Prince Charles suggests banning McDonalds

[caseysmom]

1.) Out of control lawyers.

2.) The extremely high quality of health care availble here.

3.) An ignorant public who does not "shop around" for medication. Why bother looking for the best price when all we pay is a $10 co-pay? I wonder how much could be saved by simply shopping around for medications? Yeah, it might not save you much, but it would save the insurance companies some, which in turn might allow lower premiums. Yes, that is naive perhaps... But it is something.

My wife, who is pregnant, does not have medical insurance. (Don't worry, I can cover it....) I could not beleive it when her pre-natal vitamins were $150!!!!! I later found out I could get them for less than 1/2 of that someplace else...



Indeed... To not be like them....

You think 150.00 is high...god forbid she needs a csection...it would be hundreds of thousands...I just can't imagine being pregnant without insurance...how scary.

[Puckstop31]

You think 150.00 is high...god forbid she needs a csection...it would be hundreds of thousands...I just can't imagine being pregnant without insurance...how scary.

Hundreds of THOUSANDS?

I;ve got it in writing from the hospital that is going to deliver tour baby.... If a C-section is necessary it will "only" cost $3000 plus a max for $1,500 the anastesia.

I am sure there will be a few more costs involved, but I can handle it. I am fortunate to have some savings to use.

It is only scary if you don't know how to shop around for health care. In a way, it is really nice not having an insurance company tell us what we can or cannot do.

As usual, it all comes back to being able to take care of yourself.

[Pam]

Hundreds of THOUSANDS?

I;ve got it in writing from the hospital that is going to deliver tour baby.... If a C-section is necessary it will "only" cost $3000 plus a max for $1,500 the anastesia.

I am sure there will be a few more costs involved, but I can handle it. I am fortunate to have some savings to use.

It is only scary if you don't know how to shop around for health care. In a way, it is really nice not having an insurance company tell us what we can or cannot do.

As usual, it all comes back to being able to take care of yourself.

It is none of my business as to why your wife doesn't have insurance but I find that puzzling and even more puzzling why she would become pregnant being uninsured.

I can't believe you were quoted such a price. There will be charges from the hospital, the doctor, the anesthesiologist and also the nursery. God forbid if anything out of the norm should occur there will be charges on top of that. My grandson had medical issues at birth and was seen by two specialists. Their fees alone were over what you quoted.

When I myself was in the ER for a fractured elbow years ago the fees for that (x-rays, etc) approached what you are quoting for your wife's hospital bills. Thank God I had insurance and only paid $50. Like it or not, that is the way the system works.

Edit: My grandson also had a longer than normal hospital stay and much of it was spent in the NICU .... additional unexpected bills.

[caseysmom]

I have savings also...but fortuntately I have medical insurance so I can save for things like college for the kids. It just doesn't make sense not to have insurance considering the way our health care system works. Years ago I knew someone who had no insurance and had to pay 30,000 for a delivery, this was 25 years ago.

[sparks19]

It is none of my business as to why your wife doesn't have insurance but I find that puzzling and even more puzzling why she would become pregnant being uninsured.

I can't believe you were quoted such a price. There will be charges from the hospital, the doctor, the anesthesiologist and also the nursery. God forbid if anything out of the norm should occur there will be charges on top of that. My grandson had medical issues at birth and was seen by two specialists. Their fees alone were over what you quoted.

When I myself was in the ER for a fractured elbow years ago the fees for that (x-rays, etc) approached what you are quoting for your wife's hospital bills. Thank God I had insurance and only paid $50. Like it or not, that is the way the system works.

Edit: My grandson also had a longer than normal hospital stay and much of it was spent in the NICU .... additional unexpected bills.

Because I am not eligable for health insurance here ... YET. Of course.... I could get it illegally like some... but I won't. And why would I become pregnant???? well sometimes things happen and women and their husbands get pregnant. I will NOT EVER look at this pregnancy as a mistake.... it is a miracle and a wonderful thing.... we are stable enough to handle the hospital bills so don't worry.... you will not have to foot our bill. If we were really concerned about the cost I would move back to Canada for our "free" health care.... but I do not wish to do that and would rather foot the bill ourselves.

Anyway as difficult as it may be to believe the price we were quoted.... that's what you get when you shop around. The Dr we are using is a wonderful man and he does a lot of pro bono work for non profit organizations as well. In fact, our ultra sounds are through a non profit (donations only) organization that he works with... we will OF COURSE be giving a donation for all of their time. So be shocked.... be appalled at the prices you paid.... but when you shop around you can find Dr's that don't charge an arm and a leg... but please don't call us liars as we are anything but that. You can call us a lot of things.... but dishonest is NOT one of them. Actually the C section price is $2800.... plus $1500 for any anesthetic. If something happens and we need an extended stay... we are prepared to cover those costs. Not only have we ourselves saved.... but we have a wonderful support system in our parents who are more than happy to help us out IF we need it.... of course we wll NOT be enlisting their help unless we are in dire straits. We aren't pulling these figures out of the air.... we have had extensive talks with the Dr about cost's. This IS the cost without insurance... as they KNOW I do not have insurance.

We aren't stupid.... do you not think we have thought about all the "what if's" that you are all bringing to our attention? We aren't flying by the seat of our pants here. We have thought through all of the possibilities.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

What has any of this got to do with Prince Charles and McDonalds?

[Daisy and Delilah]

Hundreds of THOUSANDS?

I;ve got it in writing from the hospital that is going to deliver tour baby.... If a C-section is necessary it will "only" cost $3000 plus a max for $1,500 the anastesia.

I am sure there will be a few more costs involved, but I can handle it. I am fortunate to have some savings to use.

It is only scary if you don't know how to shop around for health care. In a way, it is really nice not having an insurance company tell us what we can or cannot do.

As usual, it all comes back to being able to take care of yourself.

WOW!!!!! It seems I need to move to where you are. Maybe all of us should consider it.

These figures are rather hard to believe to tell you the truth. I had knee surgery last year. Only arthroscopic. I was at the hospital for 4 hours as an outpatient and the charge was almost $20,000. That was just for the hospital. I don't have enough room here to list all the other charges. Bottom line....with my insurance, I ended up forking over almost $10,000 out of pocket.

We don't have much of an option for "shopping around for health care" here in Florida(I can't speak for other areas). We take what we can get and go with it. The only shopping around I can do is the option to call another doctor. The other doctor will have the same charges as the first one I'd talked to.

In all due respect, not trying to argue....after reading about the threads about socialized medicine in Canada, what you're telling us makes me believe it's not so bad??

[Maresche]

I;ve got it in writing from the hospital that is going to deliver tour baby.... If a C-section is necessary it will "only" cost $3000 plus a max for $1,500 the anastesia.

That's about what we paid for Mimi's delivery in 3/05, but that was AFTER our insurance had covered what they were going to cover and we have pretty good insurance.