[Cynlite]

I wrote about Susan who was a patient of Dr. Light in San Francisco. He is described as a surgeon of last resort because he goes in and fixes failed surgeries. (Susan can be found on Facebook. She has a page called "Back to Pain Free Life.") In Susan's case, he had to remove a fusion that didn't fuse and then put in two Mobi-C discs. I don't remember the cost exactly but, it was around $70 K. Of course, it was in San Francisco (Dec. 2014) which is a very expensive city anyway.

When I took a poll of costs for a two level cervical disc replacement in the U.S., the cost out of pocket was $35 - $48 thousand. Colorado Babe's surgery was only $26 thousand for a 2 level plus a lumbar fusion but, her insurance negotiated that rate and paid it. I was surprised to find that the costs in Europe have come up and the costs in the U.S. have come down so, in today's market they are closer in price than say 5 years ago. Unfortunately, in the U.S., the cost is all over the map because hospitals here charge for surgeons out of network popping in at the last minute without the knowledge of a patient and other hidden costs. If I paid out of pocket in the U.S., I would make sure I had something in writing that itemized my cost and didn't allow for surprise charges.

I still lean towards using one of the top three surgeons in Europe but, there are a couple here I have considered as well and have written about already.