Andy Rooney on Health Care Costs

This page was last updated on Monday, June 20, 2005 12:56:28 PM

RAISING MY BLOOD PRESSURE

By Andy Rooney

Tribune Media Services


Several times in the past five years, I've had some medical attention from doctors like ophthalmologists, orthopedists and cardiologists, or semi-doctors like podiatrists, optometrists and chiropractors. In each case, I've showed my card from United Healthcare, with whom I am insured as a CBS News employee. As I've left these various offices, the person at the desk says something like, "The co-pay is $25." I pay and leave.

Several months ago, I had a bad toenail and chose a "podiatrist" from the yellow pages. The man seemed competent and after he worked on my foot, I put on my shoes and stopped at the front desk. The woman there said, "Your part, the co-pay, is $35." That seemed about right for what the podiatrist did, so I wrote a check.

The woman's "Your part" rang in my ears, though, and I said, "How much was the other part?" She shuffled through her papers and said, "Your insurance provider pays $475." This was for 10 minutes' work on a toenail.

Something is seriously wrong with our health care system. It's an institutional rip-off. A General Motors official said this week that health-care benefits for employees were adding $1,500 to the cost of every car. It's wrong because the money has little to do with our health, and it isn't the doctors or the nurses who are benefitting.

Last month, I came to the office one day and didn't feel good. By noon, I felt worse, so I called my doctor and went to the hospital where he has an office.

He checked me over, poking in all the old familiar places, and couldn't find anything wrong. However, but he was apprehensive about a possible heart problem and said it would be a good idea if he admitted me to the hospital overnight.

I had a room with just one bed and was impressed by the attention I got. You can't tell who's a nurse in a hospital anymore. Nurses used to wear cute little hats but they don't anymore so you don't know who's a nurse and who isn't. And everyone wears a stethoscope. They used to be doctors, but now even the people who empty the wastebaskets wear stethoscopes.

From early on to all night long people kept coming in to take things. They took my temperature, my blood pressure, blood samples, urine samples, and they kept hitting me on the knee with that little rubber hammer to see if I jerked.

At one point, when one of them started to take my blood pressure by wrapping my arm in the elastic bandage, I said, "Someone just did that five minutes ago."

She ignored me and proceeded to take it again. I liked all the unnecessary attention, oblivious to the fact that each test was being entered on a chart at the desk for cost-accounting later.

My doctor came in with a cardiologist he had asked to look at me. They were impressive professionals, although neither wore a stethoscope. I spent the night with bells ringing in the hallway and the stethoscope women coming in every half hour to wake me and ask if I was sleeping OK.

I was released from the hospital the next morning, feeling like a fool for having said I didn't feel good in the first place.

In the following weeks, I got a bill from each doctor. They were reasonable and I paid them.

Yesterday, I received a statement from United Healthcare notifying me of my one-night hospital charges.

The breakdown from Mount Sinai Hospital reads:

"Room and board, $2,875. Not covered, $525."

"State of NY Surcharge, $207.98"

"Mount Sinai Hospital Misc. Services, $4,856.95. Amount allowed, $2,725.93."

"State of NY Surcharge, $241.24

"TOTAL: $8,181.17"

Eight thousand one hundred and eighty one dollars for my one-night stay in Mount Sinai Hospital.

If the word "dishonest" is too strong as a description of the bill, how about "unhonest"?

Like the podiatrist who charged me $35 and put in for $475, the hospital was sticking United Healthcare Services for most of the $8,000. There is a winking agreement between service providers that the doctor's office will put in an outrageous amount, knowing that the insurer will pay only part of it.

Does the medical profession, struggling like the journalistic profession for the public's confidence, have to deal in this unhonest way?

© 2005 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.