People Are Sharing Medical Bills From The 20th Century To Show Just How Out-Of-Hand Prices Are Now (30 Pics)
The insane healthcare costs in the US have a solid record in shocking the rest of the world. The killer bills are what a staggering 83% of Americans, regardless of their income, said make quality medical care virtually unaffordable in this Pew Center research.
Moreover, almost half, or 41%, of working-age Americans, regardless of their income, are struggling to pay off their medical bills and have accumulated debt over time, showed this research. So if there’s an American horror story people are honestly dreading, it must be the healthcare costs.
And in order to put this insanity in a different perspective, people are sharing medical bills and receipts from the past that are so cheap they genuinely look unreal. From a $7.50 X-ray bill from 1950 to a $4.85 delivery bill from 1947, the records reveal how prices were before taking a fatal turn less than a century ago.
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My Great Grandma's Medical Bill From 1950
You have to calculate inflation. However 7.50$ in 1950 are 85$ now. Reasonable. However more than what we pay today in Italy.
85$ would still be 85$ more than euros we pay in Spain
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imagine having to share this because your country doesn't have universal health care.. yikes.
In Italy, and generally in Europe, if you go in hospital for any accident, like a bad jump or a knife injury, you have nothing to pay, even if you have to stay in for a surgery or a control. the same with the "follow up" visits or eventually days for some kind of therapy to fix yr wounds
My medical bills in the 1950’s was zero my current medical treatment (taking nto account inflation) is zero don’t you just love our uk NHS.
Consider that the average hourly pay was 75 cents in 1950. That's 10 hours of pay.
And in the USA, a stay like that today could be months of pay. That's the point.
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$102.95 in 1957 is equivalent to $1160.63 in 2021, according to the inflation calculator. Still cheaper. Then again, back then hospitals didn’t have to shell out millions for equipment, though much of it is lifesaving and can help avoid issues (like umbilical cords around an unborn baby’s neck). Doctors weren’t being sued over unavoidable issues, accidents, or deaths—-true malpractice? Hell yes, sue them. You passed your DNA for _____ condition to your child, or did something stupid like ride a motorcycle without a helmet? Not the doctor’s fault, especially if it’s nearly impossible to diagnose. I’m not defending bad doctors here. I’m just saying not everything is one person’s—-or sometimes not even anybody’s——fault, so we need to stop being so litigious. Especially when the lawsuit is twisted to only show the person who can afford to pay out the most is at fault, even if they weren’t.
a silver dollar was worth one dollar until 1966 when LBJ and the dems started printing excess fiat money to pay for Vietnam war. Now a one-ounce silver dollar costs $26... do the math (clue, divide current costs/charges by 26 to find the real world costs)... and they are not done yet, they are going the rescue the country from the economic impact of covid by borrowing (effectively printing) another trillion dollars to pay for infrastructure improvements... it will be horrific when reality sets in and the younger generation has to pay their parents' & grandparents' debts...
"they" being democrats? You know what really f****d up America? Reagan and his trickle down economy, the dismantling of the worker unions and the fact that republican voters still happily vote against their own self interest, election after election - because "I hAvE aLwAys VoTeD rEpUpLiCan" and change to a broken system is "cOmMuNiSm"...
Load More Replies...My Grandma’s Hospital Bill After Giving Birth To My Dad In 1955
Just did some calculations and accounting for inflation those $178 of 1947 equates to about $2156. Today the average cost of childbirth in US is about $13K, that's roughly 600% increase in cost keeping in mind the inflation. What else of a reason do you need to make universal healthcare compulsary in US when in other countries especially in Europe it'll still cost less than $1000 even today!!!
1947 Hospital Bill Found Out My Parents’ Attic. Not Sure Who It’s For
It's no surprise that Americans spend a huge amount of money on healthcare each year. High insurance premiums, high deductibles, copays, and other out-of-pocket expenses are just some of the costs associated with health and wellness in the country.
