Whoever said health is wealth surely lived in the United States of America. They have a way of turning the lack of health into an abundance of wealth thanks to being one of the most expensive countries for medical treatment (among other things). A viral TikTok video has shed light on the tremendous expense incurred by a Covid-positive patient after a prolonged hospital stay in the US during the pandemic. TikTok account @letstalkaboutbusiness shared the video, claiming to show the cost of a four-month stay in an American hospital with Covid-19.
The video reveals the sad state of affairs as the man showed a rate list with a gross total of an astonishing $3 million. The clip also shows a breakdown of the list of charges, from anesthesia to physical therapy to a stay in the ICU, which in total come out to a whopping $2,850,776.10, to be exact. The viral video has garnered almost 9.5 million views only after being posted a few days ago.
Netizens are shocked beyond belief, and their comments made their disappointment in the healthcare system very evident, “The rest of the modern world laughs at the US healthcare scam,” one person wrote. There was another who openly bashed the country, saying, “The USA is not a country. It’s a business.” And another user quipped, “America truly is a 3rd world country in a Gucci belt.” Many people also tried to make sense of the situation and said that it’s the basic rate of the hospital that will come down if the person has health insurance.
However, it should be noted the Covid-19 patient does not have any health insurance. Even with insurance, most American insurance plans do not even cover the entire bill in the first place, leaving patients in thousands of dollars of debt more often than not.
No doubt the US is one of the most expensive places on the planet to fall sick, and insurance is probably more valuable than health itself. The person who posted the video rightly said, “I’ll update everyone on the cost after insurance in my next post. Honestly, this should be an advertisement for insurance.”
[Via: Newsweek]
