The Medical Industrial Complex (Hospitals, Pharmaceuticals, and Insurance) are robbing Americans blind. If it has not yet happened to you, it most certainly will. The only solution is Single-Payer Medicare for All to guarantee the legal theft will end.
The article titled “A Tale of Two CT Scanners – One Richer, One Poorer” tells a story that will be everyone’s story sooner rather than later.
Benjamin Hynden, a financial adviser in Fort Myers, Fla., hadn’t been feeling well for a few weeks last fall. He’d had pain and discomfort in his abdomen.
In October, he finally made an appointment to see his doctor about it. “It wasn’t severe,” he said. “It was just kind of bothersome. It just kind of annoyed me during the day.”
The internist, Dr. John Ardesia, checked him out and referred him for a CT scan at a nearby imaging center. The radiologist didn’t see anything wrong on the images, and Ardesia didn’t recommend any treatment.
A few weeks later, Hynden, who has a high-deductible health insurance policy with Cigna, got a bill for $268. He paid it and moved on.
But the story does not end there.
But three months later, in mid-January, Hynden was still feeling lousy. He called up Ardesia’s office again. This time, the doctor wasn’t available. A nurse practitioner, concerned that Hynden might be suffering from appendicitis, advised him to go to the hospital right away.
“I was a little worried,” Hynden recalled. “When he told me to go to the ER, I felt compelled to take his advice.”
Hynden arrived later that morning at Gulf Coast Medical Center, one of several hospitals owned by Lee Health in the Fort Myers area. The triage nurse told him the problem wasn’t his appendix, but she suggested he stick around for some additional tests — including another CT scan — just to be safe.
“It was the exact same machine. It was the exact same test,” Hynden said. The results were also the same as the October scan: Hynden was sent home without a definitive diagnosis. And then the bill came.
Patient: Benjamin Hynden, 29, a financial adviser in Fort Myers, Fla.
Total Bill: $10,174.75, including $8,897 for a CT scan of the abdomen
Service Provider: Gulf Coast Medical Center, owned by Lee Health, the dominant health care system in southwest Florida.
Single-Payer Medicare for All?
The only difference is that the patient got scanned at a hospital. The entire article is worth the read as it explains the irrationality of our medical system. The reason we are not in revolt about our health care system is that at any given point in time, most people are in the mode where they are not using health care or using the affordable portions. The only solution for America is the adoption of Single-Payer Medicare for All.