A woman found that displaying her emotional distress during a minor surgery had cost her. Literally.
Midge, who goes by @mxmclain on Twitter, posted a bill showing she was charged for “brief emotion”
On her medical invoice for a mole removal procedure, Midge claimed she was additionally charged $11 for “crying.” She had been charged a total of $223 for the physician’s work for getting a mole removed and an additional item — “brief emotion = $11.” She was also given a discount of $2, which many joked was because of her shedding nothing more than a single tear. Midge tweeted the image of the bill and captioned it: Mole removal: $223, Crying: extra.
After Midge shared the tweet, Twitter kicked off the jokes on the steep healthcare costs in America.
“For how long did you cry? I just want to know the going rate.”, one person asked.
Another chimed in, “This can’t be real. To think I was just experiencing emotions for free this entire time.”
Another said they were going to “start charging my children this way.”
According to indy100.com, for people in Canada, the UK, Spain and others who had the opportunity to experience free medical care, the concept of being charged for surgery is puzzling. Therefore, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that people are blown away by the thought of being charged extra.
One person wrote: “This accurately describes the American healthcare system,” someone wrote.
“Jesus, I should have hid my weeping better. I’m going to owe them fists of money after my hospital stay,” another joked.
Someone else agreed with Midge’s sentiments about being charged extra and said, “This really happens… I got charged this when they did my first blood test all because they decided to run my blood in some kind of depression test that I didn’t approve.”
Speaking to indy100, Midge said that she had received a depression screening test during a routine annual physical, and she wasn’t aware insurance didn’t cover it.
“It was basically 10 (or less) questions about mental health,” she said,
When receiving the bill, she also explained that the charge wasn’t for “crying” but was coded to print as “Brief Emotion,” which is shorthand for “brief emotional assessment.”
References: life.shared.com, comicsands.com, indy100.com
