LordMortis wrote:
I am about find out how much it costs buy a stent and have it placed in (next to? Coming out of?) my heart. I'm sure that won't cheap. Though I've already hit my deductible for the year, and I think my co-pay caps at like $150, the problem is "Co-insurance" I don't even really understand what co-insurance is exactly, in that it isn't the deductible and it's isn't a co-pay and it you have spend thousands of dollar a year out of that kitty before you are immune to further charges. I'm pretty certain heart surgery is going max it out for the year though.
Good luck! When I went in for my heart attack, all they did at that time (aside from the ER stuff where they saved my life) was install two stents in the main artery supplying my heart. It was not invasive (they threaded them up through arteries via my groin area), but it was rather expensive. I do not have a total amount for that procedure, as deciphering the sporadic (and sometimes incomplete until much later) hospital bills was impossible. However, I can tell you that in my case, it was expensive.
My insurance paid 90% of everything until my out-of-pocket reached $4,500. After that, my insurance picked up everything until January 1st, at which point it starts all over, so in my case, it was beneficial to have as much as I could done before January 1. So I had the bypass surgery done that same year (2015), which needed to be done anyway. But just the initial stents (and ER visit) maxed out my out-of-pocket right then and there.
Your area might cost less (costs vary wildly), but it sounds like it won't be cheap (I'm assuming your insurance is somewhat similar to mine).
The bright side is that the benefits far outweigh any monetary cost. You'll be a lot less likely to end up in the ER or worse after you have it done, for instance.
Also, don't be afraid to ask for and complete the Financial Assistance paperwork, if the hospital has such a program. Depending on a wide variety of factors, they can write off some or all of the remaining balance. In my case, it helped greatly, even though I didn't think it would. Definitely worth the three hours I spent putting it together.
"I've been fighting with reality for over thirty-five years, and I'm happy to say that I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd