Suddenly Maria had some asthma problem so we immediately brought her to the emergency of Children Medical Center in Dallas, which is 45 minutes drive from my house in Richardson. It is govt owned hospital.
As soon as we brought her to emergency, all the doctors rushed to her to treat and serve. Maria was there for six hours and every ten minutes, doctors came to see her progress. Really they served Maria very well. We came back home in the same day. Now Maria is fine and start her school again.
But when we saw medical bill, they charged us almost USD 3000 for only six hours service. How big is it? Almost ten thousand Ringitt (Malaysian currency) for six hours service only.
However since Maria has Social Security Support, most of it has been discounted and we will have to pay only few hundred dollars. And this payment can be made by installment over the months or years.
But an illegal resident will not get any social security support and I do not know how they survive especially when they need medical attention.
In USA, the medical bill will come to you after the treatment and you can pay it by installment such as in one year, two year etc. Treatment first whether the patient is legal or illegal or tourist in the country. No hospital can deny treatment by law.
What is suprise, doctor offered Maria to take ice cream in the emergency room when Maria wanted to take something. We surprised to see how an asthma patient can be offered ice cream? There is no link between Asthma and Ice cream, doctor commented with a smile.
We are fine. US economy I assume recovering gradually. Rate of unemployment is dropping gradually. Hope so I will get one job soon.
2 comments:
Assalamualaikum.
Dear Sir,
Hope you and your family are doing fine there.
It's really shocking to see that you've been billed $3000 for treating Maria's asthma.
In Malaysia, the treatment charge in govt owned hospital is fixed to RM1 only.
Interestingly enough, it is not because Americans are rich and earn tons of money.($3000 is probably more than a new engineer's one month's take-home or net salary.) In US people often say "You are only one disease away from bankruptcy."
Insurance company and doctors decide how much to charge you next time or next year. Nobody else probably has any say.
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