Remember when President Obama promised America that ObamaCare would become the affordable healthcare Americans dreamed of? Well, according to a man who recently took a trip to an emergency room in New Jersey, that promise falls a little short from reality.
When Baer Hanusz-Rajkowski accidentally cut his finger with the claw-end of a hammer, he waited several days in hopes that it would heal on its own. When it didn’t, he went to the Bayonne Medical Center emergency room to get his wound taken care of.
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As NBC 4 New York reported, the nurse didn’t find that stitches were required; nor did Hanusz-Rajkowski’s finger need an X-ray.
All he needed was a tetanus shot and a bandage.
So when he received a bill that amounted to well over $8,000, he was shocked.
“If I severed a limb,” Hanusz-Rajkowski said, “I would carry it to the next emergency room in the next city before I go back to this place.”
While anywhere between $400 to $500 would be understandable for the shot and supplies to nurse his injury, the rest of the bill appears to take care of the visit to the emergency room.
Via the NBC 4 New York report:
Dr. Mark Spektor, president and CEO of Bayonne Medical Center, blamed the high ER bill on Hanusz-Rajkowski’s insurance company — United Healthcare…He says Hanusz-Rajkowski’s bill was so high because United fails to offer fair reimbursement rates.
But Mary McElrath-Jones, a spokeswoman for United Healthcare, suggested Carepoint is pursuing a predatory business model that avoids cutting price deals with insurers.
Fortunately for Hanusz-Rajkowski, his story has a happy ending since the insurance company chose to cover $6,640 of his bill; and the hospital eventually agreed to drop the rest of his debt.
The same cannot be said, however, for thousands of Americans who have to deal with similar situations on a daily basis.
Clearly, ObamaCare is not the “affordable healthcare” act America hoped it would be.