StanceGrounded SJPeace the Horrors of Socialized Medicine a First Hand Experience by Kevin Bozeat We Need Universal Healthcare! RETWEET THIS the Horrors of Socialized Medicine a First Hand Experience a Few Days Ago My Stomach Began to Hurt Thinking It Would Pass I Went Home to Try and Rest for the Night a Bit Later I Vomited I Thought That Was the End of It but for the Rest of the Night I Kept Vomiting Almost Every 30-40 Minutes Even After My Stomach Was Completely Empty I Kept Vomiting Soon It Was Nothing but Stomach Fluid and Bile I Tried to Drink Water to Stay Hydrated but I Kept Throwing It Up No Matter How Hard I Tried to Keep It This Could Have Easily Cost Me Hundreds or Even Thousands in the US Without Insurance but Here in Taiwan I Was Able to Receive Speedy Quality Care Comparable to What I Would Have Gotten in a US Hospital for Relatively Small Amount of Money Given This Experience I No Longer Have a Reason to Fear or Hesitate Getting Care in Taiwan Should I Ever Need It America It's Time to Stop Making Excuses 316 PM Feb 25 2019 Twitter for Android 19K Retweets 36K Likes the Horrors of Socialized Medicine a First Hand Experience a Few Days Ago My Stomach Began to Hurt Thinking It Would Pass I Went Home to Try and Rest for the Night a Bit Later I Vomited I Thought That Was the End of It but for the Rest of the Night L Kept Vomiting Almost Every 30-40 Minutes Even After My Stomach Was Completely Empty I Kept Vomiting Soon It Was Nothing but Stomach Fluid and Bile I Tried to Drink Water to Stay Hydrated but I Kept Throwing It Up No Matter How Hard I Tried to Keep It Down by 3am I Had Severe Stomach Cramps My Body Kept Trying to Vomit Even Though There Was Nothing Left I Was Dizzy and Light-Headed My Symptoms Showed No Signs of Abating at This Point I Had to Seek Medical Treatment I Knew Had to Go to the Hospital I Wanted to Avoid It I Had No Idea How Different Taiwanese Hospitals Would Be Whether I Would Be Able to Find an English Speaking Doctor or What It Would Cost Me My US Health Insurance Has Lapsed and I Don't Qualify for Taiwanese NHI My Taiwanese Roommate Called a Taxi and Took Me to the ER at NTU Hospital I Was Immediately Checked-In by an English Speaking Nurse Within 20 Minutes I Was Given IV Fluids and Anti-Emetics They Took Blood Tests and Did an Ultrasound to Ensure It Wasn't Gall Stones or Appendicitis From There I Was Given a Diagnosis a Particularly Severe Case of Acute Viral Gastroenteritis Aka the Stomach Flu After About 3 Hours on an IV I Began to Feel Slightly Better My Nausea Disappeared and My Stomach Began to Calm Down I Was Discharged With a Prescription for Anti-Emetics and Pain Medication Each Day Since Lve Gotten Progressively Better and Am Now Pretty Much Back to Normal the Bill for the ER Visit? US$8000 Eighty American Dollars Out of Pocket Full Cost No Discounts No Insurance at One of the Best Hospitals in Taiwan and if I Had NHI It Would Have Been a Fraction of That This Could Have Easily Cost Me Hundreds or Even Thousands in the US Without Insurance but Here in Taiwan I Was Able to Receive Speedy Quality Care Comparable to What I Would Have Gotten in a US Hospital for Relatively Small Amount of Money Given This Experience I No Longer Have a Reason to Fear or Hesitate Getting Care in Taiwan Should I Ever Need It America It's Time to Stop Making Excuses Corvussy Thatpettyblackgirl the US Has No Excuse Some Great Examples of Us Hospitals Setting Pretty Exorbitant Prices for Health Care the Infamous $629 Bandaid Woman Charged $40 for Holding Her Baby After a C-Section Two South Korean Tourists Took Their Baby to the ER Where He Was Only Given Some Formula and Took a Nap Before Being Discharged but Were Given a $18836 Bill Canadian Man Gets Heart Surgery in Florida and Is Billed Over 600k USD Some More Pictures of People’s Hospital Bills a Public Hospital’s ER Is Out-Of-Network With All Private Insurances Resulting in Many Patients Being Stuck With Unreasonable Bills and Eventually Resulting in a Class Action Lawsuit Over Their Billing Practices Annual Healthcare Spending in the US Is Estimated at 35 Trillion and Billing Prices Are Pretty Much Unfair and Inconsistent Even for Insured Patients With Legal Loopholes and Hospital Discretion in Setting Prices Billing Announcements and Million Dollar Hospital Bills on the Rise Top 35 Most Expensive Health Conditions in the US Just… Facility Fees Hospitals Are More Likely to Tell You How Much Parking Costs Than How Much a Basic ECG Test Costs Meaning They Probably Inflate Prices Arbitrarily for Patients… Possibly on an Individual Basis Hospitals Are Magically Able to “discount” Hospital Bills to Less Than a Thousand Dollars for Patients That Receive National Attention in Media X X People in the US Are Less Likely to Seek Medical Care Because of High Prices Even Though 42% of Doctors Believe Their Patients Are Receiving Too Much Health Care Falsely