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That sucks!

I read this over the weekend and was shocked.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/health/Vaccine-Costs-Soaring-Paying-Till-It-Hurts.html?_r=0

Yeah, welcome to the good ole US of A. Bills like this one you received save us from the horrors of socialism!! Or, something like that.

Because we are lucky enough to have decent, mostly-employer-paid coverage (we only have to pay about $200/month for family coverage, so it is a steal) I haven’t had to bear the brunt of nasty bills recently.

I will say though that the last doozy I saw was for the 30-day rental of a cardiac monitor for my LO. It’s a very small, cheap-looking device that we use to record her cardiac events (long story, she’s ok, but it’s stressful) – anyway, to rent this little machine for 30 days is $1100!!!! $1100 a month! And we’re going to need to use it for at least 3-4 months, if not more. Thankfully our insurance pays for it all, but hot damn, if we had to pay for it, we would have trouble.

So coming from the pharmaceutical side of things, I wouldn't necessary fault big pharma. (I'm not in big pharma, rather, mid-size pharma, but I have been employed by them in the past. Yeah, my CEO makes a ton, but other CEOs in other industries make a lot of money, too. They make important decisions to keep the company running.) Making drugs is definitely not cheap. We spend millions on possible drugs that never make it to market. We are trying our hardest to find new drugs for every disease as reasonable as possible (if senior management approves the studies). Even if we get something that might be good, there are billion regulatory steps to make it to market and a lot of money to spend to get there.

I'm so sorry that your costs are high but I would fault our government (& politics) and medical insurance and the lack of coverage for people visiting. I do wish people on visas had some help or protection if they need to see a doctor.

ETA: I'm in the early stages of drug development and I have been in this industry for 8 years and I have never worked on a drug that has made it to market. (Then again, anything I touch wouldn't get to market until, at least, 10+ years from now, if it made it that far.) Maybe I'll work on one drug in my career lifetime that will. We are hoping and trying. We the scientists, really do want to cure and/or find better treatment for all diseases. We, too, have family and friends suffering from diseases that need better treatment.

It really sucks. I'm sorry your bill was so high. When we had LO's tubes put in it cost close to $800 (and that's with really good insurance!). We were able to afford it, but it makes me sad for people who can't and have to just go without or rack up debt.

I know the price is high and it really sucks but @bluestriped bee: makes excellent points as to why pharmaceutical companies have high costs. Also, in your post you attack only the pharma companies for looking for a profit, but you neglected to be upset with the doctor. The cost of the vaccines is $257 less than your total bill meaning the doctor charged you a hefty fee for a quick well baby visit but you don't seem upset by that.

@mrsvdv: Please read my response. The ones working in the lab do have a heart you know. We are all affected by people (family and friends) who have a disease that we want cured or better treatment. A cure would be great but it's not always that easy.

Have you tried going to a county health clinic? DD is waiting on her insurance to kick in after the obamacare change and my ped said she can go to a clinic for vaccines!

My SO and I were saying the other day how ignorant we are as far as healthcare costs go. I don't think twice about going to the doctor (I'm an Ontario bee), but then I see some of the charges posted on here and I'm floored.

Ugh, I feel for you!

When we lived in the US we had a odd insurance set up (went through my DH's French insurance, so we paid out of pocket at the dr and then were reimbursed through insurance). At the office visit they said the vaxes were "free" since we were paying out of pocket and I only paid the well baby visit. Fast foward a few months and our account has gone into collections since we moved and we never got the bill. They had tried to send us a bill for $1200 in vaccinations! It took over a year to get the whole freaking thing sorted out! Gah!

I just got both kids vaccinated today (in a mixed-insurance country) and I still paid €280 for a well baby visit and 2 shots. However, our private insurance covers 80% of all costs, so it won't be so bad once we are reimbursed. I think if we used the true social insurance here it would be much cheaper or free.

@mrsvdv: There are definitely exploratory studies going on here. There are definitely ways that we can get drugs that have unmet medical need and affect a small percentage of people out there. There are companies (all sizes) out there doing this research and trying to find the answer or solution. It's not perfect. If we don't get approval, what we do is publish our results and hope that another company or lab will want to continue the research. All the while, I'm working on finding treatment for another disease.

Ugh I'm sorry. I knew it was gonna be high when I saw the post. Our dr office asked 3+ times if our insurance covered vaccines bc they're expensive and if not we should go to the health dept

@bluestriped bee: I completely understand where you're coming from. I work at a health insurance company and it's mind boggling how many people blame insurance for their high costs. People who work for insurance companies and drug companies have to get paid just like everyone else in the world. And you have to be well educated to work in most of the positions and people are going to want to be well paid to stick around. Insured people shouldn't want dirt cheap labor handling their insurance coverage or the development of drugs to possibly save their life. I know if I wasn't making a decent salary I wouldn't stay in this industry and I'm sure you wouldn't either. I do find the cost of a simple doctors visit mind boggling though.

Urgent cares give vaccines too, would your insurance have covered them there? Children's vaccines and well visits are covered (with American insurance at least.. Though the cost is still ridiculous we pay over $900/month for employee+spouse+child health insurance and that's for a HDHP so we end up paying for things until we hit the deductible anyway!) and the only time I have seen people pay out of pocket for vaccinations were for travel, flu shots, or nursing school. Mind boggling costs, though!

@Ree723: I completely agree with you. Healthcare costs (in general, with everything it touches) sucks. I just don't think I can point fingers at a certain industry, though.

I feel your pain. Our pediatrician we thought was in network, but there was an error. So now we are trying to argue a $700 bill for a few visits plus a round of vaccines.

A single payer system would be so much better.

@Ree723: Holy crap! I had no idea they were that much! Well now I feel lucky that our insurance covers 100% of well checks. We basically pay another mortgage a month in insurance, but $800 for one round of shots is insane!

I don't know if its broken out in your bill, but there is also the cost of the vaccine administration (e.g. the act of poking your kid with the needle). The medical tech who does it gets paid peanuts but on our bills, we are charged a lot for that service, not just the actual vaccine medicine itself.

@bluestriped bee: Great explanations. I think most people don't think about the research & development costs when we think about how much medicines "should" cost. We think, how much can it cost to *manufacture* this little vial, rather than all of the process (research, development, trials, marketing) that went into getting them into the hands of the consumer in the first place.

just to put some numbers on @bluestriped bee 's explanation, it costs pharma companies, on average, $1.3 billion to get a drug to market and the success rate of getting a drug to market is only 1-2%. so pharma companies burn through tons and tons of cash thru R&D on many drugs, most of which fail, just to get one successfully to the public. the fda approval process in our country is extremely onerous and costly! but not without reason. i only know this because i wrote a healthcare related report for work recently and was astounded by the numbers.

i also think that tax rates in the U.S. are low in comparison to most developed countries in the world, particularly those with universal healthcare like the UK, Canada and the Scandis. Universal healthcare in this country would be hugely beneficial, but taxes will absolutely have to increase quite a bit in this country and i guess i don't see that happening anytime soon.

all that being said, it still is shocking to see those numbers on a bill, so i'm sorry!

@oliviaoblivia: i can't argue with you there, since i've only lived in the US and only paid taxes here! i am just recalling what i've read in articles in the past. i guess it depends on what calculation they are using.