“ Medicare Part A: How Much Will a Hospitalization Cost You?
Let’s say you’re hospitalized and all you have is Medicare Part A. How much do you owe the hospital?
If the hospitalization lasts 60 days or less, the answer is $1,484; nothing more. This is an important point: For any hospitalization lasting 60 days or less, you will only owe the hospital $1,484 even if your hospital bill exceeds one million dollars! The doctor (or doctors) who see you in the hospital will bill you separately, but those bills are covered by your Part B benefits (discussed later).
Should you expect to ever be hospitalized for more than 60 days? No!
The average hospital stay in the US is 5-6 days and that number has been going down each year for more than a decade. Even people who need major surgery like a liver transplant or open heart surgery are usually home in about 7 days. I can’t say that 60-day hospitalizations never occur in the U.S., but they’re about as rare as jackpot lottery winners.
Also, if you have Medicare Part A, there’s no limit to the number of times you can be hospitalized for up to 60 days as long as you go home for two months after each hospitalization. Now, the average senior can expect to be hospitalized about 4 times while on Medicare, and that’s over a 20-30 year period of time. Do the math. How much will that really cost you when compared to the cost of your Medicare supplemental premiums?”