This morning I went again to Carla's church at Meeker, with Bruce and Rosalyn.
Rosalyn is also a friend of Carla - they were in the same local Choral Society - but she was unable to come with me last Sunday because she was playing the organ at Emmanuel, but wanted to celebrate Carla's new ministry, so she and Bruce kindly invited me to go with them this morning, and afterwards invited Carla and I to lunch. We went to a new Italian restaurant in Shawnee, and it was all very pleasant.
Afterwards Rosalyn sent me home with some homeopathic remedies for my injured foot, something to take by mouth, and an ointment for the foot, and some organic foods. It was so kind, I do appreciate them both.
On the subject of said injured foot, it actually looks worse, a lot more bruised. I wonder if the boot cast is too tight, and I am looking forward to seeing the doctor on Tuesday, but at the moment I am not feeling very optimistic that the foot is mending.
Medical costs in this country are outrageous. Not just outrageous as in "high", but as in "rip off".
For example: Tylenol - a pain relieving tablet - costs $1.49 on Amazon, for 100. A hospital patient is charged $1.50 EACH. A hospital patient is also charged $77 for a box of gauze pads. This is just two examples out of thousands.
A 64 year old woman in CT had chest pains, she was taken 4 miles by ambulance to the ER, to a hospital which is officially supposed to be "non profit". She spent three hours there, was told she had indigestion, and sent home. She was billed $995 for the ambulance; $3000 for the doctors, and $17,000 for the hospital. The CEO of this "non profit" hospital earns $1,860,000. The Chief Financial Officer receives $744,000.
The source of these figures is 'A Bitter Pill' by Steven Brill in the current edition of Time magazine.
With costs like these, imagine the cost of the surgery to my foot. Even if I was fully insured, or extremely wealthy, I would strongly resent this outrageous profiteering. 61% of all bankruptcies in this country are caused by medical bills.
Our NHS is far from perfect, but is wonderful compared to this.
I am still mystified by the fact that twice as many people are reading this blog, than read the previous one. Is it twice as interesting?
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