According to Investopedia, one of the most apparent reasons when it comes to ever-rising healthcare costs is government policy. Since the inception of Medicare and Medicaid—programs that help people without health insurance—providers have been able to increase medical prices.
Hospital Bill From When My Grandpa Blew Up A Stump With Homemade TNT And Lost His Eye
My Grandmama Just Passed Away And We Found The Hospital Bill Of When She Had My Aunt In 1957. Insurance Paid $100 So They Ended Up Paying $2.95 For Having A Baby
St. Thomas and their fancy new impact printer!! Reminds me of old(er) savings pass books.
The Hospital Bill From My Dad's Birth In 1955. (Note The 5 Day Hospital Stay)
Wondering what the Identification fee is for. Making sure they left with the correct baby?
Another crucial reason is inflation as it’s no secret that healthcare prices have soared exponentially in the US over the last several decades. A joint study from Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed that healthcare spending in the country rose nearly a trillion dollars between 2009 and 2019, when adjusted for inflation.
The study also showed that during 2019, healthcare spending was nearly $3.8 trillion ($11,582 per person), but it will climb to a whopping $6.2 trillion ($18,000 per person) by 2028.
I Found This Hospital Bill Sent To My Great-Aunt For The Birth Of Her Child In 1939 (US)
My Medical School Professor Showed Me This Bill From His Birth In 1955 (In The United States).
Geez.... I gave birth at the beginning pf the pandemic 15 months ago and have decided to put hpusing over paying the 5600 that my really good insurance didnt cover.....
This Medical Bill From 1947
Today, two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as a key contributor to their financial downfall. A recent study reported that 66.5% of all bankruptcies were directly tied to medical issues, because of either high costs for care or time out of work. An estimated 530,000 families turn to bankruptcy each year because of medical issues and bills, which for many seems like a worst-case scenario.
“Despite gains in coverage and access to care from the ACA, our findings suggest that it did not change the proportion of bankruptcies with medical causes,” stated the co-author David U. Himmelstein, commenting on the study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
“Unless you’re Jeff Bezos, people don’t have very good alternatives, because the insurance that is available and affordable to people, or that most people’s employers provide them, is not adequate protection if you’re sick,” he added.
I Came Across This While Going Through Some Of My Grandmother's Things That I Had In Storage And Thought It Was Worth Sharing
My grandparents were from Liberty borough this is the bill from when my mom Carol Davies was born in 1943.
Even converting for the difference in purchase power that is only $284.89 in today's American dollars.
This 1933 Hospital Bill For A 7 Day Hospital Stay And Delivery
My Grandma's 1951 Hospital Bill For Maternity Services. Grand Total For One Live Infant Birth - $50
The Hospital Bill For My Birth On 1-18-1958 . Note The Insurance Info Is In Red
Happy 72nd Birthday Mom! Here’s The $65 Minneapolis Hospital Bill For A Week’s Stay.
You must be a problem child. LOL This bill is higher than most of the others.
Old Medical Bill
Strange, this is the hospital where my sons were born. It cost a lot more than this
In 1948, A 2 Day Hospital Stay Cost Less Than 30 Bucks
1948 Hospital Bill...
Grandpa's Hospital Bill From 1944
Medical Bill From The 50s
Why was there a deposit? If you didn't have at least $50, you couldn't get in?
Here’s The Bill For The Birth Of My Dad Back In 1947 In Rural Wisconsin (Mondovi, Wi, Just Outside Of Eau Claire). 10 Days In The Hospital Seems Fairly Normal For Back Then
Hospital Bill I Could In The Garbage At Work. From The 1940s
This Receipt For The Hospital Bill Charged To My Great Grandmother When She Had My Grandfather In 1930, Total Cost Was $38
The beautifully elegant cursive handwriting on these old documents cannot be overlooked. It truly speaks of bygone eras never to be replicated.
