Money, Money, Money, Money!

I have written about the American medical system many times on this blog and also have mentioned how vastly inferior it is to other medical models in Western countries (last time I checked we were rated 37 in quality of care. I will write about it again.

When I was in Paris, riding on the metro towards the airport for my trip to Spain, I fell walking up the Metro steps.  The handrail broke and threw me to the ground.  I rolled to the bottom of the steps with my suitcase on top and within a few minutes had a huge hematoma on my forehead and was bruised from shoulder to calf on my left side.  I didn't have time to go to the hospital as Miguel's family was waiting to pick me up at the airport in Spain.  I had a lovely black eye for the five days I was in Spain, and on my return to France some dizzy spells prompted me to go to a Paris ER.

My treatment was very typical of what I've had in New York--a triage nurse first determined how serious the injury.  When I was admitted to an examining room, two residents went over my medical history very carefully (about an hour) and then a doctor also examined me.  The latter determined that I should have a CT scan as I was traveling by plane in two days to Venice and if I had internal bleeding the trip would be dangerous. (Not important to this discussion but the scan was clean.)

I have no medical insurance in France so gave my  home address and asked that the bill be sent to New York.  When I arrived home, my bill was there before me:  154 euros, or converted to dollars about $200.  My sister who had something very similar happen to her in May, in New York, received a bill for $20,000, fortunately paid by insurance.  She stayed overnight unlike me, so perhaps the $19,800 difference was for the room!  (She could have travelled to Europe on the Queen Mary 2, and stayed at the Hotel Gritti Palace in Venice for a few weeks for less.) Let me not forget to mention that the 154 euro bill came from France, which is rated number one in the world for its quality of medical care.  Obama care won't fix the problem.  It won't even come close.

The reason for our ridiculously expensive health care system---money, money, money, and more money (the title of Maureen Dowd's column on the Clinton's).  Health care and education are two areas in any culture that should be not-for-profit, and in most countries and cultures this is the case, except for the United States.  The irony for me is that I read recently that the United States is one of the more religious countries in the world, particularly in the Western World, yet in Biblical terms we would have been kicked out of the temple by Jesus.

Today I saw an eye doctor (Renee Richards, the tennis player of days gone-by) who specializes in strabismus (crossed eyes to the uninitiated).  My co-pay for seeing a specialist is $35.00.  When I finished with Dr. Richards (who said my eye glasses are the wrong strength and is responsible for some of my recent vision problems) I was told I owed $85.00.  I protested since my co-pay is $35.00 and was told I had to pay $50.00 for the eye glass prescription.  I felt like doing an Elaine and yelling "Get out."  Instead I calmly told the office manager I would pay $35.00 and no more. She then insisted that I return the prescription, which I did.  I have filed a complaint with United Health Care and the Superintendent of Insurance of New York.  As I wrote above, Money, Money, Money, Money!  It's all about Money!