my wife went to an ER for lower stomach pain.... they wanted to test for rec drugs, I kept telling them she wasnt on anything and she wasnt after pills tja t she needed a ct scan or some shit and we werent paying for a drug test.... anyway they took some blood for "tests" and then billed me a grand for blood testing for EACH DRUG (8 grand total), and then threatened legal action when I refused to pay
That is brutal.
My story's not nearly that bad but it reminds me of when I was poor-ass waiter with no healthcare insurance and had just injured the tips of both forefingers when I was putting the 110-lb DB's back in the rack after a set of shrugs. The plates on the DB's were a little bit askew from people dropping them so when I put them in place, neither was exactly locked in and, like an idiot, I kept both hands on both DB's while I rotated the right one to get it to fall into place and it, of course, promptly fell off squashing my right finget and, because I spazzed as this was happening, the same thing then happened to the left. (Not my finest hour.)
There was a lot of blood and I was worried about bone damage so I went to emergency where, after an x-ray showed no bone damage and I didn't even lose my left fingernail (the right was a goner and hanging by a thread right away), the hospital cleaned me up (I'm a chalk user), and then stitched me up. After, I was that I'd need to change my bandages frequently so they wanted to give me some supplies. I knew that was a bad move so I told them "No, Walgreen's is around the corner" but they insisted. And my dumbass gf agreed with them. Sure enough, though, those motherfuckers, they'd charged me about $150- for what I could get at Walgreen's for maybe $20.00. THIS is the real story of what's wrong with healthcare, if you ask me. And don't get me started about Ambulance charges these days -- Personally, no matter what my injury, if I'm conscious I'll fight with ambulance guys to avoid one of those way-too-costly rides.