Medical Bill From 1977 (US)
The Total Cost For My Birth In 1971 In Virginia. $350.25
A CT scan costs about the same now as it did in 1977 because the technology is so widely available now. And I had to fight my insurance company to pay any of it back then. Same for pregnancy ultrasounds. They were $125 in 1981 and that is more than the bills for my grandchild's ultrasounds in 2018. I also had to go to a separate doctor because only some doctors had the equipment then and this was in the Washington DC area where medical care was fairly advanced. Providers and insurers make the excuse that we have so much more technology now, to justify the huge increases, but even if technology made some things more expensive, much of it also became cheaper over the years. I paid $500 for my first color TV-the closest equivalent today is no more than $100 and there actually is nothing sold today as low tech as my first TV!
Even before the inception of the NHS in 1948, patients didn't have to pay and the majority of the hospitals and medical staff were voluntary. Granted it wasn't at all the best but it's still a far cry from the f*cked up healthcare system the US has in the 21st century! Its an utter disgrace. I have a ton of health problems and I'm not eligible for insurance as I was born with a couple of them. If I lived in the US, I'd definitely be dead by now, purely because I couldn't afford being alive.
It's also said in the US that universal healthcare will fail sooner or later - here in Germany it's still going strong since 1883 (the oldest system of that kind)
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It always astonished me that people in the USA still reject universal healthcare. It's the thing I'm most gratefull for in Spain
The people don’t reject it. The legislators who are bought and paid for by the big insurance agencies who are the ones rejecting it. What we need to do is abolish lobbying entirely, or at least call it bribery and prosecute (both sides when the bribes are accepted) when there’s money or goods exchanged.
Load More Replies... Wonder if anyone noticed the length of say for maternity patients 5-7 days now they boot these poor tired women out practically out of the delivery room. Gotta make room for more mommies, bull more money. Bet these people could even eat the food. I started nursing in the early 60's back then we supplied mouthwash, soap cream for backrubs (yep backrubs), toothpaste etc. This though was the start of admission bloodwork, unknow to patients the main one was for STD''s Yes folks deception started then! Nurses gave complete care to patients if they could not bath themselves we did it. A friend's husband was in our hospital for 7 days - for abdominal surgery he got handed a wet wash cloth every day and the nurse pushed a few buttons on the medical equipment being used a few times a day. The food is uneatable! Everything is profit, profit! I'm not saying there aren't good nurses out there who want to nurse. During this pandemic they should be rewarded but they won't be.
I thought these were supposed to look fake *Australia noise intensifies*
Do you blame the hospitals and insurance companies for being predatory opportunists, or do you blame the government that allowed them to get so out of hand? Lawmakers do not care because they get top shelf insurance with the job. Outlaw lobbying and make them pay out of pocket for their own healthcare and watch how fast the system changes.
I'd be dead by now if I lived in the US, as would most of my immediate family due to several severe health conditions. I'm glad I live in the UK for this.
My parents paid $2.85 for my delivery in 1976 after my dad's insurance through his union job. He paid nothing for his insurance monthly and no copays or coinsurance. Insurance has become broken in the last 45 yrs.
Oh don't worry the ghost of Maggie Thatcher is still trying to screw you
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Even adjusted for inflation, most of us would love these to be our hospital bills.
Why was it possible to charge way less for literally everything 70 years ago? This isn't rocket science is it?
Load More Replies... Want to show a bill from when I was born or my mom was born. But don’t have any cause I live in a civilized country with free healthcare
I'm not saying the price increases are right, but one of the reasons why prices have skyrocketed is due to all the stupid law suits. I understand suing if there is a legitimate reason. But there are so many that are not. Just like the guy who bought a DirectTV dish and put it on his roof himself. Then when it fell off the roof because he mounted it wrong and hit him in the head, he sued DirectTV. Seriously, he's stupid, so the company has to pay?
