As I posted about earlier, I was in the hospital for chest pains. It was not an acute emergency as they kept me in the hospital for 3 days. They did angiography and put one stent in my LDA in about 60 minutes.
It cost the insurance company more than 70K US$! Luckily I have good insurance and have to pay only a fraction. Still about 4K US$.
This is the US medical system for you.
While I was waiting for my triple bypass I got a quote for doing it privately. It was £55k including a couple of days in ICU. Looks like American hospitals are milking the insurance companies!
Hope you are on the mend. In the UK you would expect to pay around £3000 for angiography privately. You then could expect to double that if you had a stent with a couple of nights stay.. Aftercare and ongoing Cardiology appointments would easily see the cost rise to around the £10k level - approx $12,250. We can clearly see why travel insurance premiums to the USA are so high!
It cost me £12k for 1 stent and a 1 night stay as Basildon hospital.
Hi Goonerboy6661, glad you had the treatment you needed and hope you are doing well. Maybe I've been very fortunate in my heart story, I've had a couple of stents at different times, yearly check ups and finally an AVR and CABG. I've never had to wait or chase things up. I am very surprised that there is such a thing as paying for a stent. I've heard of people paying to see a consultant to get things done quicker and even paying for non urgent surgery. Like I say, maybe I've been fortunate and maybe the NHS isn't so stretched in my area, west country.
I don’t have a lot of faith in my local NHS,
Last Easter Friday, I was rushed to Colchester A&E with severe chest pains, sweating, and a general feeling of being unwell. After spending hours in A&E, I was eventually diagnosed with a chest infection and sent home.
Late on Easter Sunday, while lying in bed, the chest pains returned. I was taken back to A&E, where I was assessed by several junior doctors. One informed me that my troponin levels were elevated, suggesting I had likely suffered a heart attack. He attempted to give me 300mg of aspirin, but I had already taken the same dose earlier, as advised by 999. After checking his notes, he realized the mistake and apologized.
Eventually, I was seen by a more experienced doctor, who confirmed I had not had a heart attack. However, he explained that, due to the Easter break, no cardiologists were available. By this point, it was around 4 PM on Easter Monday. He suggested that it would be safer for me to be assessed by a cardiologist the next morning and said he would arrange a bed for the night.
He then spoke with the ward sister, explaining the situation. I overheard her response: “We have no beds—send him home. He’s stable. We’ll arrange an outpatient appointment with a cardiologist.” And just like that, I was discharged again.
The following day, unwilling to take any chances, I contacted a private cardiologist and secured an appointment a few days later. After reviewing my symptoms and tests, he diagnosed me with very unstable angina, warning that I could suffer a heart attack at any moment. He immediately admitted me to the hospital, insisting I be monitored while he arranged an angiogram.
Three days later, the angiogram revealed a 99% blocked artery, which was promptly stented. I was discharged the next day.
Then, six weeks later, I received a letter from the NHS with details of the outpatient appointment they had promised—a phone consultation with a cardiac nurse.
I can’t help but wonder if I would still be here today had I waited for the NHS.
That sounds really dreadful! You need to formally complain about that so the hospital can investigate and learn from it so hopefully no one else will be treated like that. I’m sorry to hear of your experience and I hope you’re doing ok now.
Yes, it was. But I don’t think complaining would make any difference—it would just get buried under other cases, and I’d probably receive a generic apology letter. As we all know, saying “sorry” is easy, but if they truly meant it, these mistakes wouldn’t keep happening.
Then there was my other trip to A&E at the same hospital last July. I was struggling to breathe and had a high temperature. This time, I only waited a couple of hours before seeing a doctor. However, instead of a thorough examination, he simply spoke to me and immediately suspected a gallbladder issue, despite me repeatedly telling him that my pain was in my lungs.
He arranged a scan for the next day to confirm his diagnosis. After the scan, I had to see a doctor for the results. Thankfully, it was a different doctor this time. He reviewed the scan and told me there were no issues with my gallbladder.
I then explained that I believed the problem was with my lungs, something I had already mentioned the day before. This doctor actually listened to my chest and immediately sent me for an X-ray, which confirmed that I had pneumonia.
