Humans are naturally pretty clumsy. No doubt all of us have stubbed a toe, knocked over a coffee cup, and then burnt our fingers taking cookies out of the oven. Sometimes we injure ourselves even worse, with cuts, bruises, and sprains. Fortunately, modern medicine is at the point where all of these injuries are quite manageable.
So when TikToker _sam_goodwin needed some stitches, he went to the ER. There he faced a rigamarole of inordinate costs, poor communication, and unhelpful suggestions. He detailed his experience on TikTok and ended up going viral while commenters shared their disbelief at how dysfunctional the American healthcare system really is.
When you visit the ER, you probably don’t want to spend too much time worrying about prices and if they will actually get around to helping you
Image source: _sam_goodwin
This man needed some stitches after a minor injury, but he was shocked when they gave him the bill
"Do you want to know how bad healthcare is in America? Here's how bad it is. I get stitches, cut my finger the other day, go into the hospital, get my stitches done. No big deal, whatever. I have to wait two weeks to get them taken out. And in the meantime, I get billed for my visits. Before insurance for five stitches, $3,800. After insurance, $1,800 or 1900... excuse me, after insurance, $1,900 for five stitches for a terrible hospital visit."
Image source: _sam_goodwin
After paying, he is given confusing messages about where to get those oh-so-expensive stitches removed
"Anyway, fast forward. So I get my bill and it's time to take the stitches out. So I scheduled an appointment at the Urgent Care that is associated with the hospital that I went to, same company. So I scheduled a suture removal appointment online. And then I go in for the appointment and they say, 'Sorry, we're not going to take those out. Since you got them done at the hospital, you have to get them removed at the hospital.' I said, 'Why didn't you tell me that when I scheduled the appointment online?' They said, 'Sorry, go to the hospital.' So I go to the hospital."
Image source: _sam_goodwin
Even some of the hospital staff express confusion at how he was treated and offer to help
"And then I wait around for a while in the ER and then I get back and I ask the nurse, 'Hey, this is what happened. They turned me away at Urgent Care, told me to come here, that you guys would do it for free. Is that true?' And the nurses said, 'Let me check all that. I'm going to check with billing really fast.' So they go check on billing. And then they say, 'Sorry, billing says that you'll have to pay to get these stitches removed.' And I said, 'That really sucks because I paid $1,800 to have that done after insurance.' And they said, 'That is absolutely ridiculous.' And I said, 'I know.'"
Image source: _sam_goodwin
Despite helping him a bit, the man still had to take matters into his own hands
"And then I said, 'I'm gonna be honest, I'm not gonna pay any more money to the hospital because I already paid too much anyway, so I'm just gonna go.' And I said, 'I think I might just remove them myself.' And they said, 'That makes sense because that was so much money. So we'll just take you off triage, it'll be like you were never here, don't worry about it.' And then they were like, 'You know what, don't tell anybody we gave you this.' And they gave me a little kit to remove my stitches myself.
So that's a little story about healthcare in America. $1,800 will get you five stitches and then nurses have to go behind the backs of the hospital to get you treated. So that's pretty stupid."
You can watch the full video here
Americans pay a lot of money for seemingly very little general care when compared to their peers around the world
From the outside, it may seem somewhat strange how often people complain about American healthcare. After all, the US spends more on hospitals, medicine, and care than any other high-income country. Conventional wisdom would suggest that paying top dollar would provide at least a functional product. But despite the resources spent, America scores quite poorly on a lot of basic health measures. Among the eleven highest-income OECD countries, America spends twice as much as the average while simultaneously having the lowest average life expectancy.
Now, life expectancy can be chalked up to lifestyle preferences, you can’t blame the healthcare system for endless drink refills and portions so large that foreigners take pictures of them like tourist attractions. But, importantly, America still scores quite poorly on other very important metrics. It has the highest number of hospitalizations from preventable causes and the highest chronic disease burden. The US also suffers from a high maternal mortality rate, nearly double that of the UK. Shockingly, some experts believe that over half of the maternal deaths in the US could have been prevented.
As a result, American healthcare has become synonymous with inefficiency and painfully high payments
All in all, it’s not surprising that Americans are statistically quite unsatisfied with the healthcare they get. In the United States you generally only get access to healthcare when you or your employer pays for it. Without insurance, hospital visits and routine checkups can be too costly for the average person. While countries with free healthcare may have their own issues, from long waiting times to excessive paperwork, it’s still surprising that some would defend paying roughly 17% of the nation's GDP on care this poor. By comparison, the next two countries in the OECD by healthcare spending are Switzerland (12.2%) and France (11.2%), both of which have publicly funded healthcare.
As a result, everyone suffers. Most of the spending in American healthcare goes to disease and specialty care, while preventative medicine and more simple procedures are left neglected. So even though the hospital this TikToker visited may have a lot of funding, it may have been focused in a completely different department. As a result, he both paid out the nose for care that was basically unsatisfactory.
Commenters agreed that the TikTokers experience was absurd to anyone outside the United States
