Letter to the Editor: Trim entitlements
BY Matt Secrist, Kellyville
Monday, December 10, 2012
12/10/12 at 2:49 AM
Is it just me or is $5,449.79 a little cheap for medical care for a scalp bleeder, a "superficial wound," according to the Medicare summary notice?
My wife at first thought she was having a nose bleed, but discovered a thin cut on her left temple that wouldn't stop bleeding. It was a Sunday so we went to a local hospital emergency room where the doctor used three stitches to stop the bleeding of a sliced blood vessel just under her skin. The charge for that was $145.
But before we could leave they insisted she have two CAT scans for $1,431 each, Med-Sur supplies for $397.50, emergency department use for $1,482, and various other - you can be sure - necessary charges.
From a visit I had to make to the emergency room just two years ago - when I fell and hit my head on a chair and ignorantly asked for a CAT scan - I knew it would be cheap. Back then the cost of a head CAT scan was $1,100. Jaded though I was, I was still shocked at such a low rate of inflation.
Solution: Let's trim entitlements like Medicare by cutting out the middleman for handling this chump change and having China send our borrowed money directly to hospital emergency departments.
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