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Insane Veterinarian bills
- Thread starter gfh77665
- Start date
First, I love dogs, apparent by my recent VERY LONG posts.
Im also an American and believe in the freedom to chose how we make our living and to charge whatever people will pay. ITs what makes us the country that we are.
I am no ones charity and I expect no one to be my charity.
Im surprised at some comments. The cost of health care for your pet is for you to chose, not dictate what someone should get paid.
Im also an American and believe in the freedom to chose how we make our living and to charge whatever people will pay. ITs what makes us the country that we are.
I am no ones charity and I expect no one to be my charity.
Im surprised at some comments. The cost of health care for your pet is for you to chose, not dictate what someone should get paid.
Well done! Being free to chose is all American.
AS you know our dog years back had to have his eyes removed. Many attempts to save them between 3 practices. An animal ophthalmology practice was one of them. They were nice enough to tell us the other non specialist practice he was seeing was perfectly capable and a good practice that could competently remove his eyes. They told us the cost would be 50% less at that practice vs theirs.
So we went to the regular practice, he lived a great next 3 healthy and HAPPY years of life until the age of 15 last month.
Bottom line we are all free to chose and practices are free to set their fees. I dont see anything wrong with that and good for you for finding a reasonable place!
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I agree that you can charge whatever you like, thats free enterprise.
However as a supposed expert and professional, when they over-sell un-needed services or use emotion to get you to commit to something "oh, your dog deserves the best", its manipulation or fraud.
If I put a can of corn for sale at $12, everyone knows what there getting and paying for. The reason medical is licensed is there supposed to be doing what's best for the patient, not lining their pockets. For the same reason we pay $3000 for a CT scan on a German built scanner while the Germans pay $300 for the same thing, or we pay $3000 for a month of patented pharmaceuticals while in Mexico they pay $150.
Call it what you want. I call it unethical. Par for the course - pretty much everyone at this point is trying to get one over on someone else. Putting your used oil back in the jug and returning it is no different than a vet way over-charging a patient simply because they figure they can get away with it.
There is a thin line if something goes wrong with a pet or a human if additional tests could have been done that might have prevented it. If a DR does not do them and something could have prevented we know that that means for the DR if it is pursued.
I can see you are unhappy with the system. Im very happy. I dont pay any of the costs you mention and feel very confident in the USA system. I also do not see any doctors lining their pockets and the institutions I go to are the best in the world. I have a young family member who has become a Dr, now in her internship. She would not have chose to do this again if she knew the insane hours, loss of free time and she makes a good living but worth all the costs? Her answer - No but she is finding her place, just pointing out it's not all gravy. Including the 6 figure educational debt.
If you have insurance your insurance company is not paying anything near those prices that you have listed. I might be speaking partly on emotion as I am about to take a trip to one of the most highest rated cancer centers in the USA and will barely cost me a dime. A team of 3 doctors will spend up to half a day with me and give thoughts on the best way to handle an early stage cancer. Early stage is because our health care system allowed 4 biopsy's and 3 MRI's over a 7 year period. Finally the reason for the high PSA was found and very early.
I wouldnt want to do this in any other place in the world and most people around the world want to come here if they can afford too. I already paid my co-pay for the 3 doctors, $10 each = $30.
Unrelated is a CT scan done just this month. My scan was clean, I will get these scans every year for the rest of my life, I do not have lung cancer but if it ever starts up it will be caught VERY early.
The good news is, in the USA you are entitled under Medicare once over 65 for annual lung cancer screenings if you were an x smoker. Lung cancer caught by a CT scan is VERY early cancer and has a high cure rate. As my Dr told me, if it shows up under a typical x-ray it is most likely game over. Anyway, the cost for the CT scan you mention is $99 paid for by my health plan. If you didnt have insurance it would cost $300.
