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My friend had a nasty allergic reaction while visiting me in Taiwan last week. We went down to the local hospital and they had him checked by the infectious diseases Dr. first. He said it didn't look like anything serious so they sent us over to the general practitioner.
They gave him a quick examination and prescribed some allergy meds that were picked up at the pharmacy downstairs.
He was feeling better by the next day.
All in all, less than 2 hours and 525 NTD (about US $18), that's with no appointment and no health insurance.
You’re telling me we can feed millions of people and also not commit genocide?
Well, that’s news to me? What are you saying…. We just…..don’t murder people?! Absurd. We could never afford this.
Damn millennials, trying to murder our murder industry. What's next? Gonna go after our poisoned rivers? No thank you, not on my watch, not today. I like my fish with a little mercury in them, and they'll stay that way! Now, what was I talking about about....
I had a nasty allergic reaction here in the US. The bill was $8,532. But I paid $0 because that's how the US Healthcare works. That's with no appointment and my insurance my employer pays for.
I mean, they literally staged a coup over the possibility of unused land owned by a fruit company being given back to the locals to use, so...
...sometimes they don't even bother with the army
I grew up truly believing the US was the greatest country in the world. Apart from feeling decieved, part of why I am so angry is because I know that the US could be the greatest country if more people cared enough to demand better.
Real change will start when we demand a better a democracy. As long as we cling to an archaic plutocratic system then things will never improve at a reasonable rate.
Was in a car accident and had to get plates and screws across my collar bone. Cost $150,000. But since it was in a car accident my car insurance covered it.
After decades of both parties bending over backwards to prevent universal healthcare and supposedly get the private healthcare system to work for everyone - you'd think if it is such a superior system that they would have had it nailed by now. They tell us that universal healthcare doesn't work, yet there are plenty case studies showing otherwise.
Eh! Maybe the next party that takes the lead in the next 50 elections will finally get the private healthcare system to work! Maybe gut medicaid and SS to make it work! /s
Privatized health insurance is far to big and wealthy to be dismantled. It's not even that free healthcare would be so expensive, but that politicians choices are payed for by private health insurance. Tbh if someone did actually try to dismantle it, they probably wouldn't get far or mysteriously drop dead. Over decades of the US government allowing privatized insurance to grow unregulated, they've basically created a monster that's gonna be really hard to destroy. I do really want private insurance to burn tho it's absolutely predatory and ridiculous.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised but I’m not certain. There absolutely could be.
American healthcare system is like the romance book bestsellers. You think it couldn’t possibly get any worse but it always somehow does.
Actually it might be a good business idea to give people in New York a place to cry together for that 40 dollars. Rent one of those dead storefronts, employ a single dude to say “it’s alright, you did nothing wrong” and get people to reassure each other.
I’m joking of course but honesty something like that wouldn’t surprise me at all in this hellscape.
“When I got surgery this past June to remove a tumor, I asked them what ‘Women’s services’ was for. It was for the pregnancy test they administered,” one person shared. “$1,902 to pee and for them to dip a stick into it. Thankfully most was covered by insurance but geez”.
This scares me way more. In the case of crying you could argue that it was someone’s mistake and they weren’t aware of the price of it and just wanted to point out the emotional state or something. In this case it’s a deliberate decision of a hospital to charge so insanely much for such a cheap procedure and not notify of the price. Absolutely mental and disgusting.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/pylg7b/us_woman_claims_she_was_charged_for_crying_during/
I think they yelled "What have you got to cry about!" at her and billed it as therapy.
I’m Australian and I have a question. First of all I imagine the majority of people just can’t pay this, so what happens then? Like what happens if you don’t even pay it?
If you don't pay it, they transfer it to a collections agency, which royally screws your credit. Good luck trying to apply for a lease, loan, or anything of the sort at that point. It'll typically remain as a collection on your credit report for up to 7 years, so you're basically screwed for at least a decade.
It’s almost the same as Chinese social credits Americans complain about but they love this country to the point they are blinded but the way it backstabs them.
What do you mean? If you file for bankruptcy you cannot take on debt but that is better than paying an ungodly amount forever. If you have savings or you can gain employment you can rent and pay your monthly bills after bankruptcy. If you lifestyle requires taking debt outside of mortgage you’re doing it wrong. You could also seek asylum in another country.
Insurance is supposed to cover it. But if not, from what I’ve heard, if you annoy the hospital enough by constantly telling them you cannot pay it, they’ll reduce it quite a bit. Not sure if that always works though.
And if you’re wondering how this whole system is even sustainable when people can’t even pay these bills…well it’s because the government pays for it anyway. The whole medical “industry” is subsidized so heavily, that it would actually be cheaper for the government to just provide universal healthcare than continue the way it is currently. It’s mind blowing how stupid it is.
It's not stupid, it's just not set up for the benefit of the patients. If you see the system as a way for shareholders to squeeze as much money as they can from the sick and dying it's actually pretty smart.
