My wife, Shannon, did some digging tonight and came up with some ballpark figures she had been curious about. She wrote the following and I think its just fascinating. Keep in mind she’s only tabulating stuff done SINCE we got married.
Over the last couple of days, I have made the pleasure of reading Jason’s posts and having a few chuckles along the way. Over the past three years, I have visited many hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centres, seen more doctors offices then I dare to count and sat in the most uncomfortable seats that one can imagine. I have wondered how much all this would have cost if we did not have universal health care. After a bit of research (all based in American dollars) I have come up with the following numbers.
MRI – six are already completed and two more to come at an average cost of $2000 per that would be $16, 000
Hospital Stays – 10 days at St. Michael’s based on an average American hospital that would be $ 9, 900 per day for a grand total of $99, 000
Operation Costs – This was staggering….. $ 4,648.00 For the first 30 minutes and then $32 per minute after that. So let’s add both operations together for a grand total of 720 minutes for an additional cost of $22, 080
Rehab – $700 per day just for the wardroom. We were there for a month so that would be $21,000 just for the bed. Then we have to add $122 per half hour of physiotherapy since Jason had about one hour a day that would add up to $7200.
The costs that I have tried to figure out do not include visits to doctors, urgent care centres and medication which is covered by insurance.
GRAND TOTAL – $ 169 928 God we would be broke……Thank God we live in Canada. Keep in mind this might be lowballing it, since it doesn’t count in hospital drugs, meals, etc. Just amazing.