On Christmas Eve, my 2-year-old presented a fever and was in a lot of pain. Around 8:00-9:00PM, we took him to an urgent care/emergency room because nothing else was open. We arrived quickly, it was empty in there, and we were in a room within five minutes. The nurse took his vitals and the doctor came in, looked in his ear, and said it was an ear infection.
He wrote us a prescription and we were done: total visit was less than 15 minutes. We were quite shocked to later receive a bill for over $1500 just from the hospital and a second bill for more from the physician.
We already knew what the problem was, but couldn’t get the medication we needed (that cost less than $10) until seeing a doctor. Healthcare is completely broken in this country and the AMA [American Medical Association] is perpetuating this fraud as well. We need a complete overhaul of healthcare.
