This is a tale of pay or die that recurs again and again all over our country and only in our country in the entire western world.
Advised by her physician to go to M.D. Anderson for urgent treatment of her leukemia, Mrs. Lisa Kelly was told she had to pay $105,000 up front before being admitted. The hospital declared her limited insurance unacceptable.
Sitting in the business office with seriously advanced cancer, she asked herself – “Are they going to send me home?” “Am I going to die?”
net income per bed at non-profit hospitals tripled to $146,273 in 2005 from $50,669 in 2000.
huge pay packages awarded hospital executives.
Lisa Kelly. She and her husband returned with a check for $45,000.
the hospital oncologist urged admittance quickly.
Then the hospital demanded an additional $60,000
In a particularly grotesque incident, she was hooked up to a chemotherapy pump, but the nurses were not allowed to change the chemo bag until Mr. Kelly made another payment.
clipped from: www.counterpunch.org