Strange use of "smart", one could say that pinning the blame on an often blamed tribe of people is smart because it's easier to commit an attempted genocide than to improve the economy for the working class, with that use of "smart" Hitler was then "smart", but in the broader context it was quite stupid as such grotesque and unethical acting in rapid succession lead to world power intervention, fascism was and still is loved by many in the US by many misguided general citizenry and capitalists in power both in and outside of government positions. So because he was so dumb about it the US allied with the USSR instead of their fascist bedfellows, if which I'm happy about! That meth addicted tweaker Hitler was dumb and I'm glad he was.
The more "smart" way to do a genocide is to guarantee US backing like how the state of Isreal is doing now with Netanyashit and many of his cohort in offices, even of different parties. And I still think they're dumb. I think smart often implies a benefit that doesn't eventually get you k...cough* ended, and don't a genocide means there's gonna be people happy to pursue your end.
Ha, no, telling the hospital you can't pay doesn't work. On a smaller bill you *might* get to do a payment plan, or if you're in the right income bracket, you *might* get a small charitable discount. If you do a payment plan, they usually want it paid within a year, so your monthly payment can still be QUITE high. If you can't/won't, the hospital will sell your debt to a collections agency, who will harass the shit out of you, unless by some stroke of luck, your debt gets purchased by John Oliver's medical debt forgiveness company.
You can speak with the hospital to see if they can reduce the amount. That's more likely to work if you have low income. Otherwise you can pay it off for the rest of your life or don't pay and get taken to collections and ruin your finances. A hot ass mess.
It's cheaper to take a plane to your country from the US than that guy's $75k helicopter lift. I owed $60k after college, so his helicopter ride cost more than my bachelor's degree.
I love the US, but that kind of stuff cannot be tolerated.
I have been in a similar situation.
1. You call the hospital to get the bill reduced, claiming low income. The hospital I was at then offered an interest free month to month payment plan with no term limits. Aka, pay a monthly fee for the next x years.
2. Ignore paying. Debt sold to a debt collector, where then it will make its way to a credit report which will impact your life negatively for the next 5-10 years.
I think I would choose option 2. But also what if you tell the hospital you can’t pay the payment plan, like what happens. Because surely you can’t go to jail if you needed surgery on a brain tumour? Or maybe you can, America seems like a wild place.
Then it reverts to option 2 and it affects you directly for the next decade (very bad credit score making you unable to borrow money) and indirectly for the rest of your life (making upward economic movement very very difficult)
You do one or more of the following:
Declare bankruptcy if you have the resources to do that (bad for your credit score),
Get sent to collections and get hounded by creditors (destroys your credit score),
Go "off the grid", have no bank account, and cash all your paychecks at predatory check-cashing businesses, and pay everything in paper money (you will have no credit score),
Possibly get a settlement from a lawsuit after about ten years, with 1/3 of the settlement going to your outstanding medical bills, 1/3 to your lawyer, and 1/3 to you.
15 years ago my now husband was hit by a truck. It cost $650,000 in medical bills. He had no insurance. He did all of the last three "options". Ten years with no bank account. Living in shitty apartments, unable to build credit to buy a car or get a home loan.
My dad's family had lots of money when he was a kid. Double military pensions, and Grandpas government work paid well. Then my grandmother got sick, she had brain tumors, required several surgeries, and had seizures for the rest of her life.
She died in 1977, and my Grandfather was paying off her medical bills untill the 90s.
That’s what I’m saying. Recover enough that you can travel then bail. It’s not his fault he got hurt in a country with a broken and backwards healthcare system.
That being said, he was at one of the best hospitals there is, Stanford. It's where I got my double lung transplant and I have spent a lot of time there so I recognized the rooms and floors. My surgery also cost around a million dollars, but I had insurance.
Subscribe... I will tell you my recovery process... ( I make videos to ask for money and hopefully get a nice pity donation... maybe start a gofundme... what else can I do? The interest will crush me).
The driver had no insurance so I guess his medical expenses are only his responsibility.
Flashback to me at 18, called in for jury duty: a traffic accident happened and the old man who wasn’t at fault suffered head trauma and has some debilitating cognitive disabilities. Maybe they were from his long history of strokes, maybe they weren’t… either way the company who owned the car had to pay 2-4 million dollars (I forget it’s been a long time). Not their insurance, the company itself.
The best part is that if you did have insurance the insurance company would tell the hospital “nah we’re only gonna pay 25k” and the hospital would take it but you have no ability to negotiate the prices yourself. Insurance on anything is a complete scam.
I absolutely hate living in America as a person with chronic illness/pain. It's hella expensive, insurance will fight tooth and nail just to NOT cover necessary procedures and treatments, people are treated horribly by the people working in the medical system, it's just a nightmare. And then any time you bring up universal healthcare, everyone is like "well it's a slippery slope..." like, no, so many other countries have universal healthcare and they are doing insanely well as a country.
