His son was billed for $20,000 of care s/p appendectomy, Edwin Leap thinks it was worth about 75% less:
But, something occurred to me about the bill. Let’s face it, Sam probably didn’t get $20,000 worth of care, medication and supplies. But what Sam did do is cover his surgery, and maybe three or four others. I can believe he received $5000 worth of care. It seems reasonable. So really, his surgery paid for his own care, and about $5000 worth of care for several others.
Related posts:
- Appendicitis in pregnant women
- The $70,000 bill
- Appendicitis: CT vs straight-to-surgery
- Don’t blame doctors for capitation’s downfall
- The many faces of appendicitis
- Appendicitis presents typically
- A Child with Acute Appendicitis
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Actually, the extra $15,000 covers the hospital’s extravagant building and landscaping programs and the administration’s salaries and golden parachutes. He will also later get a bill for $5 for local telephone service.
But in any other market the question never is what does the procedure cost to provide, but what is it worth to the recipient. Does any other industry charge only the ‘worth’ of their product, or that price that the market will bear?
The poster does not seem to use the word ‘worth’ in a manner consistent with how markets work.
What is an appy worth to you as the one with the appy? Well, considering that left untreated if will kill you 10% of the time, and if medically treated (antibiotics and supportive care) will kill you 5% of the time $20,000 might be a pretty good value. Say you got 50 years of life expectancy left; a 10% reduction in death now translates into a statistical 5 years of life saved, and this for only $4,000 per year of life. Pretty good bargain. There’s lots of health care people seek that has much higher cost/benefit ratios.
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