I was then put on an intravenous antibiotic drip, along with another IV to replace fluids, as I was also severely dehydrated. So it’s not just the area you live in but also the quality of the doctors you get to see and in my experience there are a lot of young inexperienced doctors treating people.
Sorry that you have had a bad experience, I think most of us have some story of how things could have been better at some point.
You should formally complain. Whether you see a difference or not is not as relevant as raising the point that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. Nobody will look at your experience as a matter of course, you need to highlight it for the benefit of everyone. Don't see your complaint as "a complaint", see it as a worthwhile assessment of the service that you received and how it can be improved.
Sadly lots of people don’t complain because they either don’t know how to, they don’t have the energy to or they think that it won’t make any difference. I work with NHS leaders and I see what goes on internally. They do look at complaints and what can be learned from them. If no one complains then they don’t know there’s a problem. So it’s really important to raise your concerns. You can get help with navigating the NHS complaints process by contacting your local Healthwatch organisation. Some people think any future care may be affected if they complain and that’s very understandable. If that concerns you then your local Healthwatch can raise concerns anonymously.
Thank you, is it to late to complain 6 and 10 months after the issues occurred?
12 months is the cut off time england.nhs.uk/contact-us/f...
Fair comment, personally I cannot fault our NHS hospitals, ambulance service and my GP surgery. I'm sure it's the area I live in and not just a special service for me.
You’re probably right that it varies by area, but it shouldn’t be that way. Everyone deserves the same level of care, regardless of wealth. Governments always seem to find money when it suits them—wars, COVID, and other priorities—so the funding is there. They just choose not to spend it on the wider population, keeping it reserved for the few.
I've seen figures putting US healthcare costs at 10x UK ones.
last year In Spain I had HA,1 stent fitted in LDA,4 days in hospital,bill came to 1500 euros which was free to me as done under Brexit agreement health deal.Viva España.🇪🇸
I was on a trip in France and ended up in Geneva hospital , had a triple bypass there and then , at a cost of £141,000.00 , lucky for me my insurance did pay , my chic card paid for the month in hospital and I only paid £200 for a prescription when leaving 😀
They may have billed the insurance company $70,000, but it's highly unlikely that it was paid in full and more likely that it was negotiated down substantially. This is not to say medical costs are not high, but not that high at least for the insurance companies.
Jim
As you can see in the screenshot they did pay close to 65k out of 67k billed. I have not posted other smaller bills . And in the new year the clock resets and I have to pay 500$ every time I go for rehab
I didn't see the three days in the hospital, which can really add up. Fortunately, you had insurance. We certainly do not have a perfect healthcare system in the United States, but we also have many advantages over state run systems as I mentioned in another post in this thread. For what it's worth I don't pay anything for my cardiac rehab under Medicare.
Jim
I don't know why they kept me in the hospital 3 days.
I reached Friday evening to the emergency room and within minutes they knew they had to do the cath but they said their normal team comes in Monday so just kept me on blood thinners and monitored.
They did not even take me to the cath lab early Monday. They waited until almost everyone else had been taken care of: at 3:30 PM.
Wow! $4000 above insurance costs is unbelievable. I cannot for the life of me understand why all Americans aren't voting for a political party that wants govt paid medical.
Because many of us are very happy with our health coverage. With Medicare, I was able to self refer to four ep's of my choosing, and to set up appointments within weeks. Once I finally decided to have an ablation -- and it was my choice not the doctors -- I was able to schedule it within a couple of months. No review boards, no doctors as gate keepers. From what I read, this is hardly the case where the government takes over such as NHS. My out-of-pocket for these consultations and the ablation was zero.
Jim
Medicare is only for people above 65.
Most workers have private insurance. I and my employer have to pay > 30K yearly before insurance pays a dime. Mindbolling indeed. But that is what USA has become.
30 years ago, there was an attempt by Mr Clinton but it did not go anywhere due to lobbyists. Even Mr Obama could not do much about costs going up though coverage has improved.
Need a mortgage for travel insurance 
More than a little scared!
stent one week later dead of heart attack 
More palpatations than ever!
