This McSweeney’s bit on American ERs is funny, but in fact, the crazy things in it are real incidents. (Click the links!)
This is healthcare in the USA – where when you have an emergency and need care, your local hospital will take advantage of the situation to load you up with weird charges that don’t make sense, your insurance that’s supposed to cover them will say “that’s nuts, we’re not paying that,” and then you’ll have the hospital after you to pay.
It really doesn’t have to be like this; it certainly isn’t like this in other industrialized nations. If you’re going to have a terrible accident, try to do so in Canada.