Chemo Isn't Cheap!

I am here perched on my soap box today regarding something very near and dear to me - my pocketbook!   While money is not everything it is definitely something that makes life a lot easier to maneuver through with it.

And since medical bills are something that are consuming our savings I thought it was worth a few minutes of ranting!

My mail box is flooded every day with medical bills.  There are bills from the hospitals, the pathologist, the radiologist, the oncologist and any other "ist" that you can think of.   They have added me to their mailing list and unfortunately there is no "do not contact me list" for this sort of thing.

We are very fortunate to have wonderful medical insurance.   Even though it takes a few phone calls to get things right here and there, I could not be more pleased with our Aetna insurance.  Kaleb's company offers a range of plans and we have always picked the top tier one and thank goodness that we have.  It has been it worth every penny.

My question is what in the world do people who do not have any health insurance or do not have the type of plans that we are fortunate to have do?   Well, I know but that is not the point I am attempting to make here.  Remember, I use to manage a bankruptcy law firm so I have heard it all.

Above is a photo of of my medical bill binder (3" binder) full with medical bills for Kagan since May of this year alone!   Along side the binder is a mail box several inches think that house the un-filed medical bills that have come in within the last few weeks.   ( I often get enough mail that that mailman will leave me a nice box to carry it to the house! LOL)

The picture to right side is ONE hospital stay for CHEMOTHERAPY and the cost is $83, 224.61.  This amount did not even include the cost of the injected chemo drugs because that was on an additional bill. One cat scan was over $12,000!

I am sure that if any of you have had any severe medical issues you have binders just like mine.  We are not alone in the rising cost of medical cost. 

The part that frustrates me though is that because I have insurance these amounts are not what I pay.  I don't even pay a fraction of what is actually billed and neither does my insurance company.  Actually, I would dare to bet that NO ONE pays what is actually charged. (Bringing me back to the thoughts of medicaid, bankruptcy and just the complete ignoring of the love letters of many medical professionals!)

Why do the hospitals, doctors and so forth have to price things at such outrageous prices.  In  my opinion this is just price gouging at it's worst.   Wouldn't it be more simple to just have a STANDARD cost of ALL medical services. 

I do think that medical providers should get paid top notch.  They are worth every cent they get.  They study very hard and put in endless hours to save lives and care for people. I applaud their dedication to their profession. They have saved my son's life  and I want them to be rewarded fairly.   I am not about taking money out their pocket at all.  I just think we should eliminate the "Wal-Mart Rollback Pricing" method that they are forced to use when billing individuals without insurance and with insurance. 

And by the way, out of that one $83K we were only responsible for about $5000 of it.

Come to think of it now -  I bet it was the loyal member club discount rate that we got.   Whew..Sure am glad that I signed up for that loyalty card program.   It is obviously even more beneficial than my CVS card.  Wait.....I do think I forgot to check the box that said they could share my address and information with other companies.  Dang it.... that must be why I get so much mail!


Seriously, can Americans not figure out a non-political solution?   What do you think?

The right way to reign in healthcare costs is not by applying more government and more controls and making it more like the post office, it's by making it more like a consumer-driven market.
Mitt Romney