Average cost per day for hospital stay in the US.

I still have a copy of the hospital bill from when I was born in 1947. My mother was in the hospital for 5 days. At least that's what she told me, although the bill appears to have been for 10. The total bill came to $105.10.

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I was talking to an old friend of mine from back in the day. One of his lungs collapsed while we were in High School. That would have been in 1964 or 1965. He said he spent 2 days in the hospital and the bill was $75.

Then in early 1974 I was just about to get out of the Air Force and our squadron commander was giving a small group of us the re-enlistment pitch and telling us what a great benefit we were going to lose with our free medical care. He told us that on the outside a stay in the hospital might be as much as "$100 a day!"
 
I don't know how much my second stay was for 3 days. Nowhere near as much I guess because everything was listed individually in my claims. Back in November it was just one listing.
 
Auctioneers have a saying, there is only so much money in the room.

Before Medicare was implemented in 1965 many many people paid out of pocket for healthcare or had a very simple restrictive major medical policy that cover catastrophic events and costs as well as care were much more basic.

After Medicare the bean counters took over the medical profession and turned it into the healthcare industry, prices began to climb.

I have mixed feelings about it. Today we donā€™t see nearly as much suffering and deformity in our day to day life which is definitely a blessing but I still feel that we would be better off if we accepted a less costly more human comfort care approach to medicine and our eventual death.
 
When something was wrong years ago, simple tests or xrays were usually done to determine a course of action, which started right away.

About a month ago, a friend who has always been healthy developed what he described was a weakness in one leg and the feeling he was about to fall. In fact, he did fall, twice (no injuries). IInitially, the doctor did an xray but gave him no results, then put him on muscle relaxers, which haven't helped, then scheduled an MRI, which was done 2 weeks ago. Nothing has changed for the better and he still knows no more than when it all started.

We've made great progress in the field of medicine.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
When something was wrong years ago, simple tests or xrays were usually done to determine a course of action, which started right away.

About a month ago, a friend who has always been healthy developed what he described was a weakness in one leg and the feeling he was about to fall. In fact, he did fall, twice (no injuries). IInitially, the doctor did an xray but gave him no results, then put him on muscle relaxers, which haven't helped, then scheduled an MRI, which was done 2 weeks ago. Nothing has changed for the better and he still knows no more than when it all started.

We've made great progress in the field of medicine.
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How did you make that last sentence so foggy.?
 
Michael Z said:
Why has this cost so exceeded inflation?
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Iā€™m not sure how much is real and how much is just smoke and mirrors.

It gauls me that often times people without insurance are expected to pay much higher prices for tests and procedures while health insurance companies pay much much lower negotiated rates for the people with coverage.

In fairness, some hospitals provide financial aid/relief for people that understand itā€™s available and how to apply for it.

Finally, we can never be sure how much of this is simply written off as uncollected debts/losses.

We have great health care but a lousy system for managing the costs and payments.
 
We do have a lot better treatments in this day, that is for sure. And all of that factors in. But the cost of a room should not have increased as much as it has.

So we went from $80 for ten days to $30,000 for ten days now? 9 doublings in 80 years. A doubling every 9 years. This amounts to 8% inflation over the entire 80 years whereas the actual inflation has not even been half that.
 
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Some people go along with every diagnostic procedure put before them. I just don't. My doctor accepts that and works with me accordingly.

One lady I know has been hospitalized 5 times this year and has had every diagnostic test imaginable. She does whatever tests they tell her to do . . . so it's good for her (I guess) that she has traditional Medicare and a supplement, because many of her tests problably wouldn't make it through an advantage plan pre-authorization approval.

And after all her tests - colonoscopies, MRI's, ultrasounds, etc. (and some tests I can't pronounce or remember) she still doesn't really know what all is wrong with her, except that she says she doesn't have cancer. Yet, her health has steadily declined. Something went very wrong in her last colonoscopy, causing her to need corrective surgery for something that was punctured, and it didn't go well - but, she said "thank goodness they got the polyps." Well, maybe that helped, maybe not, because now her bowels are pretty much dysfunctional. Somehow I have my doubts she will still be around a year from now.
 
