<story><title>That “distressed baby&quot; Tim Armstrong blamed for benefit cuts? She’s my daughter</title><url>http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/02/tim_armstrong_blames_distressed_babies_for_aol_benefit_cuts_he_s_talking.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>paul</author><text>My daughter had a similar birth and hospital stay, which also produced a million dollar insurance bill. It costs about $10,000&amp;#x2F;day to stay in the NICU. I was never able work out why it costs so much, except that this is a major profit center for hospitals, and they use the money to cover other, money losing, departments.&lt;p&gt;Fortunately Google is run by good people, and they were never anything other than supportive. I&amp;#x27;m grateful for having had access to the best care for her. I do think our medical system needs some rethinking though.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tarr11</author><text>It is unfortunate that Tim Armstrong made these statements and all of us who have had this experience need to relive it.&lt;p&gt;My daughter also had an extraordinary birth, and was saved by the incredibly expert care of a dedicated team of medical professionals at multiple hospitals in Seattle and Bellevue.    The bill I saw was north of 250K and I paid the max of that (which was a few thousand)&lt;p&gt;It occurred while I was at a startup which i had co-founded (and currently employs over 100 people).  I tend to go from startup to startup, with some contract &amp;#x2F; FTE work in between, and have swung from COBRA to COBRA to keep my health insurance consistent.&lt;p&gt;Because of ACA, this is the first year that I didn&amp;#x27;t have to &amp;quot;get a real job&amp;quot; in order to keep pursuing startups.</text></comment>
<story><title>That “distressed baby&quot; Tim Armstrong blamed for benefit cuts? She’s my daughter</title><url>http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/02/tim_armstrong_blames_distressed_babies_for_aol_benefit_cuts_he_s_talking.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>paul</author><text>My daughter had a similar birth and hospital stay, which also produced a million dollar insurance bill. It costs about $10,000&amp;#x2F;day to stay in the NICU. I was never able work out why it costs so much, except that this is a major profit center for hospitals, and they use the money to cover other, money losing, departments.&lt;p&gt;Fortunately Google is run by good people, and they were never anything other than supportive. I&amp;#x27;m grateful for having had access to the best care for her. I do think our medical system needs some rethinking though.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fennecfoxen</author><text>If we think microeconomics for a moment: healthcare for distressed infants could be a textbook example of inelastic demand. Q: How much are you willing to pay to save the life of this child? A: &lt;i&gt;ALL THE MONEY! AND MORE!!&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>