Chengjie Zheng, an obstetrician and gynecologist, shared his “first experience of seeing a doctor in the United States“. He traveled to Alaska in late June and fell accidentally while skiing. He went to the emergency room and found two broken ribs. He only had blood draws, urine tests and computer tests that day. After doing several CT scans and chatting with the doctor for 6 minutes, he finally received a sky-high bill of NT$415,000. He couldn’t help but sigh how happy Taiwanese are.
Zheng Chengjie, an obstetrician and gynecologist, recently shared on Facebook that he traveled to the United States in late June and accidentally fell down while skiing in the snow. There was nothing serious at the moment, but 4 days later he developed symptoms of lower back pain. Later, he coughed, hiccupped, Sneezing or even taking a deep breath hurts, so I went to the hospital urgently, and it was found that my ribs were broken.
Zheng Chengjie said that he went to the emergency department of the largest hospital in Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, on June 23, and stayed in the emergency room for more than 6 hours. In addition to basic blood and urine tests, he also had a computerized tomography scan. , and finally found two broken ribs, presumably caused by skiing, falling and rolling, because it is a disease that will heal naturally, so I took a painkiller injection and went home. Later, when he received the bill, the price was 415,000 yuan in Taiwan dollars.
Zheng Chengjie pointed out that after carefully comparing the charges in the bill, he found that the cost of CT scanning was equivalent to about 280,000 Taiwan dollars, which is about 55 times that of Taiwan’s 5,035 yuan, which is really scary. In addition, he actually only talked with the doctor for 6 minutes in the emergency room that day, and spent the rest of the time waiting. The space usage fee in the emergency room was converted into NT$200,000, which is more than a hundred times that of Taiwan. It feels like staying in the presidential suite of a hotel once, and I took a bottle of saline solution of about NT$8,500.
Zheng Chengjie said that he must pay the bill first before he can apply for a refund of the health insurance with the receipt. If the health insurance is paid based on the average emergency expenses in Taiwan in the current season, I don’t know if he can get 4,150 yuan, that is, 1% of the bill. Fortunately, he has accident insurance, otherwise this bill is really amazing.
Zheng Chengjie sighed and said that after this first experience of American medical care, he felt that Taiwanese people are really very happy. They have universal health insurance, which is envied by the whole world. They should be cherished and should not be wasted or abused. The government should strengthen investment in medical care. Everyone should also accept a moderate increase in insurance premiums in order to make the health care system sustainable.
(He Liwen, China Times News Network)
further reading
Part of the burden of emergency department changes to hospital-level charges
Part of the burden of health insurance new system 5 key purse-saving
Part of the burden of health insurance will be increased by 200 yuan when it goes on the road in July.
The post He received a bill of 415,000 in 6 minutes after going to the emergency room in the United States appeared first on Business Times.