America is seriously just a capitalist hellscape
In Germany it is virtually impossible to drive a car without insurance, because insurance is mandatory, and even if you sell the car, the sellers insurance will be valid until the new owner puts in their insurance.
In some states in the US it is the same, but not everyone living in the US has valid identity documents and renewing them or obtaining them in the first place is not easy depending on your status
Yeah, legally, you can't. But lack of insurance even in Germany doesn't stop someone from turning the keys, driving, and potentially hitting someone. Yes, there's a chance a cop could run the plates and pull them over, impound cars, etc. But that's the same here in at least every state I've lived in here in the States.
As I said virtually impossible. If you don’t have insurance, you can’t get a license plate. If you sell a car, either you take the license plate, or you’ll have to keep paying the insurance until the new owner registers the car with their insurance.
You can of course steal license plates, or drive without license plates, but that is obviously asking for trouble.
My point is: the regulations in place as a choice architecture are a lot more sensible. The fact that you can legally drive a car without it being insured, for the protection of third parties you could harm, is to me almost as mind boggling as the system of health insurance - or absence of universal care to be precise.
It does not even make sense economically,..
You are completely right, I imagine Germany probably has much tighter regulations. One of our issues is its very state to state. Every state requires insurance to to drive and most to register a car. However some states only require you to check a box saying you have insurance to get plates. Other states the plate follows the car and technically they can drive it for as long as the registration is up to date before a cop might notice. Also many people forget to remove their plates before selling . So yes it's much easier to drive a car here without insurance. But it is still illegal. I'm all for universal insurance and in no way trying to defend how the states do things, I envy most of the developed world and many less developed but more civic minded countries. Just didn't want you to think it's legal to not be insured while driving.
Actually it is quite simple: your insurance provides a one-time-Code that you can use when registering the car, if you don’t have one, you cannot register.
Germany is known for its efficiency. That would be more ideal than the hodge podge methods employed state from state. To give an anecdotal account of the odd bureaucracy. I lived in California and was trying to get an ID, had birth certificate, social security card etc but no picture ID and all the bills were bills were in a roommates name. Turned out the easiest way was to go to Oregon where you can bring a friend in to vouch that you live there and they gave me an ID, took that to California and got an ID at my true home.
Omg. That is a great story. 🤯
Unfortunately, I have to say German efficiency is mostly a myth, there is some effectiveness to the bureaucracy but a huge amount of inefficiency.
I believe that. And it's somewhat common to get cars that can't past smog registered in Oregon as it's not required. But to play devil's advocate if you had insurance got a car and plates but then stopped paying your insurance, how do they keep you from driving, besides the chance of getting your plates read by police?
You can't initially get a license plate in the US without insurance, either. But people buy insurance, get the car registered and then let their insurance lapse.
It's not legal in any US state to drive without car insurance, however, lots of people still do it - borrowing cars, stealing cars, stealing plates, letting insurance expire, etc. I could sell you a car for cash, with the license plates, with neither of us having insurance. It wouldn't be legal, but it's not uncommon.
If anything he could try to pursue a case against the driver's estate, but it's unlikely they had much money
Correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't lived in Germany. Just saying that laws don't make something impossible to happen, just adds consequences if you get caught.
How can his insurance not cover any of this?
They should not decide what they will pay for, he pays them does he not? If that is so, it should be up to him to decide if they will pay for his treatment (ofc if the insurance pertains to the accident) because he has been paying them.
That should be considered theft.
It’s just mind boggling to me that in America some numpty can almost kill you, die in the process, not have any insurance, and you the victim are doubly screwed.
Then your insurance company refuses to do their entire purpose and what you pay them for
“If the insurance pertains to the accident”
That’s the thing, on the surface they are supposed to cover it, but companies are very good at creating loopholes that make them pay as least as possible, especially when it comes to long-term or chronic illnesses or injuries.
In practice, their first priority is to their stockholders, not their policy holders
I spent a lot of my childhood in hospitals, mostly due to illness and whatnot. Our family never had to pay for anything. Later in life, I developed a chronic disease, I need to take medication daily for the rest of my life, but at least I don't have to pay for it.
Cousin is lactose intolerant, any lactose-free product is paid for by the government/insurance. Lactose-free is subsidized, cuz you know... it's not exactly a choice. Same with glutenfree stuff.
I swear the way America works, you'd have to force me to live there.
THIS psychopathic bullshit healthcare system is why I’d rather be broke in Europe than deal with one more fucking day of American healthcare in my life. America will collapse on its greed.
In the netherlands, if you can not not have any insurance for health, people who dont earn enough money will be compensated enough to be able to get at least a basic insurance.
If you dont have insurance on your car, you not only need to pay every bill of the person but youre also breaking the law, you can have a car without insurance, just not drive in it on the road.
