I had an episode, a freak occurrence in fact, where I shortly went unconscious and purged my recently eaten soup. My poor wife (who is a nurse) witnessed the whole episode and rushed me to the local ER {actually the one she works at}. Many tests were taken and luckily nothing was found. I have health insurance and I knew that mostly everything would be covered. I spent about 2.5 hours in the ER saw a few very nice nurses, a few PAs, and I think I saw an actual doctor. (I don't remember seeing the doctor, but my bill said I did...)
Once I received the ER bill I was astonished! I had to pay over $1,500 out of pocket for this visit!!-A couple of Bags of saline
-CT scan
- Xray
- Time with medical staff
_____________________
Actual total was $8,000 (before my health care coverage)
Again, I have health insurance. Yes, I only paid a small percentage of the actual cost. BUT, I was still out of pocket, $1,500. I've got plenty of things I'd rather buy with that amount of CASH. That's $600/hr I paid.
While this type of care could never be converted to a Medical Tourism trip, it made me think much harder about what a major procedure would have cost me out of pocket.
What if I needed a surgery? I'd have to dip deeper into my savings, even more than I did for this one. What if I'm one of the millions of Americans who don't have a savings built up or one that's been depleted?
Word to the wise (seriously, no pun intended), before you get that procedure done check to see what the final and total out of pocket costs will be. EVEN if you are insured.
Choose WISEly! (pun intended)
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