Three Apples: Giving Armenia the Finger
A column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez Newspaper Once there was and there was not … What I hope is the last bill from a 30-minute visit to a Burbank hospital a few months ago arrived in the mail this week. My cost for the emergency room visit was around $2,500, which is an average annual salary in Armenia. The bills have been coming in multiple parts from four different departments. They’re confusing, unjust, and an example why Americans are expressing their anger during health care reform forums. A poor gent actually got his finger bit-off at one of the protests in Thousand Oaks last Thursday. Among the reams of paperwork I received from the hospital was a $300 invoice for medical supplies. What medical supplies? Other bills came for a tetanus shot, for x-rays, and for the four stitches the physician’s assistant said I needed on the upper crease of the middle finger of my left hand. Moments before walking into the emergency room, I was across the street at a pharma...