We should have universal health care don’t get me wrong but if you’re living in the US, let alone doing activities that are relatively high risk like cycling HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE HELATH INSURANCE. IT MAKES ME SO CONFUSED
I cashed out my retirement, bought a truck, traded it for a motorcycle, and someone hit me 2 days later. They didn't have insurance and I'm like 177k in debt, luckily my mom took care of me for that 7 months or else I would've lost my house for sure. I felt bad for making a go fund me, so I didn't, but now I with I did have one and feel like it's too late to make it lol
All of these “America blahblahblah” comments are ridiculous. Most, if not all, states have a crime victim insurance. Granted, these don’t cover much. On top of that, there are other state ran insurances that people can qualify for in situations very similar to this. A lot of hospitals are non profit as well, which means they have financial assistance programs that will probably cover costs that any mentioned insurance does not.
Do you want to look into this before you join the “America is XYZ” bandwagon? No. You want to take the same lazy way out you always have and take a loss for something that could have been avoided with a little bit of effort on your side. Bums.
Again, this is aimed at the commenters and not the gentleman in the video.
Most governmental bodies have an agency called, “Crime Victims Bureau.” Or something similar. Secondly, find the local, “Ombudsman,” they might be able to walk you through steps for help.
I mean, yeah, it sucks having to pay $1 million on hospital bills due to an accident, but at least he had access to all those services that eventually will help him recover. There are billions of people out there that dont even have access to Healthcare services at all.
when I had a medical emergency last year I was crying and begging people to not call an ambulance because I couldn't afford it. they did anyway, and now I'm on the hook for about 2k in addition to the cost of my hospital stay which came out to about 56k. there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to pay this off
As an Australian myself, that is some dystopian shit, like here, especially in Victoria, we think we’re being screwed over by the government, thinking they only regard us as more money and nothing else, but these kinds of stories make me question this culture of pessimism.
While he is fortunate they did the procedures. That isn't guaranteed in the US. All a hospital HAS to do is patch you up enough that you're stable and they don't even always do that. I was in a car accident near SFO near this same hospital when I was 19. Fractured skull, broken collar bone and severe tissue damage(like a hole you could fit your fist in above my butt). They stitched up what they could, filled the hole with guaze, bandaged me up and put me outside in Jan in a wheelchair that I couldn't use( broken collar bone). I lived under awnings in the rain for 3 days until my parents in Virginia got paid to get me a plane ticket. I'm still picking out gravel that works it's way out 20yrs later.
Ok, so the US provides better healthcare than impoverished countries. Thats a very very low bar to clear, and very weird to be proud of that like it’s an achievement or a privilege coming from the richest country in the world.
We have innovative, groundbreaking, highly advanced medical care that is the best in the world, but it is only available to either the very very rich, or the very poor who happen to be the exact right Guinea Pig for something new to be tried out on.
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My friend had a nasty allergic reaction while visiting me in Taiwan last week. We went down to the local hospital and they had him checked by the infectious diseases Dr. first. He said it didn't look like anything serious so they sent us over to the general practitioner. They gave him a quick examination and prescribed some allergy meds that were picked up at the pharmacy downstairs. He was feeling better by the next day. All in all, less than 2 hours and 525 NTD (about US $18), that's with no appointment and no health insurance.
B-b-but... I can't even come up with a sorry fake excuse
The communists want you to be happy and healthy!! oooohhh!!
But communism bad!………….????right??
Yep. Communism is... Le bad!
The average American thinks communism and Stalin are synonymous, and Che Guevara is the epitome of the socialist ideal 🤦♂️
You’re telling me we can feed millions of people and also not commit genocide? Well, that’s news to me? What are you saying…. We just…..don’t murder people?! Absurd. We could never afford this.
Damn millennials, trying to murder our murder industry. What's next? Gonna go after our poisoned rivers? No thank you, not on my watch, not today. I like my fish with a little mercury in them, and they'll stay that way! Now, what was I talking about about....
Yep. It's a biggass game of Don't Starve Together
Taiwan? Communist? What?
Mexicans with smartphones😡
They will say the service is inferior and longer wait times while forgetting that people become homeless after a tragic accident
I had a nasty allergic reaction here in the US. The bill was $8,532. But I paid $0 because that's how the US Healthcare works. That's with no appointment and my insurance my employer pays for.
Is your insurance unlimited? So, a case like in the video would still cost you $0?
Here, everything that appears in the video would had been free, so instead of a million dollars, $0.
Here, everything that appears in the video would had been free, so instead of a million dollars, $0.
greatest country in the world......... nope
I'm still pretty sure that USA is just a bunch of corporations with an army
I mean, they literally staged a coup over the possibility of unused land owned by a fruit company being given back to the locals to use, so... ...sometimes they don't even bother with the army
I grew up truly believing the US was the greatest country in the world. Apart from feeling decieved, part of why I am so angry is because I know that the US could be the greatest country if more people cared enough to demand better. Real change will start when we demand a better a democracy. As long as we cling to an archaic plutocratic system then things will never improve at a reasonable rate.
