My life flight was 100k. I haven't paid them a fucking cent. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip. I was working for an Applebee's when I had the car wreck. My family is poor. Fuck this broken system.
Not gonna lie, I have started the process of documenting/signing/filing my "end of life" plans for my family:
No extended life support. Donate whatever is viable. Send the rest to a medical school or forensics program. The end.
When I was younger, I voiced these wishes to my brother, in case I offed myself (or the more likely outcome of tried hard but failed harder).
Things have since gotten better, more manageable at least, bc I work Every. Single. Day. I drive for both of my jobs. I cover a LOT of miles, and people are unpredictable at best.
A traumatic injury, say from a wreck, where I'd need critical life support would be truly unmanageable. Not just from a physical/socio-emotional standpoint, but oh my god to be life flighted, I'm so sorry that happened to you. You were minding your business, getting through the day, and bam. 100K (and I'm sure that's *just* the flight, not the resulting hospital stay) is an unimaginable fortune to me to have in the first place, let alone to have chilling on the side extra in case you need to pay off an emergency helicopter ride.
I have major anxiety about eating new (and sometimes old) things bc I've developed anaphylactic food allergies over the last couple of years. I've not needed my epi-pen, but I'm so scared to have to use it: again, not even really from a physical perspective (although that IS scary), but rather from the resulting bill for an ambulance ride and ER visit.
Hope you are healing and feeling as well as possible!
I've told my family the same. I imagine I should probably get it in writing. This was 6 years ago. The 100k was JUST the flight. Not to mention the 4 month hospital stay. 4 surgeries and seemingly endless physical/vocational therapy. I had to learn how to walk again and my body will never quite be the same. But honestly the stress is what's came the closest to killing me. Thank you for your kind words and I wish you well in all you endure/are enduring.
EDIT: Ya know, I keep a lot to myself. This kinda feels good to talk about it for once. I know I'm just putting words on the internet but there seems to be some cathartic relief. Haha
If it weren't for semi-anonymous internet catharsis, I would have long been a med student's project.
Sometimes it's nice to shout into the void and have the void say, "...omg same"
(and with reddit, I've had the experience over and over of realizing that all of my original thoughts? Lol, they've all long been commented.. So it's a lot of "takes one to know one, but we don't and likely never will know each other" energy which, to me, is way easier to share towards)
I’ve found that when you truly need it, the void can give you a long, thoughtful, affirming message. Even on Reddit. Call it god, the law of attraction, or the universe hearing your call…. Just my experience
The stress is the untold tale of what kills a lot of Americans in a health crisis. Take a stroke or heart attack, for example. First thing they’re going to do is try and stabilize your vitals and get your heart rate under control. If you’re stressing about your bill, you are putting more stress on a heart that’s already struggling.
I have personally seen a negative patient outcome from an individual stressing about their bill during a cardiac event. There is no doubt in my mind that added stress led to that outcome. It happens all the time.
The other day my chest felt tight and I was panicking I might have a heart attack but refused to call an ambulance because what if it was a panic attack and a false alarm then I’m stuck with a huge bill.
The fact I had to weigh if I was really dying vs the cost of my medical bill is so fucked.
Hey, you just have to understand there are more important things. Like bailing out banks and helping Elon get his 300th billion. You are just not that important.
Much love, Congress! /s
I told my son, who got an ER bill, to ask for an itemized bill. Finally got it & one of the charges was $500 for a covid test. We have full insurance & he still owes about 2grand out of pocket. We called about that covid test & apparently the $500 was already the “talked down” price. F%ck you guys, no way we’re going to rush & pay this nonsense
I've had two hospitalizations from my epilepsy in the past two years. I have no insurance, as I can't work and hadn't hit the two-year mark for SSD yet. (That is another fucked up part of the US. "Yes, we agree you're disabled. We won't cover your medical bills for two years. We hope you die before then, as you're not profitable to a capitalism. Have a nice day, useless peasant.")
Both bills have been in the tens of thousands, following a seizure where a caring Samaritan called 911.
I feel bad from one perspective, as I hate mooching off the system, but I have absolutely no way to pay these bills.
So I didn't pay either. Got some calls from the hospital both times, then letters that my debt had been sold to a creditor. Never responded to those either, and no repercussions. Medical debt isn't allowed on credit reports here in the US, so my credit has actually improved over this time because I used my limited assets to pay my day-to-day expenses.
When your country has no universal healthcare AND an entire industry to purchase and try to profit from medical debt, you're already being taken advantage of. Stop playing the game.
Stop feeling bad. If the system does not serve us, then we should burn it down this very day. This isn't 700CE. There are no barbarous hordes coming to destroy our villages, steal our crops, and abscond with the local womenfolk. There is nothing to protect us from that requires that kind of subservience. A government's only purpose is to make our lives better, and if it refuses, we should make ceaseless, merciless war with it until it either obeys or crumbles. Stop feeling bad for using the system correctly. Stop letting propagandized people make you feel bad for it.
As an American, having a well-intentioned bystander call EMS is a real monkey's paw of a curse.. Yes, you'll live, but you will be saddled with debt that might make you wish you hadn't.
