Most Americans are very aware of the fact that our country just isn’t quite right. We current are enduring record-high gas prices, and inflated prices in everything else as corporations cry “supply chain issues” while raking in record profits.
Yet, the front page of most news sites today either don’t mention this at all or doesn’t show anyone (looking at you politicians) offering solutions.
If you want to put it the way Shannon Mayor does, you might say that “America is a joke.”
And that’s hard to argue when you take a look at her hospital bill.
Her insurance company paid more than $50,000 to the hospital where she had an emergency C-Section and gave birth to a baby that required a brief stay in the NICU.
Mind you it’s something people have been doing at home for free for thousands of years. According to CDC data, more than 45,000 people gave birth at him in 2020.
A 20 percent increase from 2019, which isn’t hard to believe with hospital bills as high as Mayor’s. Now, thankfully, Mayor has health insurance which paid the vast majority of the cost.
She was only stuck with a $250 bill. But not everyone can afford insurance.
According to a 2021 CNBC article, there are about 27 million uninsured Americans.
Some just can’t afford the premiums but make too much to be eligible for Medicaid.
And even those with insurance sometimes have to face steep deductibles that can put them in debt. One woman who commented on Mayor’s TikTok post said that she owed more than $1,000 for her hospital bill which totaled over $1.5 million for her daughter who had to stay in the NICU for two months after being born.
According to International Insurance, there are currently about 43 countries in the world that offer free or universal healthcare.
Though there are definitely major pros and cons when it comes to offering free or universal healthcare.
The problem with our current healthcare system in the U.S. is the high cost. According to TODAY, the U.S. spends more on health care than any other developed country but has worse health outcomes.
Executive Director of Consumer Watchdog Carmen Balber says one of the reasons for this is that we have a for-profit-based insurance system.
It’s one of the only ones in the world.
“Lots of other countries have some element of private something, but there is that baseline understanding that health care is a right, not a privilege,” Balber said.
One reason that drives costs is insurance companies who spend a huge amount of money and time reviewing whether or not a service is covered so that consumers will have to foot the bill rather than the insurance company.
Administrative costs were found to make up 34.2% of health care costs in the U.S., twice what Canada spends, whereas national health insurance programs like Medicare only spent 1.1 to 7% on administrative costs.
“Medicare … is drastically cheaper, because we don’t spend a lot of time trying to deny people the care they need,” Balber said. “There’s not as much dedicated to the bureaucracy of health care as there is in private systems.”
Balber also argued that the fee-for-service method encourages doctors to prescribe procedures rather than helping patients get healthier.
Health care providers are also paid a lot more in U.S. hospitals and doctors’ office mergers are also causing prices to rise. The cost of health care has more than doubled in the last three decades, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Some employers say rising health care costs are preventing them from offering employees bonuses and wage increases.
Meanwhile, Mayor is just glad that she has insurance.
Click the video below to see her original post.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
@shannonmayor I wasn’t expecting the total to be that high 😅 #hospitalbirth #fyp #bills ♬ Wii – Mii Channel – Super Guitar Bros
