HOW MUCH For That Band-Aid?

The local ER is "public health care". Anyone and everyone can walk in and get treated "for free" if they can't pay.

But what about those of us who can pay?

My wife recently broke her big toe (on a Sunday evening). She dropped a cast iron bread pan on it! Ouch!

She was in A LOT of pain. And she happened to be pregnant. So we didn't dare give her mega-doses of whatever pain-killers we had at home.

We took her to the ER.

After waiting an hour or two, we saw the doctor. He looked at her toe and said, "Yep, it's probably broken. Since you're pregnant, we won't do an x-ray. That wouldn't do any good anyway. We can't put a cast on it. It will heal on it's own."

"But what about the pain, doc? Can't you inject something to kill the pain?"

"Nope. The needle would hurt as bad as the break," he said. "It would wear off too quick, anyway, and then we'd be back to where we started. The best to do is wash it, wrap it up, and send you home with a prescription for Vicodin and an antibiotic."

And that's what they did. One person washed her toe with hydrogen peroxide and sterile water. Another wrapped it in gauze. A third wrote the prescriptions, and sent us home -- all in about four hours.

Mind you, no painkiller was administered, no drugs, no IV, no x-ray. Just WASH, GAUZE, and a PRESCRIPTION (which we still had to pay for elsewhere).

I got my bill yesterday.

What do you think the total was?

$1,082!

Can you believe it??!

Outrageous bills for minimal service are what we get with public health care and a "single-payer" ("government-pays") insurance system. If I were paying the bill on my own, there's NO WAY the doctor could justify charging me that much. The hospital knows I have insurance, however, so they bill my insurance company through the roof to pay for everyone else who isn't paying. Over $1000? For what? Essentially, a band aid? Are they CRAZY?!

No, they're not crazy. They're just trying to stay financially afloat in a system that is bankrupting them.

Imagine if you owned a restaurant where EVERYONE could come and eat at any time -- as much as they wanted! -- WITHOUT PAYING.That is our current health care system. Under a "universal" health care system, the demand for services would only increase -- and costs would soar! (And they are!)

My co-pay was $100. In a time of distress, with my wife in great pain, with a baby on the way, I'm willing to pay $100 so see that her toe is taken care of.

But $1,082 for a band-aid?

Forget it!

That Didn't Take Long

Only a few days after Pennsylvania senator "Benedict" Arlen Specter defected to the Democrats (giving them a filibuster-proof majority), David Souter (liberal justice extraordinaire) retires.

I've never liked Specter. He is an immoral, self-serving politician who has savaged and betrayed conservatives and their principles whenever they have stood in the way of his career. A RINO, for sure. Good riddance!

Now Obama can appoint whomever he wants. Expect to see the hardest-left liberal of all time seated on the bench.

UPDATE: Obama selected Judge Sotomayor, a hard-core liberal activitist judge who believes her Hispanic ethnicity enables her to make better decisions than "a white male". She belongs to LA RAZA and several other racist and sexist organizations. She effectively shot down a "reverse discrimination" case brought by white firefighters who were denied promotions when no blacks similarly passed the "race-neutral" examination process. In the interest of "social justice", liberals believe equality of incomes and outcomes must be assured, regardless of merit. She fits the mold.