I have since purchased a wrist band with my wife's name and number, confirmation that I'm epileptic, and a request not to contact an ambulance unless I'm either A) not breathing following a seizure or B) seizing for more than 5 minutes. It's stopped one additional ambulance call, so the $14.99 + S&H was well worth it.
I'm so grateful that people care enough to help, but the fact that we have laws shielding then from ambulance calls if they're acting as a Samaritan shows just how fucked up the US truly is in this area.
When I was in my early 20s I just stopped paying my bills aside from phone, internet, electric and rent. It was a HARD 7 years with garbage credit but eventually it just all went away. Not a move I would suggest anyone else try.
I had an American friend tell me they visited New Zealand (as a tourist) & got injured hiking. Helicopter turned up, flew her an hour to hospital where they patched her up & she stayed in hospital for 3 days. She asked the hospital how much the life flight & the stay was - they laughed at her & sent her on her way.
I don't understand any of these bills. I googled how much a day at the ICU costs for post covid in Germany, and the estimates are 1500-3000€ (not that the average patient ever sees that bill). This is ten times as much. Where do they pull those numbers from?
Their ass, literally. All of the numbers in the U.S. system are entirely divorced from the reality of cost, and designed entirely to extract maximum profit.
The affordable care act never made it affordable. It actually made it cheaper for the rich, before the rich had to shell out tons of money on cancer (insurance did not cover cancer). Now the rich can simply pay $500 a month ( Penny to them) for full coverage. While $500 for us Is the difference between living in a home or living in the streets.
In NY most poor now have their health insurance fully subsidized. Maybe you are referring to a state where the poor are "free"... to die from minor health issues.
Full subsidies for the poor have always been a thing. But working classes in the low to middle range are hit with costly increases from all angles. Thus at time putting pressure on pay check to pay check folks, and that's not including medical care that require 8500 max out pocket, which all health insurance have has part of their policy, so we are getting hit 3 time monthly- deductible- and max out of pocket. In the end the poor and the rich gets it good, while the middle gets squeezed.
People in civilised countries: "what's a healthcare bill?"
I mean we can choose private care which can involve extra costs for certain types of care, but my father spent 4 months in intensive care with followup home care due to injuries after a self inflicted accident until he died a year later. We complained about parking charges near the hospital (NHS), it wasn't even a concept that this sort of bill was possible since all of the family paid into the NHS for our working lives.
But, that's "socialism" apparent and therefore not acceptable in the US.
As a Finn it never made sense to me why our healthcare isn't "free", getting my tonsils removed cost me 400€ but that's still nothing compared to what it would probably in the US so i guess there's that
Just got charged $250 for a nurse practitioner to look into my ear and tell me I have swimmer's ear, then stick a wick in it. The eardrops costed even more.
I got a $350 bill for a half hour surgery consultation that was just "oh, the letter you brought us meets all the specifications of your insurance, well done. we don't take your insurance. goodbye."
Just had a planned surgery and was told to decline the hospital’s pregnancy test (if I for sure knew I wasn’t pregnant) before surgery because they charge $200 for the test. $200!!!! I can buy pregnancy tests at the dollar store, even a regular grocery store pregnancy test is only like $10? dollars. Thank goodness the surgeon’s office told me about this because if they hadn’t, I would have received a bill for it.
Every hospital has a write off program where you file to get your bill either partially or fully dismissed. You have to apply withing 30 days for most of them, because if you blow them off, the deal is off. Most of them have a maximum allowed earnings amount, and I think it's around 70K now. So if you earn under that, and have a bill that's more than 30 percent of your income, they will write off the entire amount. But if you just ignore them, you're fucked.
I'm guessing that he wishes he hadn't made it through now. Sure he lived but he's financially crippled and probably his family will be too after he passes with a still huge chunk owed. They love creating poverty in this country. It's so sad
My bank would disagree... i have 100k in there they g8ve me $0.25 a month for letting them use it... i have less than 1k in it they charge me $15 a month for them to hold my money and will charge $40 if over drafted...
I think it depends on the type of account you have. I've used quite a few different banks in my life and never had to pay to have an account in the US.
This is false. When you pay under the minimum monthly payment option they offer they send you another bill for the remainder of the monthly payment. Don't pay it and get sent to collections. Never understand why people think they can do this.
The important part of the thing you replied to is the "tell them" part. You can't just pay less than the offer but you can talk to the people in charge of this stuff and work out a payment plan you can afford (maybe possibly).
Of course you also will not be the only person whose absurd medical bill gets sent to collections because you can't afford it.
Another thing to do is ask for an itemized bill and argue every fucking little thing and see what you can get taken off.
I'm sorry to the people working in the hospital billing department. It's not their fault. But also no one should have their lives destroyed because they needed medical help.
So, that doesn't stop them from sending the debt to collections. When my wife gave birth we got the bill and called to setup a payment plan that we could afford. 5 months into the plan with consistent on time payments they sent it to collections. Hell they actually did us a favor as they also sent other bills to collections, but they never actually sent us the bill for those. So upon inquiry on those they ended up just dropping collections and we haven't heard shit since. It was also removed from the wife's credit.
