- more than car insurance (2 vehicles) homeowners insurance and property taxes COMBINED.

Representative Alan Grayson of Florida says it best- "don't get sick, and if you do, die quickly"

Soon to be Former Representative!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kinxX2JK73I&feature=player_embedded

Anyone living in this country needs to do whatever it takes to have good health insurance coverage. Being uninsured on sick is a very good way to end up broke in a hurry.

You don't miss anything, do you BillyBob!?

Agreed. My church had a problem with their health insurance provider and switched to another. The other provider refused to pay for our pastor's hospital stay citing the ever lovely pre-existing condition excuse.

Our fund-raising too only covered 10% of the $20,000 and the hospital was unwilling to set up some sort of payment plan. Poor guy declared bankruptcy with a kid in college

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

The free market at work, particularly when dealing with limited resources, can be a fairly brutal place.

Because they make obscene amounts of money from people that are sick.

Wonderful country we live in.

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

Hotel my @ss. Have you ever had the food there?

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Down here they now have an option that you can spend the latter part of recovery from surgery in a hotel near the hospital. The nurse comes by & checks on you 4X a day. It save plenty of money. The going rate for a hospital bed stats at over $1000 per day down here. I recently spent the pre op night in a hotel, had surgery, that night in a hospital bed , then 3 nights in the hotel near by. The insurance Co organised it that way. They probably paid $200/ day for the room & food, $240/ day for the nurse checks. Less than 1/2 the base cost of the bed in the hospital. There were others there doing the same thing.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

you can end up broke with good health insurance....unfortunately medicine has turned into big business, I am so sick of seeing pill ads on t.v. JTFC they'll die trying to convince people we suffer from all this crap....

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL