VOA标准英语2013--US Hospitals Have Dramatic Differences in Pricing for Same Procedures

 

US Hospitals Have Dramatic Differences in Pricing for Same Procedures

Rickey Dana is one of millions of Americans living with a long-term illness.

"I would wake up in the middle of the night, vomiting¹ whatever I had eaten, if there was anything left in there.  It was disastrous² [in a whispered sigh]," said Dana.

The diagnosis³: chronic⁴ Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial⁵ infection.  Her pre-existing condition of depression had already caused insurance companies to either deny her coverage⁶ or offer unaffordable policies.  And the bills kept adding up.

"March. March. March. March. These were all due within a week of each other," she said.

Her doctor put her on four different drugs and told her she needed rest.  But all she could think about was how to get by after losing her job and racking up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

"I have to pay rent, and you're charging me $400 for a 30-minute consult.  But you don't want me to have stress in my life," she said.

New data released from the government this month reveal the costs of care vary wildly from hospital to hospital.  For example, the same procedure can cost $12,000 or $37,000 in Arkansas; $35,000 or about $100,000 in different California hospitals; and $14,000 or $32,000 in Virginia.  

Dr. Gerard Anderson heads the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management.  He says hospitals have marked up the charges so much over the past 30 years that they no longer have any ties to actual costs.

"It's not the input⁸ prices.  It's not the cost of nurses and labor⁹ and those kinds of things.  It is just what they choose to charge," said Anderson.

Michelle Katz is a nurse and health care consultant¹⁰.  She says those pricing practices are unfair.

"There needs to be some sort of regulation, some sort of transparency, where if I go to the hospital I know I'm not going to go into debt because I went into the hospital," said Katz.

Millions of Americans like Dana are hoping when a key part of the Obama Administration's health care reform initiative goes into effect next year, it will fix these sky-rocketing costs.  The Affordable⁷ Care Act will give tens of millions of Americans new access to health care services.  But Dr. Anderson says the wild and inconsistent charges won't be going down.

"It's not bringing them back to a normal, reasonable amount.  It's just constraining¹¹ the rate of increase," he said.

Dana applied¹² for financial aid and reduced her bills from $40,000 to $10,000.

"I didn't even have to fight them or anything.  They were great," she said.

But even then, the remaining cost has placed such a burden on her that she's had no choice but to leave her home for a cheaper place to live.

1 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

2 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

3 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

4 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

5 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

6 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

7 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

8 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

11 constraining   

强迫( constrain的现在分词 )； 强使； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• He was constraining his mind not to wander from the task. 他克制着不让思想在工作时开小差。
• The most constraining resource in all of these cases is venture capital. 在所有这些情况下最受限制的资源便是投入资本。

12 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。