It Cost How Much?

Hi Everyone,

I had planned my topic for today's blog a few days ago. But, as has happened before, something came to my attention that I believe is more important than my original topic.

I recently blogged about the current Ebola epidemic. So as I was sitting down to write about my original topic, I watched a very interesting news story on NBC news. The story was about the last Doctor who worked in Africa, caught the Ebola virus and was flown to NYC to be treated in a NYC hospital. He was released after he was cured.

Now don't get me wrong, I am highly impressed with the professionals, Doctors and Nurses etc. who risk their own lives to treat people with this killer virus. But, what really surprised me, no, I should say really shocked me, was the cost to treat this person. Can you guess how much it cost to treat the doctor? $500,000, $1,000,000? Nope you would be wrong. $2,000,000, $3,000,000? Again, you would be wrong. $4,000,000, $5,000,000? Again you would be wrong. The cost for his 3 week +/- in hospital stay was, are you sitting down........$20,000,000!!! Yes you read that correctly. Twenty million dollars. That is approximately $952,381 per day. I know that to the doctor's family, every penny spent on saving him was worth it. But, is that cost the true cost, or is it a hyper-inflated cost?  I do not know the answer to that question. All I know is that the cost of say 20-40 protective suits per day that all the caregivers had to wear, for sake of argument, may have cost $1,000 a piece; which equals $40,000 +/- per day. It just seems that $921,381 is such an excessive amount for whatever other costs there were. To me, this cost seems extremely exorbitant.

I am not trying to put a price on how much a life is worth. But $20,000,000 seems to be a whole lot of out of line for 3 weeks. During tonight's newscast, NY Senator Charles Schumer, stated that he is having the bill sent to the federal government for reimbursement to the hospital. Ebola is a deadly virus that needs a special isolation room and special protective outerwear to protect the caregivers, but at almost $1,000,000 per day, my common sense is sending up red flags because something doesn't seem right. The cost seems way out of line, especially since there were no special surgery(s) needed. So what gives?

I hope that the hospital's bills are fully scrutinized and that the hospital doesn't become rich for treating just one patient. 

Til next week.

Peter