Dang, that was expensive — this unhappy finger last month (the photo is four days after I dinged it, now it is completely healed with a slightly funky scar) cost $815 to have sewn up, x-rayed and my getting a tetanus shot, of which BCBS covered $48. I still don't think I could have taken care of it myself, that is, cleaned it and gotten it wrapped up enough but there's a bit of sticker shock in getting the bill today from BCBS. I knew by walking into the ER it was going to cost but I didn't think it was going to be that much. Sheesh. I saved money later when I got a bishop's wife, a nurse I know, to take out the six stitches for free. Had I gone to a walk-in clinic, it would have been another $100 or so. Yikes.
I am fortunate: I have an insurance bank plan (I am not expressing it properly but I will get 100% coverage for what BCBS doesn't pick up), that will cover the difference but what if I were someone without that? How would I come up with an unexpected $800?
These are the people who arrive daily on our doorstep (it being an urban parish). This cost could put them over the edge and sadly it does. We could whip through the discretionary fund in one day if we allowed ourselves to give money to everyone who came in the door.
These are tough, tough times, indeed.
4 comments:
Caminante, it's shameful. Grandpère and I are covered by that useless, "socialistic" health care plan called Medicare. We are satisfied with our coverage. What's wrong with us? We must be crazy.
Everyone should have what we have. So many are sent over the edge by the cost of medical care. It's a national shame and scandal.
Sticker shock, indeed! Any time we walk into an emergency room, we should be prepared for very high costs, but somehow it always comes as a surprise.
Well, I'm glad your finger is healed.
You can be sure that the woman who cleaned and sewed me up didn't get that $815. The 'surgery' part of it was $200. I know because she is a parishioner who can't come on Sunday mornings with her husband and children because she needs to work the Saturday night shift and Sunday shift in order to make something of a living.
Oh, don't get me started on the salaries of nurses! They keep the hospitals going. They're the backbone of the institutions, but their pay is pathetic.
My husband and I are among the "lucky" -- we have health insurance for which we pay almost $1,000 a month. And for that we get: a $10,000 deductible -- and prescription drugs don't count toward the deductible -- and thus we can't have a medical savings account -- that we could fund over the years with pre-tax dollars.
But we ARE lucky because we can pay the premium and pay for most of the drugs -- altho we skimp a little.
And people think we don't need reform???!!!
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