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posted by
martyb
on Friday April 19 2019, @08:11PM
from the Death-is-cheap-life-is-expensive-dept dept.
from the Death-is-cheap-life-is-expensive-dept dept.
Have you ever wondered what it costs to keep a person alive when they are on the brink of death? Thanks to a post by a suicide survivor who started a rash of posts concerning hospital costs for the mortally challenged we know that the hospital bill for suicide management can be from 10K to 100K. Oliver Jordan clocked up 25,000 likes and hundreds of responses to his post with some people saying it cost them 10K to 20K for a US emergency room visit. Once a patient enters a hospital they can racked many charges often without realising what the end bill will be.
In memory of MDC.
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'This is how expensive it is to attempt suicide': Patient’s bill goes viral
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When in panic, fear and doubt,
Drink in barrels, eat, and shout.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Friday April 19 2019, @09:43PM (1 child)
The other side of that coin is when they're not making the charges up......
Those costs are approximate, but I read that in an article detailing why insurance costs for medical malpractice increases the costs of most regular products by several thousand percent. It's how a single band-aid can be $15.
This is why medical in general needs to be practiced differently and more like Starfleet Medical. Disallow ALL lawsuits of any kind against the medical providers, and move towards a justice based approach. Meaning, if the medical community reviews the doctor's actions and determines he was a bad doctor, then remove him from his position. Have him undergo more training and certification before being allowed to touch somebody again. The victim does need to go for a $250 million dollar penalty because medical is already free. Any compensation would clearly include healing them of the damage, and continuing to provide the healthcare regardless. In other words, the citizen is already protected the social safety nets and does need to go for punitive damages. If the doctor fucked up too badly, then criminal charges should also be on the table, providing actual justice. If the doctor is convicted of that crime, then, and only then, can the victim start their own civil lawsuit, and can only name the doctor directly. This would preclude billions of dollars annually in costs, if not more.
In the US, maybe upwards of 40c on the dollar is spent on you. The fact of the matter is that medicine could be practiced with a fraction of the budget achieving greater results. Proof of that can be found just be looking at Cuban health care. Double sanctions for over 60 years, and they're leaders in the medical community widely recognized as providing quite excellent medical care under their conditions. They're even capable of saving a diabetic's foot whereas the US just cuts it off.
American health care costs are not stupid. They're based in cruelty and greed in a system not designed to provide medical care. It's entirely for profit with a sister market called Big Pharma that is dangerously for profit and entirely willing to risk thousands of deaths as a mere statistic to achieve ever greater profits. The Sacklers are a cancer on our society, and just one small corrupt evil cog in the meat grinder that is the American Dream™.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday April 20 2019, @02:29AM
No more points can be given, but this brought up many interesting points.