Vote Incumbents Out – Fix Healthcare: $3,000 For Two Emergency Room Tylenol Tablets
My wife fell on the ice on Monday. This gave me a firsthand look at the travesty these political parties are causing in their failure to resolve our national healthcare system. The Emergency Room charged us $3,000, and counting, for 10 minutes of the doctor’s time and two Tylenol’s – Thank you for fixing our ridiculous healthcare system Congress.
Folks, it will not get properly fixed by either of these parties. Turn your back on Democrats and Republicans, vote out incumbents, and get American’s in there that will get the job done and put party’s interests and re-election possibilities second. They have demonstrated their incompetency long enough.
I was getting ready for work on Monday morning and running late to get a few coffee roasts done before the shop opened for business. My wife had already left early to run to the market to get some veggies for The Mad Moose, our little café, when I received a confused panicked call. It was her, crying and barely intelligible. She said she was in an accident. She was outside the car after having slipped, was on the pavement and could not get up, her head hurts, she needed someone to help… an emotionally charged panicked state of mind drifting in and out of coherency. Not a good situation.
I asked her where she was and was thinking the worst. Did the car go off the road, did someone hit her? She said she was in the Valley Market parking lot. I said, “I’m on my way!!!” Of course, the worst goes through your mind in these moments. I recalled another dangerous accident we experienced in a COSTCO parking lot. We were broadsided on that occasion by an irresponsible driver who totaled our car – luckily, no one was hurt. That’s right – our SUV was totaled in a COSTCO parking lot after being broadsided! Our SUV was lifted off the ground when he hit us. He had to be going at least 30 MPH. He said he did not see us because the sun was in his eyes. Can you believe that?! Good thing we were in an SUV and not a mother wheeling a shopping cart to her car with a baby in it when he decided to speed through a parking lot without being able to see what was in front of him. “I could not see because the sun was in my eyes?!?” So, um, why were you even driving – little lone going 30 plus MPH in a parking lot, right?!
I was still in my pajamas and slippers as I hurried to the Market 5 minutes away while simultaneously calling 911 to get the paramedics there.
When I arrived the paramedics were tending to her and had her upright in the car. She fell on the slippery ice in the parking lot – feet up in the air and smacked the back of her head hard - losing consciousness, going into convulsions, and experiencing numbness in her face and the deep trauma you’d expect from a head injury of this sort.
The paramedic gave her some medication to help stabilize and calm her and provided her a cold pack for her head. Luckily there was no blood gushing, but the lump was pretty big and there was concern for brain swelling and internal bleeding. Rushing her to the emergency room at McKay-Dee Hospital was the next stop, the paramedics said they would notify the emergency room of the situation and they’d be ready for us.
By the time we got to the hospital, she had calmed down, sore all over, bruised from the fall, but her vitals were okay. For some unknown reason, the call from the paramedics did not get relayed to the emergency room, so they checked her in and we sat for about an hour. Though it’s understood that the reception nurse triages arriving patients to allocate care for the most needy first. However, I thought it was odd that the nurse did not think such a blunt impact to the back of the head would warrant a quicker response – especially relative to what I was observing from the other patients waiting and arriving. When I asked the duty nurse, he said he’d received no notification from the paramedics on the scene – weird, right?
After the best part of an hour, we were led to an examination room. Vitals were still okay (blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature). The doctor on duty recommended a head scan in radiology to make sure all was okay. This took about 10 minutes to have the scan done and assessment made. Thankfully, there appeared to be no fracture or internal bleeding or swelling – just a big “goose-egg” and severe headache. The doc proscribed two Tylenol and advised all should be okay and to take it easy for a day or two, and watch for any turns for the worst in symptoms.
We are thankful and grateful for the first responders and medical professionals and the technology that can address these kinds of accidents. They are of course appreciated beyond words and priceless.
Then came a woman who handed us an incomplete bill for $2,000. She said, “how would you like to pay?” I said, well, I would like a complete breakdown of the costs first. She said okay, and that “they” would bill me.
It is now 24 hours later, and the secondary trauma is setting in – the bill! The bill has now climbed to over $3000.00 and it is, according to the hospital billing department, still incomplete and expected to go higher since even the doctor’s fee has not even been added in yet. I’m thinking, “really, over $3,000 and counting for a 10-minute doctors visit, two Tylenol’s, and a $250.00 radiology bill” (the hospital indicated the head scan cost $250.00).
