sorry haven't been posting as much. The last week of really pouring on the hours of handwork, then the time loading and unloading, told me I can't put off getting some relief for my wrist/arm/elbow pain any longer. First thing Monday, I called and got someone else's cancellation with a GP, drove to Grove City, and saw Dr. Haley, whom I really liked. He sent me over to the hospital for x-rays and while giving her a complete background of my ss number, address, old address, maiden name, last married name, husband and my house number and cell numbers and where I last worked and all that, she said it would be a $200 deposit. Red Flag. Um, I want to pay it all today--what is the total? She didn't know. Several minutes later, I had my answer--$1000 and a bit more (for the radiologist to read what my doctor would read) for simple wrist and elbow x-rays. No dyes, no injections, no MRI, no brain scan, just wrist and elbow x-rays.
I walked out. I checked with the Marysville hospital and although the fees were different they stacked up the same: $1000.
Meanwhile, Husband scheduled his MRI for his shoulder and it was less than $400. He's taking my script with him to ask at that clinic if they have a better price.
So there you have it. You can buy a working vehicle in this country for double the cost of those x-rays. People around here pay less than that on taxes for their farm for a year. This is technology that has been around for decades and decades, and requires a tech earning $14.50 an hour (see job postings) to run it.
This is why we cannot have universal health care. Hospitals and clinics would simply jack up the prices to whatever they can quote with a straight face, the government would have to pay it, and we'd all be screwed. My solution? Let those without insurance go to facilities constructed on our military bases and have this work done. We have doctors and nurses in our armed forces, and bringing them home is O.K. with me. We have closed bases we can open up again and staff. Hire non-coms if needed. It can't require any more loss of privacy than I already have when I seek treatment. At this point, I'll let the government x-ray my arm, I trust a military medic as much as the private practice doctor I saw yesterday, and I bet you the military, after years of doing more with less funding, can figure out how to x-ray my wrist and elbow for far, far less than $1000.