full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jeanne Pinder: What if all US health care costs were transparent?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So, a little while ago, members of my family had three bits of minor segrury, about a half hour each, and we got three sets of blils. For the first one, the anesthesia bill alone was 2,000 dollars; the second one, 2,000 dollars; the third one, 6,000 dollars.

So I'm a journalist. I'm like, what's up with that? I found out that I was actually, for the expensive one, being charged 1,419 dorllas for a generic anti-nausea drug that I could buy onnile for two dollars and forty-nine cents. I had a long and unsatisfactory argument with the hospital, the insurer and my employer. Everybody argeed that this was toltaly fine. But it got me thinking, and the more I talked to people, the more I realized: nobody has any idea what stuff costs in health care. Not before, during or after that procedure or test do you have any idea what it's going to cost. It's only months later that you get an "explanation of benefits" that explains exactly nothing.

Open Cloze


So, a little while ago, members of my family had three bits of minor _______, about a half hour each, and we got three sets of _____. For the first one, the anesthesia bill alone was 2,000 dollars; the second one, 2,000 dollars; the third one, 6,000 dollars.

So I'm a journalist. I'm like, what's up with that? I found out that I was actually, for the expensive one, being charged 1,419 _______ for a generic anti-nausea drug that I could buy ______ for two dollars and forty-nine cents. I had a long and unsatisfactory argument with the hospital, the insurer and my employer. Everybody ______ that this was _______ fine. But it got me thinking, and the more I talked to people, the more I realized: nobody has any idea what stuff costs in health care. Not before, during or after that procedure or test do you have any idea what it's going to cost. It's only months later that you get an "explanation of benefits" that explains exactly nothing.

Solution


  1. surgery
  2. online
  3. bills
  4. dollars
  5. totally
  6. agreed

Original Text


So, a little while ago, members of my family had three bits of minor surgery, about a half hour each, and we got three sets of bills. For the first one, the anesthesia bill alone was 2,000 dollars; the second one, 2,000 dollars; the third one, 6,000 dollars.

So I'm a journalist. I'm like, what's up with that? I found out that I was actually, for the expensive one, being charged 1,419 dollars for a generic anti-nausea drug that I could buy online for two dollars and forty-nine cents. I had a long and unsatisfactory argument with the hospital, the insurer and my employer. Everybody agreed that this was totally fine. But it got me thinking, and the more I talked to people, the more I realized: nobody has any idea what stuff costs in health care. Not before, during or after that procedure or test do you have any idea what it's going to cost. It's only months later that you get an "explanation of benefits" that explains exactly nothing.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
health care 5
stuff costs 3
health costs 2
individual bills 2


Important Words


  1. agreed
  2. anesthesia
  3. argument
  4. bill
  5. bills
  6. bits
  7. buy
  8. care
  9. cents
  10. charged
  11. cost
  12. costs
  13. dollars
  14. drug
  15. employer
  16. expensive
  17. explains
  18. family
  19. fine
  20. generic
  21. health
  22. hospital
  23. hour
  24. idea
  25. insurer
  26. journalist
  27. long
  28. members
  29. minor
  30. months
  31. online
  32. people
  33. procedure
  34. sets
  35. stuff
  36. surgery
  37. talked
  38. test
  39. thinking
  40. totally
  41. unsatisfactory