I have payed cash $6,000.00 for the least expensive pacemaker.
I am sure that it incorporates high technology, but how high? I can get iPad for 500, supercomputer for my desk for about 3000. Both of these items are 1000 fold more complicated than PM device.
Of coarse we are all grateful for this device, it prolongs and makes life easier. Is it really that expensive, or is it just another case of industry taking advantage of sick people? Pay up, or die.

 

 

Will the iPad for 500 and supercomputer for your desk for about 3000 keep you alive? That over priced pacemaker may be cheap when you think of the difference in the benefits of the three.

 

You have missed the point. Actualy computer and Internet helped me to research options for my heart problem, so in esence it helped me stay alive.
You would be great spoke person for, now jailed heart surgeon at Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto CA. This doctor performed unnecessary bypass surgeries, I don't know, perhaps for profit?
Send from my Ipad.

 

You have missed the point. Actualy computer and Internet helped me to research options for my heart problem, so in esence it helped me stay alive.
You would be great spoke person for, now jailed heart surgeon at Stanford Hospital, Palo Alto CA. This doctor performed unnecessary bypass surgeries, I don't know, perhaps for profit?
Send from my Ipad.

 

Sorry, mistake, posted the same comment twice.
Yes, I have payed cash for PM, I believe that price is unnecesarry high. I did not have a choice being outside of USA. As we know Medicare does not cover, even emergencies, otside of country. All in all I have had actualy saved money. Surgery was performed by salaried doctor, member of the social medicare system, very competent I may add, having 800 surgeriesi under her belt for fee of $170.00 and three days stay in hospital = $6.00 a day. Can you stack it up agaist expenses in US? What else it's new? We people are woting against own interest all the time. For example voting for someone that draged us to unnecesarry war.
Similarly, we are trusting doctors with questinable skills and motivs, well, they are saving our lives. Right?

 

There is very little inside a pacemaker. A battery,a micro processor, a motion sensor, a capacitor. Add to that a titanium case and a couple of sockets and seals and the program/software. If it was not a medical device and it was made in china it would cost $30 dollars at the most. I have just bought from china a highly sophisticated tachometer which contains a special lens, a laser , a photo diode, 2 switches, a large LCD display, 2 cases both soft and hard, 3 microchips, and some highly complex software , all for $10. I do hope the Chinese inject some reality into this industry. I am sure they are working on it.

 

Where did you buy it for $6K on E-Bay....good buy....So now it will only cost you $50,000K +/- , for a doctor to install it....If you can find a doctor who will put it in and guarantee it......I think I'll go the conventional route....... good luck to you........

Pete.....If I know China had anything to do with a product, even the internal parts, I will not buy it.....and when I see "Made in China", I throw it away.....(I recycle if I can, usually can't recycle it though, because its poisoned).......

Oh, I didn't miss the point....Think about this.....you can buy a house that will last over 100 years with proper maint. for about $75,000 ( even lesss now), but you pay $30,000 and up for a car that will last about 10 years if you baby it everyday, and get nothing in return but rusted metal that you may get $100 for, but the house still has the land value.....

 

Sorry, after hitting send, and re reading what I wrote, it sounded sarcastic.....I did not mean for it to sound that way......sorry, i forgot to add the haha's, and lol's........good luck and sorry again......

 

One thing we need to keep in mind is that medical device manufacturing is a business. Companies strive for quality and customer confidence in their products. Unfortunately the trend is to make devices in other countries for cheap money while demanding top dollar for them. We as consumers have no choice. Are the prices outrages for these devices? Absolutely, when you compare them to similar non-medical products.
It is ridiculous but I'd pay almost any price not to feel like I did prior to the pacer. It was worth the cost to get my life back.

 

My PM was made in Minnesota (Medtronic dual lines) and with the dr. hospital and 1 overnight stay which I left in the middle of the night, it was over $28,000.
Where can I buy a house for $75,000? Sign me up. A very cheap house in a not so great location is over $225,000 and my normal house is worth over $500,000 in Massachusetts. I wish we had something even close to 75K. We are ready for a move.
Hope the device works well. Mine might make it 5 yrs. due to high usage. I have had it for almost 10 months.
Sugar/Patty

 

/ Where can I buy a house for $75,000 /......anywhere in Florida......Broward right now 3/2 with pool, $75,000 (was a $350K house)......no lie....go to realtor.com put in a zip code for broward, dade, or palm beach county.....I paid exactly $70,000 in 1994, it appraised for $ 189K in mid 2007, 2 months ago it appraised for $65,000,..........and I'm a licensed GC and Licensed roofer, have put in over $100K in new hurricanne roof, bath remodels, new kitchen and floors, new base,new doors, everything but new windows...........and my retirement stash (my equity) my house is worth less than I paid15 years ago.....do you know what really s___k"s.....I own 2 of them and together their appraised value was $385,000, now I am upside down $201K.....and one of them is paid off......how does that happen..now the county said together they are only worth $96,000, lets see from $385,000 taxable value to $96,000 taxable value in 2 years, anyway........there are 1900 houses in foreclosure in my zipcode alone last month (front page news here), and adding 300 per day......they cannot give them away, sqautters are moving into them.........I was ready to retire at 44, went in got an AICD now disabled and lost everything....yes I'm a real happy guy...........good luck on your house search......

 

Less complicated than an ipod or a computer. @@
In a way it's a lot like a computer. It records & stores the information of everything going on with your heart.
How could you put a price on that?
6,000?? You got a hell of a deal. Be grateful for that.
Liz

 

I got a bill from the hospital, prior to the insurance "adjustment." They billed $96,000 for the implant of the 3-lead bi-vent. I'm in the US. My insurance deductible left me with $2,500. I have no idea what the insurance company actually paid, but I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near the balance. It was outpatient surgery and I left same day as implant. This bill did not include the doctor, anesthesiologist and pre-op tests. I certainly don't want to be without the device, as I'm 100% dependent. I kept the bill, which included the cost for the device, but can't remember the cost. I feel that the cost of the operating room and the "recovery" room, which consisted of a cot, a chair and a retractable curtain was a bit exorbitant, but I did get to keep a really attractive pair of socks and the device seems to be working, although they haven't shared any of the recorded information with me. I just think the medical costs in this country are out of control. The insurance companies in my state OWN the politicians so it's not going to get any better.

 

Quote:"sorry, i forgot to add the haha's, and lol's........good luck and sorry again......"
There is no need to make fun of someone posting legitimate gripe, comment about price of devices and services. You just showing ignorance and lack of knowledge. According to respectable World Health Organization, USA is ranked number 35 in health care (out of 191 countries) just after Chile and ahead of Cuba. It is ranked as number one as technologically advanced and number one as most expensive. In simple words, "Surgery was successful, but patient died."
To answer your question, I did not buy the PM on E-Bay, it was supplied by hospital in Shanghai from their stock. There was apparently no mark up added to the price they payed, because all the health care in Shanghai is non profit, just like in all the other civilized countries. I have payed total of $6,454.00 for PM, it's implant, all the tests and 8 days stay in hospital including doctors check up twice a day, nurses standing bye, food and more. I have approached, up on leaving hospital, the lady doctor, who did the surgery offering her some money, I was impressed by her skills and advice. She was offended for one, also she explained that she is payed monthly by hospital ($740.00 a month) and then, " I was working on you only for one hour, why would I need more money." Hospital bill for the surgery was $170.00, which is considered adequate here in Shanghai. To clarify things, I do not have any insurance in Shanghai, I am US citizen having Medicare. My payment of 6,454.00 was probably less than my copay in USA would be.
You can also make fun of Chinese as much as you want, but you should direct your comments to greedy US business who are building factories in China and displacing good American workers. Chinese are not to blame. Poor quality, poisonous materials is also not the Chinese fault, it is the effort of US companies to maximize profits.

As you can see, I am not alone complaining. Another member wrote this under title "$96,000
Quote "I got a bill from the hospital, prior to the insurance "adjustment." They billed $96,000 for the implant of the 3-lead bi-vent. I'm in the US. My insurance deductible left me with $2,500. I have no idea what the insurance company actually paid, but I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near the balance. It was outpatient surgery and I left same day as implant. This bill did not include the doctor, anesthesiologist and pre-op tests. I certainly don't want to be without the device, as I'm 100% dependent. I kept the bill, which included the cost for the device, but can't remember the cost. I feel that the cost of the operating room and the "recovery" room, which consisted of a cot, a chair and a retractable curtain was a bit exorbitant, but I did get to keep a really attractive pair of socks and the device seems to be working, although they haven't shared any of the recorded information with me. I just think the medical costs in this country are out of control. The insurance companies in my state OWN the politicians so it's not going to get any better. "

 

Sorry, and yes , I know "no excuses"....I was out of line and apoligized already once before, now you are the one who is trying to start something out of something I already apologized for. And I see you may live in america and using our medicare system, but your bio says Chinese, so are you Chinese or American?? If China is so great , go back....., and once again I apologize for how I may have offended your countries manufacturing capabilities, have fun with your $6k pacemaker and I truly apoligize for offending you.....By the way my EP study, 3 days on morphine in Cardiac CCU in a heart only hospital, 2 wire lead dual chamber pacemaker with defibrillator 2 NIPS test and built in home phone monitoring systemfor weekly home self checks for life, for $158,000 insurance bill. It only cost me $1,500 total out of pocket which is my yearly deductible, beat that deal..........good luck in your life.....

 

Yesterdays (Sundays) front page Palm beach lost up to 77.4% of home value, my house lost over 75% value. Example used: Palm Beach County $515,000K in 2005 is now devalued to $116,000K, and still won't sell...........why?? I didn't do anything, the banks and wall street did.....once again, if you have money you can buy half of south florida for pennies on the dollar.......I'm not kidding......I was high bidder on 3 different homes,($350K and up, and was high bidder at $50,000) and qualified for the loans when all this started, the selling banks took too long to accept the offers and the financing bank pulled the financing, tired of waiting...(and the houses are still sitting empty rotting)....they are just hurting each other....now south florida is famous for humidity ,bugs, and now "concrete tunneling" termites...so another year or so of sitting and all these homes will be rotted away and totally worthless, good luck if you ghave money to spend....you can get a great deal on a ocean front house or condo.......Go online front page Sun Sentinel 8/01/2010..........I don't lie, have no reason to lie......

 

Wall Street crooks ruined entire planet financial systems.
We are all sheep just keep taking it.

 

am I understanding this correctly? do you all have to pay for your pm's?