Not to mention the fact that it usually costs an arm and a leg and a promise for your first born child to put oneself through med school in the US. Also the system of being in school for around 8 years gives them less years at peak earning potential compared to somebody that went into the workforce after a normal 4years of college.
That is a seriously ridiculous bill imo. The hospital mark-up on the antivenom must be something else.
He should publish the itemized bill, that will tell you how much each service cost. Here is some information on the cost of appendectomy. How much does an appendectomy cost? Somewhere between $1,529 and $186,955. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-much-does-an-appendectomy-cost-somewhere-between-1529-and-186955/2012/04/24/gIQAMeKMeT_blog.html
Unfortunately it is my business, and I do know I am talking about. Hospitals and doctors are making entirely too much money. It is cute of you to isolate GPs to help prove your flawed point, yet leave out specialists. I have to review financial documents from physicians and doctors affiliated with the hospitals as part of my practice. The profit margin is staggering.
Watch the NOVA episode on Venom. Anti venom isn't a one size fit all thing. There are scientists/animal wranglers who have to go and hunt down these snakes and get samples of their venom to create the anti venom. I'm pretty sure that's an expensive process. I'm just assuming that the snake bite has to be diagnosed correctly as well as using the wrong type of antivenom would probably make things worse.
You realize you also just described the insurance system, right? The differences being that with socialized medicine everybody is covered instead of just those lucky enough to have jobs that supply it, and the government isn't trying to make a profit and are less likely to screw you over. The anti-venom is so expensive because the hospital has determined that's how much the insurance company will pay, it has nothing to do with how much it costs to produce the anti-venom, or how rare it is.
I agree with you on the cost of higher education and medical school especially. However, this is not unique to doctors. I have 2 post graduate degrees, as do many other non doctors. It is a systemic issue that needs to be fixed .. But not unique to doctors. They are not losing peak employment years in the white collar sector. Doctors should be well compensated, but within limits. Hospitals vary, but some are flat out abusive.
This is how the American healthcare system currently works: "Well, you're totally ****ed .... so we're going to charge you as much as we possibly can."
Anyway... I am done posting on this topic. It hits home to me, I have had to deal with too many families destroyed by medical debt and under the bankruptcy reformation under Bush, it is harder to start over. I don't necessarily blame the doctors, people will take what they can.. But the entire system from college forward is rotten. Don't want to ruin my day arguing about it.
You ever see a show called Rattlesnake Republic? Its about people in Texas who make a living off catching Rattlesnakes. I think they make something like 50 dollars a pound off the snakes they catch. Also saw another show profiling a couple who make a living extracting snake venom. They seemed to be making a modest living, but certainly not living a life a luxury. I have no idea the average cost of anti-venom, but there seems to be a pretty huge gap from the source to the hospital. But then, it wasnt just the venom, but the ICU stay as well. That very well could have been the bulk of the cost.
How about Charge 1 Million or 10 Million for life saving drug or operations? If you get saved, you have to spend the rest of your life living in poverty to pay for it, or you can choose to die. Would that be a good option in the US? If not, where do we draw the line? What about the people who don't have insurance, should they be paying over 100k for a snake bite? I wonder why so many are against socialized medicine in this country.
Maybe it's some rare specie of rattlesnake and there's like only 2000 of them in existence. Other wise, you can't convince me one dose costs over 100k.
Because they haven't been affected by how things currently work and think that everything is fine just because they haven't been personally affected by it. 140k for a Rattlesnake bite is ridiculous.
It may have been poorly worded in the article but it seems like the anti-venom accounted for $128,010 of the bill.
Doctors don't get paid that well... People are upset at the specialists. The ones that are taking care of you day to day, month to month.... are paid ****. They're paying to treat you and pay back their loans. 4 years of college, 4 years of med school, 3-5 years of working 100hrs/wk @ 45k/yr with the liabilities... Translates to something like slave labor. I'm tired of people saying "oh, you must make a lot of money" ... No, I lost over a decade of my time, trying to pay back students loans, lost any resemblance of a normal life... But I make it work and I'm happy with things overall if people would just stop thinking every doctor is in bed with the government or insurance company to make max dollars off of you. The insurance company decides how doctors get paid, not doctors
And where are people saying that (I'm skimming but if somebody did they're r****ded)? The whole problem is not with the doctors but the institutions itself charging people for too much.
I think you are right, the rest of the bill is not out of the range of over night ER stay, but 128k for the anti-venom for rattle snake?
