exorbitant medical bill

The cover story of the latest issue of TIME magazine has a very interesting and comprehensive coverage to explain the exorbitant medical bill in the U.S. A few weeks ago, there was a posted medical bill on FB to show US$21,459 bill for 6-hour stay in hospital for just a simple indigestion problem. From TIME's 7-month studious work on this issue, it found the hospital charges are typically 12-15 times higher than their costs. ( 廣達 has 3% profit; Apple has a covetous 65% profit, still way behind hospitals' 1200% profit margin). Even you have medical insurance and even with heavy discount from insurance company, the average final payment from you and insurance company is still around 35%-40% of the itemized bills (The posted bill has US$8,016 payment which is 37% of $21,459 with $3,526 from patient and $4,490 from insurance company.) That is, even with heavy discount, hospitals still make 450% profits.
The charge of CBC (complete blood count) test in this bill in Atlanta, GA, is US$295 while it is $157.51 in Stamford, CT as reported by TIME. But Medicare (a government-run medical insurance agency for the elderly with extremely large leverage) only paid $11.02 to hospitals for CBS test since it is the true cost for CBS test.
Princeton Medical Center recently relocated to my town, Plainsboro, NJ with an imposing glass skyscraper and ethereal decorations inside which makes me feel it is a super 5-star luxurious hotel rather than a philanthropic hospital.

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