Below is a copy of a medical bill that my husband found while we were walking. I removed the name and address to protect the identity of the recipient, but heck, since this invoice is from 1958, it might be a moot point. Anyway, back to my story.
As we were walking, we talked about our new found treasure. Who was this person? Did he still live in our neighborhood and was finally throwing out old paperwork? Or did he die and his children were cleaning out his home? Did he even have children?
And what about the French Hospital? Was it really French? Why did he have surgery? Was it for an ongoing problem since he had already racked up over $600 before the new charges were added? Obviously he survived the operation ~ or did he? Was this receipt sent to his widow and she is finally relinquishing the memory?
And what about the costs? Twelve days in the hospital for a grand total of $240? And only $75 for the surgery? Some things never change, however. The medications were almost as expensive as the surgery or the anesthesiologist. Great example of how medical costs have far outstripped inflation and our ability to pay.
This bit of paper kept us intrigued and entertained during our entire walk. It was fun to make up different stories but it was even more fun to be holding a piece of someone's past.
2 comments:
Knowing the average HH income in the 50's was less than $10K that is quite a bill for one month! Hopefully that was a wealthy sick guy :)
Yep, expensive then and expensive now.
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