Kids are probably having a hard time with the cursive in some of the bills LOL
When my parents passed away a few years ago, it fell to me to go through alllll their things. Dad was a paper hoarder - but a neat, tidy one. Every single bill paid had a carbon copy (or photocopy) of the check used to pay stapled to it, all bills bundled by month, then by year, and stored in a large manila envelope or gallon ziploc bag & labeled with the year. There were over 50 years of these packets of bills that had to be un-bundled so they could be shredded. Every single tax return filed since the year they married - 1957. Interesting in a historical sense - today's tax returns take up several pages - the year they married? 1 page. Seriously - a single page tax return. When a local church sponsored a community shred day, where you could bring any amount to shred for $10, I jumped on it. The paper from my parents filled two 90-gallon containers before it was shredded. Best $10 I ever spent!
Last year I needed surgery, small but necessary. I live in the Middle East and my home country is Belgium. It would have been 5000 euro’s WITH medical insurance. So I went back to Belgium and asked for the bill beforehand. It was 600 euro’s without an insurance! If I was insured back home it would have cost me nothing.
I had to have an emergency appendectomy last year, and the total bill was $70 for my share of the ambulance charge. The government paid most of the cost of the ambulance, and all the hospital costs. The ambulance is a charity, so I'm happy to give them some money. I'm in NZ and really don't understand the attitude so many Americans have to socialised healthcare. They don't mind socialised school or police, so why kick up a fuss about socialised healthcare?
Ahhh! The days in America before they changed to a "For Profit" system. Wish i had been alive to see it! At this rate, I probably wont ever see it change back. Its "communism" & "makes it too easy for people" according to Fox News & every other conservative sites.
In hungary, despite its free under universal health care, we decided that my wife will go to private hospital to give birth... over 9 month, 10 checkings with 3D ultrasounds, dedicated doctor, private and fully air conditioned room with en-suite bathroom after delivery for 3 days, meals included, all for appr. $800. It could have been free, we paid for the full extra private package. Probably the free way is okay as well, but this way it was like 5star hotel.
The crazy thing to me is that probably to the people who received these bills at the time thought they were expensive
The average ANNUAL income in the USA in 1946 was $2600…. In 1955 the average ANNUAL income in the USA was $3301… you have to consider these bills in relation to what people earned at that time
That actually doesn’t negate anything anyone has been saying, it only reinforces it. $3 of $2600 is .12% $13k of $45000 is about 30% Wages haven’t increased nearly enough for the unwashed masses. The state of healthcare in the US is despicable and inexcusable.
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damn, I guess it's not worth having friends, love, family (who care for you). or do you pay for those too?
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Even before the inception of the NHS in 1948, patients didn't have to pay and the majority of the hospitals and medical staff were voluntary. Granted it wasn't at all the best but it's still a far cry from the f*cked up healthcare system the US has in the 21st century! Its an utter disgrace. I have a ton of health problems and I'm not eligible for insurance as I was born with a couple of them. If I lived in the US, I'd definitely be dead by now, purely because I couldn't afford being alive.
It's also said in the US that universal healthcare will fail sooner or later - here in Germany it's still going strong since 1883 (the oldest system of that kind)
Load More Replies... It always astonished me that people in the USA still reject universal healthcare. It's the thing I'm most gratefull for in Spain
The people don’t reject it. The legislators who are bought and paid for by the big insurance agencies who are the ones rejecting it. What we need to do is abolish lobbying entirely, or at least call it bribery and prosecute (both sides when the bribes are accepted) when there’s money or goods exchanged.
Load More Replies... Wonder if anyone noticed the length of say for maternity patients 5-7 days now they boot these poor tired women out practically out of the delivery room. Gotta make room for more mommies, bull more money. Bet these people could even eat the food. I started nursing in the early 60's back then we supplied mouthwash, soap cream for backrubs (yep backrubs), toothpaste etc. This though was the start of admission bloodwork, unknow to patients the main one was for STD''s Yes folks deception started then! Nurses gave complete care to patients if they could not bath themselves we did it. A friend's husband was in our hospital for 7 days - for abdominal surgery he got handed a wet wash cloth every day and the nurse pushed a few buttons on the medical equipment being used a few times a day. The food is uneatable! Everything is profit, profit! I'm not saying there aren't good nurses out there who want to nurse. During this pandemic they should be rewarded but they won't be.