What the billing department manager said when I spoke to her on the phone was they have to charge such high prices because the co-pay thresholds for insurance are now in the several thousands of dollars for any medical emergency room attention. Not sure how those correlate, but it is a fact that the best insurance we could get included a $7,000 threshold copay for all medical services. We must pay the first $7,000 before any health insurance kicks in. Essentially, the meaning is health insurance only covers catastrophic care. Everything else is out of pocket – including the $500.00 per month we pay just to have the policy. All told, before my wife could have any health insurance coverage by her “good” insurance policy, she must pay $500 per month, plus the first $7000 in service. Annually, before insurance pays for anything, she must cough up $500 per month x 12 months equaling $6000, plus the $7000 copay threshold before any insurance kicks in. The grand total out of pocket is $13,000 before insurance covers anything – like the two Tylenol tablets. Well, it’s the best our insurance agent could offer us during the open enrollment period.
I wondered, “how do families of lesser means possibly afford this if they encounter a need to have a loved one cared for?” I asked myself, in a county where American’s pay more than double per capita in healthcare than anyone else in the world, why are we charged so much for so little service? In this case, we waived the ambulance because we knew they would charge a ton for that too – a risky call – right? Maybe that had something to do with the hospital not knowing we were on our way after we left the paramedics where she slipped in the parking lot?
Folks, I’m certain there are lots of people in the median Utah family income range that cannot get healthcare attention without coughing up thousands. And those seeking medical attention often find themselves falling deeper into debt. I do not think this is a simple supply and demand circumstance. I say the money is already there, it’s the leadership in Congress that is letting us down. I am living firsthand with the wreckage and mismanagement Congress – BOTH PARTIES – have imposed on us. Medical care is simply cost prohibitive for most folks. Those that do get emergency care can find themselves in tremendous financial despair. This is simply wrong and must stop now.
The Republicans rode into town in 2016 on repealing Obama Care and fixing healthcare in America. They have failed to do it and they have delivered no solutions – instead of helping common Americans, their time, money, and energy is spent elsewhere. The democrats before them failed to deliver too, and currently both parties are offering us “trillions” in more debt to fix a problem that already has more than enough money flowing to it. They ALL need to be fired in my estimation.
May I ask that you please stop voting for these do-nothing incumbents who simply go back and forth, blaming each other, first democrat, then republican, then back to democrat again. When a lucky near miss 10-minute emergency visit, with no ambulance, a $250.00 head scan, and two Tylenol tablets cost more than 5% of the average Utah family’s after-tax household income, I’m saying something is really broken. Folks, the answer is to dislodge incumbents from both primary parties and get folks in there that will fix it. But who, you ask?
First, send the message you’re tired of their performance by not voting for either republican or democratic parties. And stop voting for the incumbents who are worried more about party control and re-election, than you. And send the message that a lot of us really need to get this healthcare stuff fixed?! I reason that there are so many Americans who need care and don’t go and get it because the cost is prohibitive. Sad for the nation that’s been Made Great Again – right? Some of us have not gotten the memo.
Give me the chance folks… I will go fix it! COL Mike Seguin (USA, Retd). 2022 Senate Seat (Utah Bull Moose Party). The first thing I would do is introduce legislation that all insurance policies be frozen where they currently stand and no American who pays for insurance sees a co-pay threshold that exceeds $250.00 per emergency room visit. This, is manageable, the money is there, and the insurance companies will just have to figure it out until they, and Congress, come up with a program that’s puts “Americans” first.
These Parties are the problem Folks. Neither of them represents anything close to the majority of registered voters – they just lock the system up with the only candidate choices you can choose from – and nothing gets fixed. Remember, nothing in the U.S. Constitution even mentions political parties. Stop voting for them ALL! Just say “No More” and “Do-The-Right-Thing.” This time, at least in Utah, you’ll have a choice… a choice of a good American who will “Do-the-Right-Thing” regardless of party interests – with only America’s interests in mind.
Vote Utah Bull Moose Party 2022, COL Mike Seguin (USA, Retd). (www.utahbullmooseparty.com). Vote out all incumbents – especially democrat and republican affiliated politicians. Sign our petition and let’s start fixing this stuff.