VOA标准英语2013--US Hospitals Have Dramatic Differences in Pricing for Same Procedures
时间：2018-12-16 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2013年(六月)
US Hospitals Have Dramatic Differences in Pricing for Same Procedures
Rickey Dana is one of millions of Americans living with a long-term illness.
"I would wake up in the middle of the night, vomiting 1 whatever I had eaten, if there was anything left in there. It was disastrous 2 [in a whispered sigh]," said Dana.
The diagnosis 3: chronic 4 Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial 5 infection. Her pre-existing condition of depression had already caused insurance companies to either deny her coverage 6 or offer unaffordable policies. And the bills kept adding up.
"March. March. March. March. These were all due within a week of each other," she said.
Her doctor put her on four different drugs and told her she needed rest. But all she could think about was how to get by after losing her job and racking up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
"I have to pay rent, and you're charging me $400 for a 30-minute consult. But you don't want me to have stress in my life," she said.
New data released from the government this month reveal the costs of care vary wildly from hospital to hospital. For example, the same procedure can cost $12,000 or $37,000 in Arkansas; $35,000 or about $100,000 in different California hospitals; and $14,000 or $32,000 in Virginia.
Dr. Gerard Anderson heads the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management. He says hospitals have marked up the charges so much over the past 30 years that they no longer have any ties to actual costs.
"It's not the input 8 prices. It's not the cost of nurses and labor 9 and those kinds of things. It is just what they choose to charge," said Anderson.
Michelle Katz is a nurse and health care consultant 10. She says those pricing practices are unfair.
"There needs to be some sort of regulation, some sort of transparency, where if I go to the hospital I know I'm not going to go into debt because I went into the hospital," said Katz.
Millions of Americans like Dana are hoping when a key part of the Obama Administration's health care reform initiative goes into effect next year, it will fix these sky-rocketing costs. The Affordable 7 Care Act will give tens of millions of Americans new access to health care services. But Dr. Anderson says the wild and inconsistent charges won't be going down.
"It's not bringing them back to a normal, reasonable amount. It's just constraining 11 the rate of increase," he said.
Dana applied 12 for financial aid and reduced her bills from $40,000 to $10,000.
"I didn't even have to fight them or anything. They were great," she said.
But even then, the remaining cost has placed such a burden on her that she's had no choice but to leave her home for a cheaper place to live.
- Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
- Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”
- The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
- Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。
- His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
- The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。
- Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
- Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。
- Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
- Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。
- There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
- This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。
- The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
- There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。
- I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
- All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。
- We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
- He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。
- He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
- Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
- He was constraining his mind not to wander from the task. 他克制着不让思想在工作时开小差。
- The most constraining resource in all of these cases is venture capital. 在所有这些情况下最受限制的资源便是投入资本。