I often feel they like to get us to take as many tests as they can just to get more money whether they're necessary or not. Back in November after my pneumonia they asked if it was okay to send a gal over to evaluate my medications. I said ok. Cost over $600 for her to stand there for an hour and look at my meds and ask me a few questions.

The ins. pd. for it but there was a note at the bottom saying it was medically unnecessary.
The reason they wanted someone to do it was because they were under the impression I was taking all my meds and mixing them like some kind of stupid idiot. They thought I was gonna have an adverse reaction cuz I wasn't taking my meds right. Uh...duh!

I've been on these meds for years. I think I know how to take them properly. I know the costs of each individual item such as daily things like your hygiene items and diapers or whatever are probably 3 times more expensive than what you would pay at home. I'm thinking of making up a kit of things from home to start grabbing on the way to the hospital so I won't need all that BS to get charged for. Might be a good idea.
 
Fritz said:
I often feel they like to get us to take as many tests as they can just to get more money whether they're necessary or not. Back in November after my pneumonia they asked if it was okay to send a gal over to evaluate my medications. I said ok. Cost over $600 for her to stand there for an hour and look at my meds and ask me a few questions.

The ins. pd. for it but there was a note at the bottom saying it was medically unnecessary.
The reason they wanted someone to do it was because they were under the impression I was taking all my meds and mixing them like some kind of stupid idiot. They thought I was gonna have an adverse reaction cuz I wasn't taking my meds right. Uh...duh!

I've been on these meds for years. I think I know how to take them properly. I know the costs of each individual item such as daily things like your hygiene items and diapers or whatever are probably 3 times more expensive than what you would pay at home. I'm thinking of making up a kit of things from home to start grabbing on the way to the hospital so I won't need all that BS to get charged for. Might be a good idea.
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I understand your frustration. My insurance kept calling wanting to send a nurse over to check on me. I told them no, I am completely capable of managing my affairs and do not need any kind of assistance whatsoever, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. Still, I never agreed to it. I guess they finally got tired of calling.

As you're thinking of doing, I have a small suitcase packed with necessary items in case I have to go to the hospital. I'd need a toothbrush, deodorant, sleepwear, underwear, and so on, ad no one would know where I keep all that. This way, they don't have to look - I can just ask the friend that has keys to my house to bring the suitcase by my closet door up to the hospital.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
Some people go along with every diagnostic procedure put before them. I just don't. My doctor accepts that and works with me accordingly.

One lady I know has been hospitalized 5 times this year and has had every diagnostic test imaginable. She does whatever tests they tell her to do . . . so it's good for her (I guess) that she has traditional Medicare and a supplement, because many of her tests problably wouldn't make it through an advantage plan pre-authorization approval.

And after all her tests - colonoscopies, MRI's, ultrasounds, etc. (and some tests I can't pronounce or remember) she still doesn't really know what all is wrong with her, except that she says she doesn't have cancer. Yet, her health has steadily declined. Something went very wrong in her last colonoscopy, causing her to need corrective surgery for something that was punctured, and it didn't go well - but, she said "thank goodness they got the polyps." Well, maybe that helped, maybe not, because now her bowels are pretty much dysfunctional. Somehow I have my doubts she will still be around a year from now.
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I had wondered why they stopped giving us colonoscopies at age 70 (I think) but later realized it was over the fear of puncture and I was glad they did.
 
Babs2u said:
I had wondered why they stopped giving us colonoscopies at age 70 (I think) but later realized it was over the fear of puncture and I was glad they did.
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It's interesting to find your post just now, since she (lady with the puncture from colonoscopy) just called me a few minutes ago, and she's finally home after a month in the hospital. They had to create a new "hole" (there's another word for it that I can't remember) for her stomach to drain contents because the puncture had made normal evacuation impossible.

So . . . "they got the polyps" (her words) at a very dear price. I believe many of us have polyps and just don't know it. I've read that about 5-10% of adenomatous polyps (the most common type) will eventually become cancerous - so that means a 90-95% chance removal is unnecessary.
 
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