Several factors come into play when you’re trying to figure out how much you’re going to have to pay for an open heart surgery. The two biggest factors are what kind of open heart surgery you're having how good your insurance is.
A heart transplant runs more than $700,000, significantly more than most annual salaries. Other open heart surgeries are in the neighborhood of $325,000. Much of the expense is not only the four hour long surgery, but also the testing, the anesthesia, and the medication and aftercare that are all part of the package. Additionally, a hospital stay of at least a week is usually necessary, and in many cases, this makes up three quarters of the cost. Even open heart surgery for a congenital defect on an infant is usually around $150,000.
If you have insurance, costs will probably be lower. However, you’ll probably have to fight to get in it. Most insurance plans come with a deductible, which means you have to pay a certain amount before they kick in. And on top of that, even after you’ve hit your deductible, they may only pay a certain percent of the cost because a cardiologist is a specialist, which often isn’t covered under general insurance plans.
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