A few months ago I was in the hospital for a whole week and had sugery. My bill was $86000 but luckily my insurance took care of it and my copayment was $6000, which is still pretty bad for a student but I'd rather pay that than 86K! It really depends on your insurance and the services it covers. My dad almost went bankrupt because of a medical bill when he was young.

As Sandrah^ said above, going to the doctor/hospital is really quite expensive. If you don't have insurance, and good insurance, it really becomes a "life or death" situation. :\

I remember a documentary about that. French journalists went to a hospital with a TV crew. The director of this American hospital was very proud to show them his idea of generosity. Every day he held a lottery for people who could not afford their medications. Just one ticket could be won! Only one... there were more than 100 people outside waiting in the cold for a free consultation and returning the next day because they had a loser tiquet.

Not only poor people, there were teachers and very old people, military veterans and many young mothers from disadvantaged neighborhoods. To me, there was no race, no sex, just desperate people.

American mentality is very difficult to understand. They seem to be very proud of their country.

I think it scares me. Just like the price noticed by Sandrah. 

Sick Sad World...

@Not only is it expensive, most of the care is worthless.

Yes, when I had appendicitis, the hospital ran $7,750 worth of tests on my heart before they would accept that the issue was somewhere else.

Not only is it expensive, most of the care is worthless.