I thought these were supposed to look fake *Australia noise intensifies*
Do you blame the hospitals and insurance companies for being predatory opportunists, or do you blame the government that allowed them to get so out of hand? Lawmakers do not care because they get top shelf insurance with the job. Outlaw lobbying and make them pay out of pocket for their own healthcare and watch how fast the system changes.
I'd be dead by now if I lived in the US, as would most of my immediate family due to several severe health conditions. I'm glad I live in the UK for this.
My parents paid $2.85 for my delivery in 1976 after my dad's insurance through his union job. He paid nothing for his insurance monthly and no copays or coinsurance. Insurance has become broken in the last 45 yrs.
Oh don't worry the ghost of Maggie Thatcher is still trying to screw you
Load More Replies... Even adjusted for inflation, most of us would love these to be our hospital bills.
Why was it possible to charge way less for literally everything 70 years ago? This isn't rocket science is it?
Load More Replies... Want to show a bill from when I was born or my mom was born. But don’t have any cause I live in a civilized country with free healthcare
I'm not saying the price increases are right, but one of the reasons why prices have skyrocketed is due to all the stupid law suits. I understand suing if there is a legitimate reason. But there are so many that are not. Just like the guy who bought a DirectTV dish and put it on his roof himself. Then when it fell off the roof because he mounted it wrong and hit him in the head, he sued DirectTV. Seriously, he's stupid, so the company has to pay?
Kids are probably having a hard time with the cursive in some of the bills LOL
When my parents passed away a few years ago, it fell to me to go through alllll their things. Dad was a paper hoarder - but a neat, tidy one. Every single bill paid had a carbon copy (or photocopy) of the check used to pay stapled to it, all bills bundled by month, then by year, and stored in a large manila envelope or gallon ziploc bag & labeled with the year. There were over 50 years of these packets of bills that had to be un-bundled so they could be shredded. Every single tax return filed since the year they married - 1957. Interesting in a historical sense - today's tax returns take up several pages - the year they married? 1 page. Seriously - a single page tax return. When a local church sponsored a community shred day, where you could bring any amount to shred for $10, I jumped on it. The paper from my parents filled two 90-gallon containers before it was shredded. Best $10 I ever spent!
Last year I needed surgery, small but necessary. I live in the Middle East and my home country is Belgium. It would have been 5000 euro’s WITH medical insurance. So I went back to Belgium and asked for the bill beforehand. It was 600 euro’s without an insurance! If I was insured back home it would have cost me nothing.
I had to have an emergency appendectomy last year, and the total bill was $70 for my share of the ambulance charge. The government paid most of the cost of the ambulance, and all the hospital costs. The ambulance is a charity, so I'm happy to give them some money. I'm in NZ and really don't understand the attitude so many Americans have to socialised healthcare. They don't mind socialised school or police, so why kick up a fuss about socialised healthcare?
Ahhh! The days in America before they changed to a "For Profit" system. Wish i had been alive to see it! At this rate, I probably wont ever see it change back. Its "communism" & "makes it too easy for people" according to Fox News & every other conservative sites.
In hungary, despite its free under universal health care, we decided that my wife will go to private hospital to give birth... over 9 month, 10 checkings with 3D ultrasounds, dedicated doctor, private and fully air conditioned room with en-suite bathroom after delivery for 3 days, meals included, all for appr. $800. It could have been free, we paid for the full extra private package. Probably the free way is okay as well, but this way it was like 5star hotel.
The crazy thing to me is that probably to the people who received these bills at the time thought they were expensive
The average ANNUAL income in the USA in 1946 was $2600…. In 1955 the average ANNUAL income in the USA was $3301… you have to consider these bills in relation to what people earned at that time
That actually doesn’t negate anything anyone has been saying, it only reinforces it. $3 of $2600 is .12% $13k of $45000 is about 30% Wages haven’t increased nearly enough for the unwashed masses. The state of healthcare in the US is despicable and inexcusable.
Load More Replies... damn, I guess it's not worth having friends, love, family (who care for you). or do you pay for those too?
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