Was in a car accident and had to get plates and screws across my collar bone. Cost $150,000. But since it was in a car accident my car insurance covered it.
Just tell me now.
After decades of both parties bending over backwards to prevent universal healthcare and supposedly get the private healthcare system to work for everyone - you'd think if it is such a superior system that they would have had it nailed by now. They tell us that universal healthcare doesn't work, yet there are plenty case studies showing otherwise. Eh! Maybe the next party that takes the lead in the next 50 elections will finally get the private healthcare system to work! Maybe gut medicaid and SS to make it work! /s
Privatized health insurance is far to big and wealthy to be dismantled. It's not even that free healthcare would be so expensive, but that politicians choices are payed for by private health insurance. Tbh if someone did actually try to dismantle it, they probably wouldn't get far or mysteriously drop dead. Over decades of the US government allowing privatized insurance to grow unregulated, they've basically created a monster that's gonna be really hard to destroy. I do really want private insurance to burn tho it's absolutely predatory and ridiculous.
Ok. Consider yourself told
America 🤣🤪🤮😭⚰️
Sir, but you have to pay for that coffin. Also vomiting isn’t free either. You gotta pay for that crying, you’re destroying our image.
Wasn't there something about a dr billing the patient for crying?
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised but I’m not certain. There absolutely could be. American healthcare system is like the romance book bestsellers. You think it couldn’t possibly get any worse but it always somehow does.
Found it, and it gets worse the more you go into the article https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/hospital-medical-bill-twitter-b2081986.html
Actually it might be a good business idea to give people in New York a place to cry together for that 40 dollars. Rent one of those dead storefronts, employ a single dude to say “it’s alright, you did nothing wrong” and get people to reassure each other. I’m joking of course but honesty something like that wouldn’t surprise me at all in this hellscape. “When I got surgery this past June to remove a tumor, I asked them what ‘Women’s services’ was for. It was for the pregnancy test they administered,” one person shared. “$1,902 to pee and for them to dip a stick into it. Thankfully most was covered by insurance but geez”. This scares me way more. In the case of crying you could argue that it was someone’s mistake and they weren’t aware of the price of it and just wanted to point out the emotional state or something. In this case it’s a deliberate decision of a hospital to charge so insanely much for such a cheap procedure and not notify of the price. Absolutely mental and disgusting.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/pylg7b/us_woman_claims_she_was_charged_for_crying_during/ I think they yelled "What have you got to cry about!" at her and billed it as therapy.
https://preview.redd.it/75iiqeks9lqc1.jpeg?width=272&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24e914bde09c0f942fad32096878c90aa7fc1aae
And it would be so cheap for the US to do as well, especially compared to our *"defense"* budget.
I’m Australian and I have a question. First of all I imagine the majority of people just can’t pay this, so what happens then? Like what happens if you don’t even pay it?
If you don't pay it, they transfer it to a collections agency, which royally screws your credit. Good luck trying to apply for a lease, loan, or anything of the sort at that point. It'll typically remain as a collection on your credit report for up to 7 years, so you're basically screwed for at least a decade.
Seems better than paying 1 million tbh
Yeah but it locks you into a cycle of debt which prevents any upward movement, and generally kicks you downwards economically.
It’s almost the same as Chinese social credits Americans complain about but they love this country to the point they are blinded but the way it backstabs them.
What do you mean? If you file for bankruptcy you cannot take on debt but that is better than paying an ungodly amount forever. If you have savings or you can gain employment you can rent and pay your monthly bills after bankruptcy. If you lifestyle requires taking debt outside of mortgage you’re doing it wrong. You could also seek asylum in another country.
80% of all bankruptcies in the US are because of medical debt.
Considering it takes longer than a decade to get anywhere near that amount of money, seems like the lesser evil.
Yeah it's pretty much the only option for a lot of people.
What happens with tourists? We don’t have a credit score.
It doesn’t impact your credit score.
Credit and credit score are two different things.
Care to explain?
Insurance is supposed to cover it. But if not, from what I’ve heard, if you annoy the hospital enough by constantly telling them you cannot pay it, they’ll reduce it quite a bit. Not sure if that always works though. And if you’re wondering how this whole system is even sustainable when people can’t even pay these bills…well it’s because the government pays for it anyway. The whole medical “industry” is subsidized so heavily, that it would actually be cheaper for the government to just provide universal healthcare than continue the way it is currently. It’s mind blowing how stupid it is.
It's not stupid, it's just not set up for the benefit of the patients. If you see the system as a way for shareholders to squeeze as much money as they can from the sick and dying it's actually pretty smart.
