An itemised bill detailing the amount charged to insurance for an individual’s stay in a US hospital for the treatment of Covid has gone viral on TikTok due to the exorbitant amount.
On Wednesday, a TikTok account by the username @letstalkaboutbusiness shared the video of the invoice with the caption: “Four months in a USA hospital with Covid-19 total cost? $$$$.”
In the clip, it then zooms in on the various costs of the hospital stay, with the ICU totaling $324,329, while a stay in the “intermediate ICU” totaled $404,515.
Non-sterile medical surgery supplies costing more than $397,000 were also included in the total amount, while echocardiography was listed as adding an additional $550,458 to the bill.
The costs of various other health needs were listed as well, with the invoice also detailing thousands of dollars for speech therapy, ultrasounds, and anesthesia.
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After spanning the lengthy list, the TikTok shows the “total amount balance” as $2.85m, with the TikTok user adding a caption of: “Woooow.”
Since it was uploaded a day ago, the video has been viewed more than 6.2m times, with hundreds of people shocked by the amount of the hospital stay.
“USA is not a country, it’s a business,” one person commented, while another said: “Tell me you live in America without telling me you live in America.”
Someone else added: “Land of the free. RIGHT?” with another jokingly encouraging the individual to “see if they have any Groupons”.
However, as noted by many of the commenters, the invoice does state in bold that it “is not a bill,” with one person explaining: “This is the bill to the insurance, just an explanation of charge to the patient. If they have insurance, they’ll pay. BUT…”
While many viewers were horrified by the amount, others revealed that it made them grateful to be living in countries other than the US.
“OMG. Even here in Russia everything is free. Like, literally all, including medicines in the hospitals,” one person wrote, while another viewer commented: “That’s why we live in Australia.”
The hefty bill comes after TikTok users previously left viewers horrified by sharing the costs associated with giving birth in a US hospital.
