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How Does the Healthcare System in America Bankrupt its Citizens?

A look at how a simple thing has been corrupted over time

Anthony Andranik Moumjian

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According to Ben Shapiro, the United States has the best health facilities in the world. This framework is predicated on three things, of which Shapiro claims you can only have two: Affordability, universality, or quality.

A few weeks ago, my mom had an overnight stay at one of our fabulous facilities. I was 99% sure she had a staph infection — her hand was swollen. When I took her initially, I thought we would be in and out.

Nope.

15 hours of IV fluids with antibiotics.

I picked her up the next morning and she was fine. Swelling had gone done. They gave her antibiotics to take for another week.

The bill for all of that was $20,000.

We don’t pay for the full thing, by the way. Just half. The other half goes to you, the taxpayer. That also includes Shapiro.

For fluids. It’s estimated that a bag of distilled water, or saline, is going to run around 50 cents. Add in antibiotics and a 15-hour watch along with an MRI, and the magical number we get charged is $20,000.

It follows this chart, actually:

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Anthony Andranik Moumjian
Anthony Andranik Moumjian

Written by Anthony Andranik Moumjian

Los Angeles. Long-time runner. Top writer on Quora, 100M+ total content views. New to Medium. Inquiries: Moumj@berkeley.edu

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