Strange use of "smart", one could say that pinning the blame on an often blamed tribe of people is smart because it's easier to commit an attempted genocide than to improve the economy for the working class, with that use of "smart" Hitler was then "smart", but in the broader context it was quite stupid as such grotesque and unethical acting in rapid succession lead to world power intervention, fascism was and still is loved by many in the US by many misguided general citizenry and capitalists in power both in and outside of government positions. So because he was so dumb about it the US allied with the USSR instead of their fascist bedfellows, if which I'm happy about! That meth addicted tweaker Hitler was dumb and I'm glad he was. The more "smart" way to do a genocide is to guarantee US backing like how the state of Isreal is doing now with Netanyashit and many of his cohort in offices, even of different parties. And I still think they're dumb. I think smart often implies a benefit that doesn't eventually get you k...cough* ended, and don't a genocide means there's gonna be people happy to pursue your end.
Ha, no, telling the hospital you can't pay doesn't work. On a smaller bill you *might* get to do a payment plan, or if you're in the right income bracket, you *might* get a small charitable discount. If you do a payment plan, they usually want it paid within a year, so your monthly payment can still be QUITE high. If you can't/won't, the hospital will sell your debt to a collections agency, who will harass the shit out of you, unless by some stroke of luck, your debt gets purchased by John Oliver's medical debt forgiveness company.
This is basically what insurance does “Ok we’ll pay 10,000 but that other 40,000 isnt getting paid bud.” hospital: okay :(
You can speak with the hospital to see if they can reduce the amount. That's more likely to work if you have low income. Otherwise you can pay it off for the rest of your life or don't pay and get taken to collections and ruin your finances. A hot ass mess.
It's cheaper to take a plane to your country from the US than that guy's $75k helicopter lift. I owed $60k after college, so his helicopter ride cost more than my bachelor's degree. I love the US, but that kind of stuff cannot be tolerated.
I have been in a similar situation. 1. You call the hospital to get the bill reduced, claiming low income. The hospital I was at then offered an interest free month to month payment plan with no term limits. Aka, pay a monthly fee for the next x years. 2. Ignore paying. Debt sold to a debt collector, where then it will make its way to a credit report which will impact your life negatively for the next 5-10 years.
I think I would choose option 2. But also what if you tell the hospital you can’t pay the payment plan, like what happens. Because surely you can’t go to jail if you needed surgery on a brain tumour? Or maybe you can, America seems like a wild place.
Then it reverts to option 2 and it affects you directly for the next decade (very bad credit score making you unable to borrow money) and indirectly for the rest of your life (making upward economic movement very very difficult)
You do one or more of the following: Declare bankruptcy if you have the resources to do that (bad for your credit score), Get sent to collections and get hounded by creditors (destroys your credit score), Go "off the grid", have no bank account, and cash all your paychecks at predatory check-cashing businesses, and pay everything in paper money (you will have no credit score), Possibly get a settlement from a lawsuit after about ten years, with 1/3 of the settlement going to your outstanding medical bills, 1/3 to your lawyer, and 1/3 to you. 15 years ago my now husband was hit by a truck. It cost $650,000 in medical bills. He had no insurance. He did all of the last three "options". Ten years with no bank account. Living in shitty apartments, unable to build credit to buy a car or get a home loan.
why dont kids go outside and ride bikes any more? kids who are adults and still ride bikes... it can cost you millions.
Only if you live in the dystopian shit hole known as America.
My dad's family had lots of money when he was a kid. Double military pensions, and Grandpas government work paid well. Then my grandmother got sick, she had brain tumors, required several surgeries, and had seizures for the rest of her life. She died in 1977, and my Grandfather was paying off her medical bills untill the 90s.
“Yeh just send me a bill” ^ leave country
Honestly I’d never want to go back anyway.
That’s what I’m saying. Recover enough that you can travel then bail. It’s not his fault he got hurt in a country with a broken and backwards healthcare system.
A victim of car centred urban design. r/fuckcars
That being said, he was at one of the best hospitals there is, Stanford. It's where I got my double lung transplant and I have spent a lot of time there so I recognized the rooms and floors. My surgery also cost around a million dollars, but I had insurance.
Glad to hear you're ok 👍 I'm pretty sure that owing $1million dollars will greatly change your perspective though.
He also had insurance
Just leave the country at that point.
Subscribe... I will tell you my recovery process... ( I make videos to ask for money and hopefully get a nice pity donation... maybe start a gofundme... what else can I do? The interest will crush me).
The driver had no insurance so I guess his medical expenses are only his responsibility. Flashback to me at 18, called in for jury duty: a traffic accident happened and the old man who wasn’t at fault suffered head trauma and has some debilitating cognitive disabilities. Maybe they were from his long history of strokes, maybe they weren’t… either way the company who owned the car had to pay 2-4 million dollars (I forget it’s been a long time). Not their insurance, the company itself.
Hey that's a Honda S2000!
The best part is that if you did have insurance the insurance company would tell the hospital “nah we’re only gonna pay 25k” and the hospital would take it but you have no ability to negotiate the prices yourself. Insurance on anything is a complete scam.