I just vacationed in the Philippines. The masses do not have health insurance or a medicare system. If you get something like cancer, you die. Unless you are wealthy, then you can afford to pay, costs are VERY reasonable because so few can afford. Supply and demand structures costs as well as standard of living. Im sure a UAW worker here after 10 years on the job makes more then a Dr in the Philippines or maybe even Mexico.
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You missed the point. A regular CT scan - neck to thighs - at MUSC (a public hospital) is billed at $3300. That is what you would pay if you didn't have insurance, or were out of network.
BCBS pays roughly $550 for this scan. I know - I have had it. So I pay it, unless I hit my deductible. My employer pays approximately $20K a year for BCBS for my family with a I believe $5K deductible and I forget total out of pocket max. - so $550 is cheap for a CT but insurance is not.
Apparently medicare pays $264, if in fact its the same thing. Actually sounds about right - Medicare typically pays at or under cost, and others subsidize it.
In Germany I could walk in off the street and pay $300 for the same scan on the same machine. Its the same with big Pharma. Americans Pay high prices because we can. So we subsidize drugs that can then be sold in the third world for a fraction of the cost.
You don't care because you don't have to pay anymore - but in reality it gets paid for somewhere by someone. Neither of us can do anything about it, but I certainly am not going to condone the behavior. The number one reason for personal bankruptcy in the USA is medical debt.
Either way, I wish you the best with your illness and treatment.
Yes, costs are higher if you do not carry insurance. That is key, carry insurance. Isnt that required by law now in the USA? Under the ACA? Actually the US taxpayer pays it if you do not have the means.
I mean we have a huge network of resources, even you yourself paid significantly less for the full body scan. My highest cost will be a co-pay if they do a pet scan (which I want) my cost will be $300 co/pay. MRI is more like $150. Another thing, and I think, at least at one time our Canadian friends to the north used to post that some would come here for a MRI as the waiting list up there was up to 4 or 6 months. That was about 10 years ago. Here you can get one in days.
PS, thanks for the good wishes. I am sure I will be fine but it really does suck to hear that word cancer, even at very early stage. Im a REALLY health kind of person and really take care of myself so it bothers me some.
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I won't go into all the details but yes that bills are expensive and toward the end of my dog's life it was around $2,500 in bills for basically nothing but a few pills and a lot of shuck and jiveing from the veterinarian saying well you can do MRIs and you can do this and that at this cost etc etc, which would have put me on the street with the rest of the homeless here in Southern California.
I refused to pay and they started doing the car salesman routine where they would go back and forth into their little office with the vet and reduce the price. That pretty much told me everything that it's a what the market will bear attitude and how sad you seem. They do look at your emotion.
At 67 now I am planning on doing some traveling and not going to have a pet any longer it's too heartbreaking and too costly on my living income.
I think that's something every senior should keep in their mind is that it can get very expensive and can they afford it. Or the dog or cat might outlive them!
I refused to pay and they started doing the car salesman routine where they would go back and forth into their little office with the vet and reduce the price. That pretty much told me everything that it's a what the market will bear attitude and how sad you seem. They do look at your emotion.
At 67 now I am planning on doing some traveling and not going to have a pet any longer it's too heartbreaking and too costly on my living income.
I think that's something every senior should keep in their mind is that it can get very expensive and can they afford it. Or the dog or cat might outlive them!
I bury my animals . Cept for the Horse. In really liked the horse even though she was the spawn of Satan.
I had to shoot one of my dogs after she was hit by a car. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do to this day, though she was brain dead.
Later I found scuff marks on the butt of my 22 and asked my kids about it, as my guns are kept pristine. My oldest said I threw it after shooting her and collapsed in grief. I didn’t recall doing that.
I sure debated about hauling her to the vet to try and save her, but the 22 bullet was $0.05.
Growing up the neighbor would shoot ours as needed, and we would return the courtesy. The vet would not come up to do it, and were very expensive. The stress to pet to travel to the vet's office would be worse.
I can totally understand your actions and grief.