Discounting Mom's Hysterectomy 

      To continue our portrayal of America’s profit-driven health care system as a Persian rug market version of capitalism, where only the ignorant  and/or less fortunate pay retail….
       Hospital patients blessed with governmental or private health care insurance will pay only a fraction of their charges.
        While patients lacking health care insurance are legally responsible for the full amount of their  hospital bills … which too often end up sold at a discount to avaricious bill collectors.
         Thus, for the growing millions of America’s working poor lacking health care insurance, financial ruin is only one major illness away.
        But none of this prevents the smug-majority of our free market enamored politicians from hailing America’s health care system “as the finest in the world.”
        Which is gross bullshit.
        Anyhow…
       In our last installment, we featured an American health care “consumer” discovering the grotesque range in the sticker price for a hysterectomy at various Broward Hospitals --- with a high of $66,800 and a low of $18,500.
        Hopefully, our “consumer” facing a hysterectomy was covered by insurance.
        Because if she wasn’t….
        $35,000 - mean Florida hospital sticker price for a hysterectomy which an uninsured “consumer” is legally obligated to pay. (100% of  bill)
        $11,375 – average amount reimbursed by a private insurer (32.5% of bill)    
        $7,210 – reimbursed by Medicare (20.6% of bill)
        $6,755 – reimbursed by Medicaid  (19.3% of bill)

       SOURCE: Florida Agency for Health Care Administration