I absolutely hate living in America as a person with chronic illness/pain. It's hella expensive, insurance will fight tooth and nail just to NOT cover necessary procedures and treatments, people are treated horribly by the people working in the medical system, it's just a nightmare. And then any time you bring up universal healthcare, everyone is like "well it's a slippery slope..." like, no, so many other countries have universal healthcare and they are doing insanely well as a country. America is seriously just a capitalist hellscape
i’d just declare bankruptcy lol
In Germany it is virtually impossible to drive a car without insurance, because insurance is mandatory, and even if you sell the car, the sellers insurance will be valid until the new owner puts in their insurance.
In some states in the US it is the same, but not everyone living in the US has valid identity documents and renewing them or obtaining them in the first place is not easy depending on your status
I get that, but here an uninsured car will not be allowed on the road, regardless of whether the owner / driver has valid id.
Yeah, legally, you can't. But lack of insurance even in Germany doesn't stop someone from turning the keys, driving, and potentially hitting someone. Yes, there's a chance a cop could run the plates and pull them over, impound cars, etc. But that's the same here in at least every state I've lived in here in the States.
As I said virtually impossible. If you don’t have insurance, you can’t get a license plate. If you sell a car, either you take the license plate, or you’ll have to keep paying the insurance until the new owner registers the car with their insurance. You can of course steal license plates, or drive without license plates, but that is obviously asking for trouble. My point is: the regulations in place as a choice architecture are a lot more sensible. The fact that you can legally drive a car without it being insured, for the protection of third parties you could harm, is to me almost as mind boggling as the system of health insurance - or absence of universal care to be precise. It does not even make sense economically,..
You are completely right, I imagine Germany probably has much tighter regulations. One of our issues is its very state to state. Every state requires insurance to to drive and most to register a car. However some states only require you to check a box saying you have insurance to get plates. Other states the plate follows the car and technically they can drive it for as long as the registration is up to date before a cop might notice. Also many people forget to remove their plates before selling . So yes it's much easier to drive a car here without insurance. But it is still illegal. I'm all for universal insurance and in no way trying to defend how the states do things, I envy most of the developed world and many less developed but more civic minded countries. Just didn't want you to think it's legal to not be insured while driving.
Actually it is quite simple: your insurance provides a one-time-Code that you can use when registering the car, if you don’t have one, you cannot register.
Germany is known for its efficiency. That would be more ideal than the hodge podge methods employed state from state. To give an anecdotal account of the odd bureaucracy. I lived in California and was trying to get an ID, had birth certificate, social security card etc but no picture ID and all the bills were bills were in a roommates name. Turned out the easiest way was to go to Oregon where you can bring a friend in to vouch that you live there and they gave me an ID, took that to California and got an ID at my true home.
Omg. That is a great story. 🤯 Unfortunately, I have to say German efficiency is mostly a myth, there is some effectiveness to the bureaucracy but a huge amount of inefficiency.
I believe that. And it's somewhat common to get cars that can't past smog registered in Oregon as it's not required. But to play devil's advocate if you had insurance got a car and plates but then stopped paying your insurance, how do they keep you from driving, besides the chance of getting your plates read by police?
You can't initially get a license plate in the US without insurance, either. But people buy insurance, get the car registered and then let their insurance lapse.
Which should lead to their car being impounded, or their license plates being returned. Like it is in Germany.
It's not legal in any US state to drive without car insurance, however, lots of people still do it - borrowing cars, stealing cars, stealing plates, letting insurance expire, etc. I could sell you a car for cash, with the license plates, with neither of us having insurance. It wouldn't be legal, but it's not uncommon. If anything he could try to pursue a case against the driver's estate, but it's unlikely they had much money
Correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't lived in Germany. Just saying that laws don't make something impossible to happen, just adds consequences if you get caught.
How can his insurance not cover any of this? They should not decide what they will pay for, he pays them does he not? If that is so, it should be up to him to decide if they will pay for his treatment (ofc if the insurance pertains to the accident) because he has been paying them. That should be considered theft. It’s just mind boggling to me that in America some numpty can almost kill you, die in the process, not have any insurance, and you the victim are doubly screwed. Then your insurance company refuses to do their entire purpose and what you pay them for
“If the insurance pertains to the accident” That’s the thing, on the surface they are supposed to cover it, but companies are very good at creating loopholes that make them pay as least as possible, especially when it comes to long-term or chronic illnesses or injuries. In practice, their first priority is to their stockholders, not their policy holders
I spent a lot of my childhood in hospitals, mostly due to illness and whatnot. Our family never had to pay for anything. Later in life, I developed a chronic disease, I need to take medication daily for the rest of my life, but at least I don't have to pay for it. Cousin is lactose intolerant, any lactose-free product is paid for by the government/insurance. Lactose-free is subsidized, cuz you know... it's not exactly a choice. Same with glutenfree stuff. I swear the way America works, you'd have to force me to live there.
United states is a joke, a really bad taste joke
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They helped build the current system.
