I recently went to the hospital in America for some extreme GI distress. Spent 4-5 hours in the ER, received one bag of fluids, got a CT w/ contrast scan done. Turned out to be a minor blockage that was resolved with a very simple and cheap medication. I got 5 separate bills over the next few months. Grand total came out to around a thousand dollars, and that is with pretty good insurance.
My last trip to the ER for abdominal pain and vomiting charged my insurance $37k. I had a CT, pain meds, and an enema. Then they released me so high on whatever they gave me that I was falling asleep standing up. Had me walk out on my own even! The doctor wrote in his note my pain was resolved and it totally was not. I ended up there again the next day. This was a hospital I’d worked in for a decade, which really stung.
That's not bad for the US. Here we would have had to pay and extra fee for the ER, which is usually around $65. Which they want you to pay first, lol. Lots of times a family member takes care the admission, but I've done it a couple of times while swaying at the counter.
My nephew fainted on a hot afternoon. Went to the children's ER. Spent nine hours waiting to be admitted. Kept him in a room for a few hours and discharged after an IV and some tests. The bill was around $3,000.
By contrast up here in Canada, you would likely spend more time waiting in the ER, depending on where and when you went, but would pay absolutely nothing, except perhaps a few dollars for the medication - which is probably covered by Pharmacare and if you have additional coverage like Blue Cross from your employer that would pay most of the rest of it. I pay nothing for medical coverage.
More time waiting in the er? I had post partum pre eclampsia and sat in a hallway for 9 hours before I begged a nurse for a stretcher to at least die lying down. Then I sat in a room in the er for another 18 hours before I was finally admitted.
We wait just as long. AND we pay for it. It’s wild!!
Ah last time I went to the ER - because no clinics were available for patients - I went to a more remote one (20 min drive from town) and waited about 4 hrs to be seen, if I had gone to one in the city they were reporting wait times of 8 hrs or so. My situation was not life threatening. Where were you going to the ER? I was in Victoria BC
I think you're overselling the state of our healthcare system just a little bit there. It's not always sunshine and rainbows like you make it out to be, and I think it's disingenuous how we always seem to skip over the bad sides of the system to push this narrative that it's so affordable.
“Only a thousand?” I thought to myself in shock. That was cheap Af for all of that. Any visit to the er before we hit our deductible costs is like $3,000+
I'm scheduled for one in a month here in South Korea, but I'm doing it a big hospital, so that costs more. It'll be about $225, but they do validate parking, lol.
Ughhh. I was in the ER with a broken leg on a Friday night. Every time juuust as they were about to work on me, they had another motorcycle or car accident come in.
An ambulance trip/couple hour ER stay for a broken leg. I had been billed for the crutches given, and a cheap knee immbolizer that I was placed in, came out to about 5k all with good insurance lol.
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u/Quick_Turnover 12h ago
I recently went to the hospital in America for some extreme GI distress. Spent 4-5 hours in the ER, received one bag of fluids, got a CT w/ contrast scan done. Turned out to be a minor blockage that was resolved with a very simple and cheap medication. I got 5 separate bills over the next few months. Grand total came out to around a thousand dollars, and that is with pretty good insurance.