Blimey! This is scary...

[Old Greg]

Do you mean the cost to the NHS in terms of cost price on materials, salaried hours of people involved Greg?

I mean the price to the paying body (in England CCG - formally PCT), as charged by the acute trust. So includes salaries, pensions, NI etc. + materials + share of cost of running a hospital (with the exception of certain centrally funded capital investments). More or less.

[Old Greg]

A bit more on costs from a 2009 study for laparscopic appendectomy:

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Data were collected prospectively on patients undergoing laparoscopic appendicectomy within Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. Theatre and bed costs were obtained. Cost analysis was performed, and costs were compared to the re-imbursement due.

RESULTS

Fifty laparoscopic appendicectomies were performed. Median operative time was 60 min. The median total operative cost of laparoscopic appendicectomy was £906. Median equipment cost for laparoscopically completed cases was £254. Median total in-patient cost was £1617 (range, £880–£3360). This compared with a mean re-imbursement of £1981 representing a cost benefit of £233 per case (P = 0.0009).

Laparoscopic Appendicectomy: Calculating the Cost

[d000hg]

More reasons why my plan B is not targeting UK hospitals and medical device companies

[KentPhilip]

What this link does not say is how much of this is profit. Granted quite a lot probably, but it would be interesting to know what are the costs for the hospital.
If it is excessively profitable then why aren't competitors coming into the market and driving down the prices? Because of goverment/state regulations creating a barrier to entry perhaps?

[VectraMan]

So what we're saying is that the NHS is actually really good and cost effective? That does deserve a Blimey!

(Of course the large number of immigrants they hire must help keep the costs down).

[d000hg]

Everything in the US medical world is dramatically, terrifyingly expensive... surgeons earn loads, single use medical devices run into the tens of thousands of dollars, hospitals have armies of lawyers and expect to be sued constantly.

[Old Greg]

So what we're saying is that the NHS is actually really good and cost effective? That does deserve a Blimey!

(Of course the large number of immigrants they hire must help keep the costs down).

I am saying that the NHS is cost effective compared to the US - I don;t know what the costs are like in comparable Western European countries. Good is a different issue, and low costs in the NHS are reflected by low nurse to patient ratios which impacts on nursing care and helping with eating / washing etc.

[OwlHoot]

... hospitals have armies of lawyers and expect to be sued constantly.

This is the main reason medicine is so expensive in the US.

If they introduced strictly limited liability, the costs would plummet without having to worry about Obamacare (which sounds like a massive step backwards)

[scooterscot]

The person in this case had medical insurance. They still had to pay $11k... that's the part I don't really understand, the whole point of insurance is to cover you. That extra $11k doesn't make a massive difference to the insurance company but it does to a typical person having to potentially take time off work on top of everything else.

True. I know over here the state insurance shall not cover you for everything, even some dental work. There are private insurance products out there that cover a lot more. That being said the quality of care received is amazing.

Spring time is always amusing, the Arabs arrive in München in there droves on a medical holiday of sorts.

[d000hg]

I also find it odd that the NHS gives all treatment for free, and prescriptions are a fixed cost, but dental has surcharges. You can have any disease and treatment costs you a tenner a month (you can get a prescription pre-payment card), but if you have bad teeth you can have to spend £thousands... the top tier of treatments isn't for vanity procedures either but things you might actually need doing. £300 or whatever it is is a lot of money to a median wage slave; heck even the middle band of £50ish isn't exactly trivial.