My family’s story of an $800 doctor’s bill and how healthcare is ripping us all off:

It started with a simple doctor’s visit for an asthma exacerbation. All my loved one needed was a chest x-ray to determine if antibiotics were necessary and a prescription for prednisone to reduce inflammation. Instead, we got an $800 bill for a visit that included $500 of unnecessary viral testing, no chest x-ray, and the same treatment we would have gotten without the tests. This wasn’t an accident. This was healthcare’s business model at work. I’m here to explain how we’re getting ripped off from an insider’s perspective.

Outpatient clinics make big money from unnecessary testing. Tests like respiratory pathogen panels—fancy, expensive tests that run for everything from the flu to COVID-19—are pushed because they pad the bottom line. But here’s the thing: they’re medically unnecessary. These tests don’t change how a patient is treated. Whether the results are positive or negative, the clinical decisions remain the same. No antivirals would be given, and the treatment plan wouldn’t change. A simple chest x-ray would have been far more useful to guide therapy. But that doesn’t make the corporation that owns the clinic money.

Healthcare has become a transactional business venture, and unnecessary testing has turned into a major profit generator. Why? These companies face bloated overhead costs—from expensive real estate to unnecessary administrative staff. Healthcare providers play the game by ordering costly tests that insurance companies will cover. And guess who pays the price? **You and me—**the patients with higher medical bills.

This is the game, and your insurance company is also part of it. They cover those unnecessary tests, knowing they can pass those costs back to you through higher premiums.

What did I pay for today? An influenza panel that I could purchase for $50, marked up to $250. And a SARS-COV2 PCR test for $300 that I could get for $90. Fortunately, my family has the resources to pay these bills without taking food from the dinner table. Many Americans do not.

Healthcare in America is broken. We are overcharged and underserved. This isn’t a series of unfortunate incidents—it’s a system designed to prioritize profit over patients. Until we demand transparency and accountability, this will continue. The bills will keep getting higher, the care will remain subpar, and families will continue to suffer.

We deserve better.