The woman was dismayed to see "Brief Emotion" listed on her bill.
A woman took to Twitter recently to share a bill she received during a medical consultation in the US.
In the bill, Midge saw a charge for "Brief Emotion", which set her back $11.
In her tweet, she wrote: "Mole removal: $223. Crying: extra."
In the replies, Midge joked about the fee.
"I didn't even get a damn sticker," she said, before adding: "Is a lollipop too much to ask?"
According to
The Guardian, "Brief Emotion" is short for "brief emotional assessment". In some instances, a
healthcare worker might do a quick mental health check during a routine procedure - however, this comes with a hidden fee.
In any case, many felt Midge's tweet spoke volumes about the healthcare system generally.
"This is America," one person simply wrote.
https://twitter.com/mxmclain/status/1442950887383736321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1442950887383736321%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-12382754121980916873.ampproject.net%2F2109272305001%2Fframe.html
Another retweeted the picture and wrote: "Everything you ever need to know about private healthcare. Public healthcare is a human right."
A third joked: "The amount of money I would owe if I was charged for crying at the doctors."
"America is not real," someone else wrote. "How you getting taxed for crying?"
Hidden charges are not necessarily a new feature of the US healthcare system.
For instance, in 2016, a man took to Reddit to share that after his wife gave birth via C-section,
she was charged $39.95 for the skin-to-skin contact.
He wrote: "During the C-section the nurse asked my wife if she would like to do skin to skin after the baby was born. Which of course anyone would say yes to. We just noticed it in the bill today.
He continued: "The nurse let me hold the baby on my wife's neck/chest. Even borrowed my camera to take a few pictures for us. Everyone involved in the process was great, and we had a positive experience. We just got a chuckle out of seeing that on the bill."
