r/HealthInsurance • u/leDanielx2 • Jun 22 '25

Individual/Marketplace Insurance 5 min ER visit cost 1300$

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My wife is expecting. A few months ago, the baby stopped kicking and we got worried. It was hospital after hours, so only the ER was open. After 5 minutes of being in the checkup room baby starts kicking. So altogether a 15 min visit. Cost us 1350. And this is WITH insurance. Our medical system is so freaking broken I don’t understand how we put up with it as a country. What an absolute scam

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60

u/Berchanhimez PharmD - Pharmacist Jun 22 '25

An ER is the most expensive place to get care, because you're paying for the fact they have doctors on site 24/7, not just general emergency doctors but often a dozen or more specialists at least on call 24/7 to come in at the drop of a pin. And you're paying for the fact that they have an on site lab to run tests, various equipment like MRI/CT/etc.

So yes, all other things being equal (such as what was actually done, how long it took, etc), a visit to an ER is going to cost a lot more than that same visit would at an urgent care, an OB/Gyn office, or a primary care doctor. This isn't unique to the US either.

31

u/Mountain-Arm6558951 Moderator Jun 22 '25

Also another thing that makes it more expensive is that the hospital must treat anyone who shows up at the door and they may have no insurance or be underinsured.

Ultimately, that cost gets past on to others.

Indeed a broken system... I rather see people to get treatment then get turned away.

15

u/prefix_code_16309 Jun 23 '25

Something like 50% of care given at the ER where I work is unreimbursed. Unfortunately, prices therefore go up for the other half to compensate. If you ran the average grocery store using our business model, they'd be closed in a week. Thank you to the legislators who passed EMTALA with no funding mandate.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

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u/AllTheShadyStuff Jun 23 '25

Go ahead, then they’ll close the rural hospitals first, and the big hospitals farther away will be more busy and some people may die

5

u/sat_ops Jun 23 '25

That happened where I live. The local public hospital closed because the county was already poor, then the only big factory closed. No one paid their bills, so the utilities got turned off and they went bankrupt.

So then everyone went to the public hospital in the next county, who sold itself to a big Catholic health system to avoid the obligations of a public hospital. Now the public hospital in the county on the OTHER side is about to collapse.

There are spots where the nearest cardiologist is a 45-60 minute ambulance ride away, and the nearest neurosurgeon is well over an hour away by road. Then, since the towns can't afford more than one ambulance crew (if they aren't volunteers), the town is left with no EMS coverage for three hours while they run the first guy to the hospital.

My town always has two ambulance crews (county seat), but when I woke up paralyzed in one leg a couple of months ago and needed to get to the ER, I drug myself through the house and laid down in the back of my car and had my SO drive because I didn't want to take away a crew at rush hour to get me to the specific hospital my doctor wanted me to go to.