An American hospital is a business—nothing more.  Some may be subsidized by our socialist-leaning liberal government, but for the most part, hospitals need you there to get paid.  And the longer you stay, the more money they make.

Sometimes a hospital is 100% needed (i.e. a heart attack or compound fracture to the femur), but it’s how they manage those numerous “gray-area” issues that makes them a total racket.   If you know how hospitals operate, you can avoid their scams and avoid getting ripped off.

1. They rely on “urgent care” centers to generate their business

A few weeks ago, I went snorkeling in the Florida Key’s with some friends.   I accidentally inhaled some sea water, and a few hours later, started coughing up liquid from my lungs.  The next morning, I decided to drive myself to an urgent care center just to get checked out.

The doctor at the urgent care took an X-ray and an oxygen sample—paid via health insurance.   I was feeling better and my oxygen count was good, but the doctor told me that my lungs “looked really ugly” and that I should be admitted to the hospital.  When I asked him why, I was told that the hospital had “the proper respiratory equipment and medicinal treatments” for my condition, which he insisted was life threatening.

Now at this point, he’s got me a little nervous and believing (naively) that I would drop dead on the street at any minute from pulmonary edema.  I’m not old, but being far from home and thinking that I was going to get some crucial respiratory therapy, I complied and checked myself into the local ER.

2. They will try to sell you on staying overnight for an “observation”

Once in the ER, all the staff did was take blood samples and urge me to stay overnight so that they could monitor me—there was no respiratory treatment at all.  When I asked the nurses and doctors why I wasn’t receiving any medication or treatment for my lungs (as the first doctor implied I would get), they became irritated and kept changing the subject back to how “important it was” that I stayed overnight.  Straight answers here were in short supply.

Four hours later, I was still in the same place – and there was no treatment of any kind.   The entire time I just sat there, being sold by nurse-after-nurse on needing to “stay overnight.”  It’s appropriate that most nurses are female, because the badgering just went on-and-on.  Unfortunately for me, the only thing my body received during this time was a Cuban sandwich—not oxygen or medication.

I decided to leave.  I was fine, and I could tell my doctor knew it too.

3. They don’t want you to know how your health insurance works

Out-patient is when you slice your hand, get patched up in the ER for a few hours, then go home—you are not at the hospital overnight.   In-patient is when you stay in a hospital room overnight, and piss-and-shit into pans.

What hospitals don’t want you to know, is that with health insurance, your out-of-pocket expenses SKYROCKET once you become in-patient and spend the night there.  The room costs money, the food you eat costs money, and your presence overnight allows them to literally charge you $12 for an aspirin every few hours.   Then, you wind up paying off your $5,000 deductible for the next three years—all for an “observation.”

When I started asking the staff what my insurance costs would be and how it worked, they began to “disappear” to assist other patients, so I Googled it on my phone.   They don’t want you to know how much extra in-patient costs vs. out-patient—and it’s why a lot of people get blindsided with ridiculous out-of-pocket hospital bills just for a cough.

5. They use scare tactics against you

A hospital wants you staying overnight—and their arsenal of fairy-tale bullshit scare tactics to make it happen is absolutely endless.  Scraped your wrist?  You need to be observed for a potential life-ending blood clot.  Got mild indigestion?  You could shit yourself to death from that possibly e-coli ridden hamburger.  Your blood-work isn’t back from the lab yet, but let’s get those pillows ready anyway.

At the end of the day, the hospital wants their money, and it is in their best interest legally and financially to “keep an eye on you just in case” under the guise of “care-giving.”  This creates a win-win situation for them every time—with you at the disadvantage.

6. Their nurses are overly-dramatic corporate lackeys

ROK readers know that most women are drama queens and actresses, but I found that hospital nurses are turbocharged drama queens.  Their minds and emotions are very chaotic—just like their jobs are.

Even worse, nurses attempt to play with their patients’ emotions, and this is easily accomplished because most people are already in a vulnerable emotional state while sitting in an ER.   They are corporate lackeys that serve their masters by manipulating you into excessive hospital fees that you don’t really need to pay.   Considering how overpriced the health care industry already is, their behavior is as predictable as it is abhorrent.

Of course, the nurses then get vindictive when you don’t go along with their corporate ruse.  The second I told miss man-jawed plumper that I was leaving the hospital, she literally grabbed the IV stuck in my arm, and violently ripped it out like a 90’s feminist taking back her borrowed Melissa Etheridge CD.  Yeah, very mature.

6. They rely on gullible and emotional patients

 

Hospitals don’t want critical thinkers as patients.  They have their own agenda, and want gullible morons who will swallow whatever opinionated BS is spoon fed to them.  When you are faced with a less severe ailment like mine, ask cold hard questions to the doctors in order to help sort through any potential BS.  Don’t accept vague statements, and always seek to clear up any gray area.  What is the name of my condition?  How is it treated?  What specific equipment does the local hospital have to treat this?

In a lot of cases, hospitals rely on gullibility, raw emotions, and low IQ’s as a means to prosper financially.  According to Trusted Choice, over 60% of all bankruptcies are due to medical expenses.  Hospitals don’t care, and because the average Boobus Americanus has the IQ of a toaster, this is a very convenient racket for them.

Conclusion 

I believe that the condition of my lungs was bad, but also believe that the severity of my ailment was exaggerated in an attempt to take advantage of me.  I was BS’ed by a series of agenda-driven medical professionals, and my lack of respiratory treatment or medication in the ER was the smoking gun.

If you feel fine overall and you are not getting direct answers or treatment specifics from your arrogant and egotistical academy award winning doctor, get the hell out of there and save yourself the $300 copay. Don’t be a beta hypochondriac and buy into a hospital’s BS.

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