Hospital Bill Has Arrived
Posted on: October 30, 2008 by Matt No Comments
I recently went to the hospital to have my ear checked out. At the time I was not too concerned and knew that I had to get the problem taken care of. While I was fully aware that my insurance was not very good and expected to pay out of pocket for the visit I had no idea what it would cost.
Well, the bill came in yesterday and was for about $275. I was in the clinic for roughly an hour of which time I think I spent maybe 10 minutes with a health care provider. Most of my time was spent waiting. The services provided included diagnosing the eczema in my ear and flushing wax deposits from my ears for good measure.
At first I was a little irritated with the amount on the bill. I cursed my insurance for not covering anything and then blamed the health care industry for having costs that were so high. I had to pause for a minute and remember a few of the positive items about the visit like:
- Since my visit to the clinic the eczema in my ear has cleared up so I suppose the trip was worth while.
- My insurance might not be very good for general office visits but does cover everything above the $2,000 deductible. If something horrible were to happen I would be ok.
- I have an expense check coming in from my recent trip to Denver that will cover most of the bill.
Overall I was probably more upset that I have to adjust my budget to pay for a hospital visit which will impact how quickly I can repay some debt. Not the end of the world and my health is probably more important than creditors.
Of course now that I have been effected by the cost of health care I am a bit more interested in the upcoming election. Both candidates have some new health care plans and while I have made my decision I will probably re-read the health care plans of both candidates. Also – I will probably take a harder look at the HSA offered by my company and look into opening an account to help offset large bills in the future.
Have you had any medical bills that caught you off guard? It seems that all costs related to seeing a doctor always are higher than I would anticipate. I would be interested to hear how other people fare when visiting health care professionals.
