Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire US Health Care question

My wife was in San Francisco last week on business, stepped off a curb into one of those semi storm drain sort of small culvert like things and nearly broke her ankle. As it is, very bad high ankle sprain, mucho swelling, partially torn ligaments.

She was staying at the Fairmont Hotel which has a doctor they referred her to, $250 to exam her and recommend she go to the hospital and get xrayed. He prescribed some ibuprophen for swelling and vichoden for pain, they picked up crutches and the drugs at Walgreens(cheaper than it would have been here I think) then off to the hospital. Lesley waited about 5 minutes to see the Doc who got 6 xrays done right away, put it in a spint(xrays were probably negative) and gave her a referral to an orthopedist.

Lesley was surprised and impressed by how fast she was seen and they kind of shocked that nobody in the hospital on Saturday could tell her what the bill would be other than to say we would get it in the mail.

She got back yesterday, it was really bad so I took to our family Doc, it took 3 hours to get all the same stuff again and $121 for an inflatable boot.

We have good insurance, plus she was at a company function when she hurt herself so I'm pretty sure it will all be covered, but what do you guys think it will cost?

Exam in the emerg room, xrays and a splint, how much?.

$3200

I'm guessing $2,000 +/-.

Hope your Lady is okay.

Agreed. $2500. You're paying for your wife, and the two people who came in after her that paid zilch.

Hope everything is fine.
a couple of years ago I ended up in the ED with a kidney stone. I was there for less than 3hours, got a CT scan, 1 liter of IV fluid, 1 round of morphine and ketorolac and CBC and urine test. It was over $8000.
The insurance paid everything since I worked for the same university that runs the hospital, but it was shocking to say the least.

Thanks Derby, she's in pretty rough shape today but i'm sure it will get better fairly quickly.

I'll report back when we get the bill.

I guess a hospital must not be able to insist on payment prior to treatment, but we were surprised they are just mailing us a bill. If they do we will pay it, but it would be pretty expensive for them to pursue us if we chose not to pay, likely not worth the legal fees if they had to sue us in Canada.

San Francisco is an asylum city. They have illegals in there every day so they probably assume that every 2d or 3d person won't pay.

I find it incredible you weren't billed before you left the hospital...especially being from another country. They don't expect payment.

but wait....Obama told us Americans are dying in the streets because they can't afford medical insurance......you mean....he lied? and hospitals really do have to treat everybody with an emergency? imagine that.

Buddy of mine lives in Novato, a town 45 minutes north of SF. Getting his paper in the morning and forgetting that he was having the porch resurfaced, he fell through the joists and knocked himself out (Gawd, I wish I had that on tape). Anyway, he had an ambulance trip to the hospital, an overnight stay, a scan of some type (MRI or CT?), and a consultative visit from a neurologist. Bill: $25,000. No $hit.

I'm guessing SF has some of the highest medical bills in the USA...

I guarantee your buddy had insurance!

I disagree. They likely don't expect to be paid the full amount, although most providers know that Canadian healthcare plans are pretty good about paying. Payment will be at a discount. Like any HMO payment, including Medicare.

Total bill will be about 2K-2.5K, I'd guess.

I see, you're looking at this as a health provider bill paid by Canada?


$2-2.5 would be an amazing low figure from SF, Kali.

found this:
http://travelinsurancefile.com/always-up-to-date/alert-to-snowbirds/

wow, total bill for my daughters knee surgery last Jan was less than that and they screwed two chunks of bone back together.....

Well my visit to the ER and then a week in hospital for Pancreatitis and gall bladder, including gall bladder removal totaled $137,879!

My open heart in '92 was $113.000.

And people get pizzed with insurance premiums.....

Last trip to the ER was a year ago when our youngest son got his arm broken by a kid stepping on it. Lesson learned, don't slide into bases, it ain't worth it. I think we were there for all of 6 hours, he got some x-rays, pain killer, they knocked him out to set the bone and in case they needed to do surgery.

I honestly don't know what the total was, but even with insurance we forked over about $2k. AK is one of the most expensive states for medical care.

They did a great job, he recovered quickly with full mobility, so I'm not complaining. We kept a loose tally of all the different docs and nurses that saw him, and I swear there were 2 dozen people in those 6 hours.

..... (Let me finish your statement)

..... which is why a number of hospitals/emergency rooms have closed in the past 2 decades. Many folks do not have health insurance, so the hospital renders emergency care, is not reimbursed and, then passes on the loss to others, thus making medical care even higher. If they cannot pass them on (medical insurers limit the reimbursed costs), the hospital takes it from their reserves, thus depleting the reserves, followed by closing their doors.

His insurance covered all but 3 grand. Still pricey, IMHO.