Their brother presumably didn't have insurance, and it sounds like some pretty major procedures involving specialists, equipment, and hospital intake. While the outcome was horrible, all of those people need to get paid for the services rendered somehow if we want folks in the US to continue receiving this standard of care.
> While the outcome was horrible, all of those people need to get paid for the services rendered somehow if we want folks in the US to continue receiving this standard of care.
Food for thought:
- this approach produces systemic outcomes that are worse and cost more than other approaches
- there are lots of ways for people to get paid to provide medical care. Medical professionals do not work for free in other countries, and they buy the same equipment and drugs from the same suppliers as Americans do.
- we are allowed to look at how other countries have solved this problem without hitting people with giant medical bills. We are allowed to apply those solutions here.
- the US standard of care is overall not particularly high in the global rankings. We may decide that we don't want to continue providing this standard of care, we may decide we want to be in the top 10 globally.
Except everything in America is ludicrously priced. The cost of supplies and equipment is not even close to being realistic in America vs what you'd be charged for equal care in another country.
$30K NOT counting some expenses (cardiologist, ER docs)???
> Bills were a few thousand here for the cardiologist, another few there for the ER docs, a bit for the radiologist. I helped my sister-in-law negotiate these down but they weren’t back breakers. Then the hospital bill came: $195k. This is a story about that.
