Public notice, disclosure Archbold Memorial Hospital emergency room fees. For a trip to their ER including a blood test and EKG you will pay $2,014 (and I won’t even go into the “quality” of care).

I did a search on the Web and found that Medicare would have paid them about $586 for similar services.

So for those of you who are happy with the current medical system, I suggest you read the fine print on your insurance policy. Should you find yourself outside the parameters of your policy, those are the kind of fees you can expect to pay without pressure from the government to hold them back.

Archbold Memorial doesn’t post these fees, so they can raise them anytime and surely must be embarrassed to post them as well. When I asked them to justify the fees and itemize the bill, I was threatened with a lawsuit if I did not pay.

For decades, the hospitals, doctors, drug companies and health insurance companies have pushed legislation through the state and federal legislatures by the use of lobbyists. We have government-run health care now except the terms of it have been legislated by special interest groups rather than for the good of the public.

We don’t have private police and fire protection because of the similar kind of abuses that would go along with that (Your house is on fire, would you like to have to take the time to give the private-run fire department a financial statement or credit card number before they come put the fire out?)

It is obvious that Archbold Memorial as well as the entire medical industry has seized every opportunity to create and abuse the situation at the public’s financial and health’s expense. They have crossed the line and their lack of responsibility dictates that the medical industry deserves to be made “public” as well.

Services could not be worse and based on Medicare payments would certainly be cheaper.

Sincerely,Tom GordonBainbridge, Ga.