High cost of healthcare

My wife was in the hospital for four days in July. She got very ill overnight and I called an ambulance to take her to the emergency room. They put her on oxygen and intravenous since she was dehydrated. They put a detector on her figure and that indicated low oxygen which they diagnosed as pneumonia. They took chest x-rays to confirm this. They put her on antibiotics and took samples for blood work. In a few hours she was moved to the hospital where she continued on IV and oxygen. The next day a physical therapist came in and walked her around the room for about 15 minute and this was done the next two days. To check her heart they did an eco-gram, an EKG/ECG. The bill for these four days was $22,600. Here comes the part that surprised me although it shouldn’t have. When I told people the charge they responded with a kind of ho hum, wow. I got the distinct feeling that I could have said the bill was $226,000 and they would have responded in the same way. This is the result of what happens when insurance pays the cost. The cost doesn’t matter. As long as we have a system that uses the third party payer the cost will rise faster than inflation. With Obamacare’s high deductibles people will start paying out of pocket and this will help to control cost.