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The $10 aspirin

Posted by
Walter Geiger
in Opinion
Saturday, April 10. 2010
Comments (18)
By Dr. Spencer Price

Why do hospitals charge 10 bucks for an aspirin? If you’ve ever been a patient in a hospital, you’ve probably asked yourself that very question after reviewing your bill. And it’s a valid question. After all, if you can buy a bottle of aspirin at the drug store for pennies per pill why, then, does a hospital find it necessary to charge 10 dollars for one? Is it a rip-off, a scam perpetrated on ill and vulnerable patients by heartless hospital administrators bent on making a profit regardless of the economic hardship thrust upon individual patients and society at large? Hardly. As angry as you might be at the notion of a hospital charging $10 for an aspirin, the reason they do so will truly make your blood boil.

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#1 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 11:56 AM
What's the excuse for the pharmacy's outrageous prices for prescription drugs, that is located on the corner of every downtown drug store in America? Could it be that the pharmaceutical company lobbyist are giving kickbacks to the prescribing physicians?
#2 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 12:43 PM
these bills dont just get forgotten about..........believe me. my husband and i will be paying back 100 dollars a month for the rest of our lives probably.
#3 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 01:27 PM
This is where the 'Tea Party's' efforts (cost of health care, in general) should be focused, anyway. The healthcare system in this country has been broken for a long time.
#4 Dale on 04/10/10 at 02:04 PM
Isn't that part of why there's a $695 penalty for not buying health insurance? Given the difficulty of enforcing any kind of forced payment for health services, a mandate penalty seems to be an efficient way to collect money for this kind of thing.

The most efficient way would be single payer - just have everybody put their health care money into a big pot, collected by the IRS, and then take it out as needed. Under such a system you'd have to have a lot of regulation and oversight to keep costs under control, but that would most likely cost far less than what we're paying for our so-called system now.

If you really want to get costs to rock bottom, just deregulate the whole thing and make insurance illegal. When people have to pay their own way they tend not to spend as much on health care.
#5 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 03:49 PM
When you walk into a doctor's office, and the first thing that you see on the receptionist's desk is a sign that says... "We take Visa & Mastercard...", then there's your clue that you're about to get taken to the cleaners.

Usually, there's also a sign that says payment is expected at the time, that services are rendered... Don't you just feel sorry for these doctors & hospitals that claim that they are not making any money...
#6 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 03:50 PM
i would hate to be one of those patients who doesnt pay his hospital bill; who has to see Dr.Price in the E. R.....I would hope he would treat me as well as he would a medicare patient or a blue cross patient.....but judging by his columns, I would be afraid he would try to get me out of there as soon and as cheap as possible.....i bet i wouldnt get the same amount of x-rays and lab work as an insurance patient.....and folks, that is why we need a single payer system
#7 anonyous on 04/10/10 at 04:30 PM
The outrageous amounts the hospitals and doctors charge is exactly the reason why alot of us seniors don't go. You can't afford to get sick.Alot times people go the emergency room for a simple cold and the cost is passed on to people like you and me.Some of the medications are given to doctors and hospitals from the drug companys free of charges.What happen to ole remedies that our parents and grandparents used, they still work.You need ask some of us seniors what a story we could tell
#8 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 05:08 PM
It's kinda' like taking your pet to the Vet. They treat the animal for what's ailing it, but then you are on a package deal treatment plan from that day forward... You reckon that it's just that they want to keep you coming back to see them? You reckon, lol!!!

They didn't get to where they're at by being a bunch of dummies...
#9 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 06:57 PM
I got an MRI 3 weeks ago and no one ever called me. I called once and they promised to check and call back, they didn't. Then I called gains and they said they had been trying for days to reach a specialist and would call back. They never did. On Friday at noon they all close.

I have health insurance and the make me pay my copay. They don't call.

One time I went and had Xrays and the doctor order the wrong xrays and the doctor billed me an $85 office call for the follow up anyway, even though he just wanted to send me back to get the other side xrayed. We've got bigger problems than $10 aspirins. We got us some real slackers. They all have time to complain about money and write articles. Just don't have time to work.
#10 anonyous on 04/10/10 at 07:18 PM
Eventually it might get to point they will review your medical problems. If you have alot wrong with you, they won't treat you. So you are left to hope for the best.Can we depend on our children and grandchildren to take care of us? I don't think so , sorry MOM and DAD, we don't have the time. we going out with friends. Its very depressing don't you agree?
#11 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 08:10 PM
hey people..its capitalism. keep voting republican.
#12 Anonymous on 04/10/10 at 08:28 PM
I added a doctor to my facebook friends list once and noticed that she belonged to all kinds of groups against health care reform. And constantly she would post photos of all the beautiful vacations she took her family on basically every weekend. I saw her in a whole different light.
#13 Steve the Rational One on 04/11/10 at 04:45 AM
Cost pressures for health care exist at multiple locations within the system. Physicians often graduate with well over $100,000 in student loans, malpractice insurance is egregiously high, and health insurance for regular folks is outrageous. Add to that the cost of new medical equipment that specialist physicians need to stay competitive as businesses (like color 3-D ultrasound), and you have a cost spiral that is completely out of control.

I am sure that there are wealthy physicians, but most of the ones I know are middle class. They make good money to be sure, but the real problem is insurance companies.

In the case of may family, in ten years, the co-pay for a doctor's visit has gone from $15 to $35, while the provider I use has increased its fee far more modestly. The cost of my insurance has increased so dramatically over the past decade that I can't help but think that there is some kind of scam going on. I suspect that money is being stashed in reserve accounts all over the place and that insurance companies never really "lose" money.

In my view, that is where the biggest part of the problem lies--with insurance companies scamming millions of Americans with ever-increasing rates, lower payouts, and off-shore reserve accounts.
#14 csb on 04/11/10 at 07:12 AM
the biggest reason aspirins are $10.00 a pill is to pay for the other 35 million people that get free health care or don't have insurance and of course all the aliens that just get it free.
#15 Anonymous on 04/11/10 at 03:47 PM
well then the solution is simple...renounce your US citizenship.
#16 Scott13 on 04/14/10 at 10:50 AM
Another issue with hospital costs that angers me is the non-insured paying patient is charged full cost while the insurance negotiates a reduced rate for the exact same procedure. So not only are the paying patients subsidizing the indigent patients who either won't or can't pay, they are subsidizing the insurance companies who have the clout to force hospitals to reduce charges. It would be nice had our government addressed this and used a big pool of national buying power to negotiate better rates for every patient. That would have been one advantage of the single payer system that the insurance, pharmaceutical mfgs and medical companies were able to buy their way out of.
#17 Anonymous on 04/14/10 at 12:15 PM
do not blame the republicans for all the mess going on. dumocrats have their fair share, maybe even more than the pubs. And we sit on our blessed assurance and vote all of them back in!
#18 Anonymous on 04/14/10 at 01:06 PM
To everyone that commented on their physicians and hospitals charging them, making lots of money, or taking 3 weeks to get a report... my suggestion is that you open your own medical facility and offer free care to everyone that comes to the door...when you cant pay your staff or your light bill, you might realize that a doctor is no different than a mechanic, he is the best you could ever want until its time to pay him and then you complain about how much he charged you and how long he took to get your car back to you. As far as getting your test report... I have waited 4 weeks to get an appt, 2 more weeks to get a report and then a week to get my follow up appt, if you only waited 3 weeks then your doctor is on the ball.
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