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Not sure what the sarcasm is about, but the Mayo Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the world. It's not unreasonable for them to charge higher than average.
I'm not saying that makes the $5k bill reasonable, just giving more context to the comment you replied to.
You don't need a heart surgeon to provide a saline drip.
Do you have a choice of which hospital you go to when put into an ambulance?
(Never ridden in one, when I needed one I drove my self out of fear of the bill).
Generally speaking, the ambulance should take you to the nearest available ER. Some shady services may divert riders to affiliated hospitals.
I've heard more than a few instances of ambulances being redirected from hospitals entirely based on the prospective ability of the rider to pay.
So you've got even less control than you'd initially suspect.
You're right, a RN would probably be qualified. But what's your point? Their nurses are also paid more than average, not just the heart surgeons. If you need basic care go to a basic clinic.
(Not defending the $5k bill)
Then what are you defending? An IV takes a few minutes to insert. If the RN is earning $200/hr and the bag costs 10x the going rate of around $11, you're still talking about a 16x markup.
I'm defending the idea that one of the best hospitals in the world would charge more than an ordinary clinic. All healthcare in this country is overpriced, but I don't see anything wrong with incentivising people to offer better services. The best doctors and nurses should get paid the most.
Would affordability not be factored into a hospital's quality? If a hospital puts even the most routine care at an inaccessible price point, I would consider that a black mark on their ability to deliver service.
Again, I don't see any relationship between the price-tag of a saline drip and the quality of service. Not when the price is that astronomical.
If you put in an order for a hamburger, the meal shows up, and then waiter hands you a check for $500, the advertised assertion that this is "The Best Burger!" does not transform a quarter pound of grilled ground beef into its weight in gold.
There is no reason to believe a saline drip at Mayo Clinic is going to be meaningfully different from any bog standard city hospital.
All the price tag accomplishes is to screen people in need of care from the facility based on their income.
The only part of my post you didn't quote was the part where I said I think all healthcare in this country is overpriced. I agree with what you said here, and I'm not sure why your post seems so hostile.
Hospitals have finite resources. The most skilled and ambitious health care professionals should be using their talents to help people with the most challenging illnesses, not spending their time on routine (but still life-saving) treatments.
That's cool. So why defend an obvious case of overpriced health care by insisting the clinic is exceptional? An exceptional clinic would - presumably - be exceptionally accessible. Throughput is as much a function of quality as individual results.
That's fine. Dehydrated people require a finite medical intervention.
Are not required to administer a saline drip.
Please point out where you think I was defending overpriced health care, so I can clear up this misunderstanding once and for all.
You're using an arbitrary metric (best doctor) to assign a discrete value (most pay). That's inevitably going to result in every doctor with a high opinion of oneself to charge a higher rate than their peers.
The end result is overpriced care.
The mental gymnastics it took for you to make that leap is impressive. Do you think all doctors put the same amount of effort into their work? I can tell you from personal experience that some doctors are pretty lazy and don't deserve above-average pay. On the other hand, some truly go above and beyond.
If you think it takes a feat of mental gymnastics to note that a saline drip shouldn't cost $5000...
Are you okay?
What?