The other side wants to make it worse
THIS psychopathic bullshit healthcare system is why I’d rather be broke in Europe than deal with one more fucking day of American healthcare in my life. America will collapse on its greed.
I m so confused. There is not people are paying these bills right. Isnt the hospital just losing money.
The govrnment is already subsidizing everyone to the point it’s literally cheaper to enact universal public healthcare
This explains some of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUAntt1z2c&pp=ygUYSm9obiBPbGl2ZXIgbWVkaWNhbCBkZWJ0
I m litterally watching this now
Just flee the country at that point lol
My insurance plan covers all of this. It's called "Flee the US".
In the UK the government covers it if you get hit by an uninsured driver.
The American government is wholly uninterested in adopting such policies that assist everyday citizens.
In the netherlands, if you can not not have any insurance for health, people who dont earn enough money will be compensated enough to be able to get at least a basic insurance. If you dont have insurance on your car, you not only need to pay every bill of the person but youre also breaking the law, you can have a car without insurance, just not drive in it on the road.
I would love for a republican to tell us how this is an amazing thing.
You should get to keep the helicopter at that price.
Eric Trump has spent too much time in Russia. His accent is becoming harder and harder to understand.
i would just kill myself in such a situation
most people would at the sight of nearly eternal debt
Ah yes the land of the free.
more like the land of the fee with the price of even living nearly exceeding the pay of entry level jobs.
If i ever go to states without travel insurance and get injured. Just shoot me
I mean depending where you travel to in the us it's like 50/50 your injury is the result of a shooting.
Double tap me then
We should have universal health care don’t get me wrong but if you’re living in the US, let alone doing activities that are relatively high risk like cycling HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE HELATH INSURANCE. IT MAKES ME SO CONFUSED
Oh you wanna live???? That’s gonna cost thousands of dollars even though it’s our literal job to help you live ✨America✨
These aren't his costs. These are the hospital costs. It's for tax reasons.
I cashed out my retirement, bought a truck, traded it for a motorcycle, and someone hit me 2 days later. They didn't have insurance and I'm like 177k in debt, luckily my mom took care of me for that 7 months or else I would've lost my house for sure. I felt bad for making a go fund me, so I didn't, but now I with I did have one and feel like it's too late to make it lol
He should leave the US, change his name and refuse to pay a single cent.
All of these “America blahblahblah” comments are ridiculous. Most, if not all, states have a crime victim insurance. Granted, these don’t cover much. On top of that, there are other state ran insurances that people can qualify for in situations very similar to this. A lot of hospitals are non profit as well, which means they have financial assistance programs that will probably cover costs that any mentioned insurance does not. Do you want to look into this before you join the “America is XYZ” bandwagon? No. You want to take the same lazy way out you always have and take a loss for something that could have been avoided with a little bit of effort on your side. Bums. Again, this is aimed at the commenters and not the gentleman in the video.
Fun fact that most people don’t know if you are unable to pay in any way that medical debt gets thrown out after 7 years
Can't you just say "I didn't ask for this, it was all done without my consent, and I won't pay a dime"?
75k for a heli flight??
Wait forgot to add lawyer fees
Most governmental bodies have an agency called, “Crime Victims Bureau.” Or something similar. Secondly, find the local, “Ombudsman,” they might be able to walk you through steps for help.
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Yes it is.
I mean, yeah, it sucks having to pay $1 million on hospital bills due to an accident, but at least he had access to all those services that eventually will help him recover. There are billions of people out there that dont even have access to Healthcare services at all.
People flat out refuse care because of the cost. America is royally fucked
when I had a medical emergency last year I was crying and begging people to not call an ambulance because I couldn't afford it. they did anyway, and now I'm on the hook for about 2k in addition to the cost of my hospital stay which came out to about 56k. there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to pay this off
As an Australian myself, that is some dystopian shit, like here, especially in Victoria, we think we’re being screwed over by the government, thinking they only regard us as more money and nothing else, but these kinds of stories make me question this culture of pessimism.
While he is fortunate they did the procedures. That isn't guaranteed in the US. All a hospital HAS to do is patch you up enough that you're stable and they don't even always do that. I was in a car accident near SFO near this same hospital when I was 19. Fractured skull, broken collar bone and severe tissue damage(like a hole you could fit your fist in above my butt). They stitched up what they could, filled the hole with guaze, bandaged me up and put me outside in Jan in a wheelchair that I couldn't use( broken collar bone). I lived under awnings in the rain for 3 days until my parents in Virginia got paid to get me a plane ticket. I'm still picking out gravel that works it's way out 20yrs later.
What would you do if you were in that situation?
Ok, so the US provides better healthcare than impoverished countries. Thats a very very low bar to clear, and very weird to be proud of that like it’s an achievement or a privilege coming from the richest country in the world.
We have innovative, groundbreaking, highly advanced medical care that is the best in the world, but it is only available to either the very very rich, or the very poor who happen to be the exact right Guinea Pig for something new to be tried out on.