Denis: I thought it was cheap. Unless you have had a hospital stay recently most people don't know how ridiculous it is. $10.000-$15,000 per day is not unusual. A major illness with ICU and stay 4-6 weeks you can easily exceed $1 million. I am, or at least used to be, an accountant, CPA, Ph.D. all those other letters behind my name, and I can tell you that the accounting/billing/cost determination systems in hospitals makes no sense whatsoever. It's even worse than pricing seats on an airline. And the accountants for the hospitals can't explain it to you either. The healthcare system in the US needs total overhaul (and do not read political intent into this) and ObamaCare is not the answer. Did you know that some of the better hospitals are built and owned by doctors? Well, did you know that under ObamaCare doctors are no longer able to own, build, or expand hospitals in which they have an equity interest unless they owned them prior to December 31, 2010. One of the leading orthopedic hospitals in East Texas is owned by a group of doctors and they were planning a $34 million expansion which is now on hold under ObamaCare. They have filed a lawsuit against the feds claiming this provision in the new health care law is unconstitutional. Maybe one day we will get health care straightened out, but I don't think I will live that long. Sorry for venting but cost of health care touches a nerve. --- On Tue, 12/7/10, Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx> wrote: From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx> Subject: [tcb] Denis' medical bills update. To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 4:10 PM I thought that the $30,000+ total cost for falling off the deck was nuts, well today I actually spoke to the very nice hospital billing office lady who corrected me. The actual total bill before insurance was $83,362.67! That does not include the doctor’s, radiology, ambulance, emergency room or oxygen bills. Shirley said this is what it cost to put me back on my feet for the next event, a deer?