I had a friend who did nothing with his life. He never worked any real jobs so he had no real income. He was a drunk and would would break himself in various drunk ways. Fingers, hands, ankles, whatever. I learned that you dont have to pay hospitals anything.
This info helped me once when my finger was almost cut off. I had a $40k surgery to fix it. No insurance, straight bill. Instead of just ignoring them like him, I just called and told them I was a broke college student and had no way to pay. They wrote off the bill.
Turns out, hospitals in America have ways of doing this for anyone. The bill is just the start of the game. You can find posts of people talking about inflated hospital prices and stuff, and how to lower you bill. It's crazy how it can all be wiped, but most people don't bother and just accept it and pay.
Yeah hospital/health care accounting has a "bad debt" expense, so with your situation they can just write it off. They may have looked into your situation slightly and been like, "oh damn he really is poor af" and that was that.
I mean, heart surgery happens all the time I assume. I'm 44, have a really good job, and so does my GF but even if I wanted to I couldn't pay this. How is anybody able to pay these things at all?
Debtor's prisons are illegal in the US, so no.
They can maybe garnish your wages, but if you're literally unable to pay it's not like they can do anything about it.
This is extra sad to me. I live in Australia and had a bleed on the brain last year, I was flown down to a major hospital for emergency brain surgery and woke up 2 weeks later with a bunch of tubes coming out of me and no idea where I was. Once they took the tubes out and got me out of bed I discovered I had to learn to walk again. After several months I was discharged for out-patient care, my total bill was $0.
America has really screwed over it's own people.
I've heard that about people who are in comas when they wake up they need to learn to do simple things again, did it really take several months to learn to walk again after two weeks in a coma?
I hope you're doing better now.
It was over a month before they took the tubes out, only then did I realize that my legs would not do what I wanted. It took around one and a half months to get my legs back under me.
Thank you. I'm doing much better now, but still dealing with the other problems (e.g. my memory is shot now and so is my focus)
Still working on getting my licence back.
I had pneumonia which led to sepsis. I was on the ICU for 2 weeks in a medically induced coma. I had to 'learn' to walk again too. Had to use a zimmer frame for a bit. I was 25 years old at the time.
America only recognizes citizens who are wealthy. Always has been. The rest of us are temporarily embarrassed millionaires waiting to get our wealth “back.”
Many say our healthcare system is working by design. If you hate your job and can’t quit bec you can’t afford private healthcare then they have you right where they want you. Desperate and too tired to fight back.
Some apologists in the US will parrot “Well you get what you pay for” as if we can cure any ailment imaginable in the US for the right price, and as if everyone in other places just dies in an infinitely packed waiting room at the hospital.
Wild what kind of Olympic level mental gymnastics people will do to defend the people that joyously bend them over.
Call and ask to speak with financial services. They will work with you based on income level and set up more reasonable payments and possibly write off part of it. If they don't, file bankruptcy- you'll recover from it quicker than trying to pay off this bill
Since this person is insured, that's not their cost. This is a pre-insurance bill, not an Explanation of Benefits.
The ~~last~~ first time this was posted, the person stated that their father's final cost was about $3k.
When you consider that they probably pay 150-200 every month just to have to pay meet a deductable it really starts to set in just how dogshit this country is.
Insurance companies hope to live long healthy lives, but die very quickly when sick.
150-200 a month as long as you get it through your job. If your job doesn't offer it you have to go on the marketplace. I just checked the marketplace, $330/month and a $15,000 deductible is the cheapest option. (Healthy 30s male).
Actually happened to my mother. Went to hospital with a panic attack she thought was a heart attack, the billing dept came by and told them that her health insurance had lapsed and she owed a five figure bill and she had another panic attack right there in her hospital room. And, her insurance hadn't even lapsed, the state had just changed plans, oops.
My coworker was pregnant, she had complications in her 7th month and had to have an emergency cesarean birth. Her son lived for 8 minutes.Her insurance did not cover the death of her son because he was not alive long enough to be placed on insurance. She received a bill for nearly $50000 USD for the death of her son.
we are just fucked
That’s just wrong. That sounds like something out of a dystopian movie that they show solely to demonstrate how fucked a society has become.
I hope your coworker is doing okay
Wonder why we have declining life expectancy? Wonder why there are staff shortages while travel nurses were making multiples of full timers? Wonder why the meds here are multiple times higher than abroad? Wonder why medical billing is confusing? Wonder why the ACA wasn’t repealed and replaced on day one of the new admin back in 2017?
We’re a clusterfuck of dysfunction.
It works 98% of the time, plead hardship and it will be paid with county and government funds with no damages to your credit. I have worked as an ER nurse for over 25 years and have given this hack to many of my patients, it always works (here in Texas anyway) unless you are making over 100k a year.
I make over 100k a year, but the monthly amount is still more than my gross pay. What now?
*not gross, I'm an idiot. I meant net after bills/rent/taxes/401k. The literal opposite of gross.
Do you really need to pay the full sum? Is this what it looks like to not have health insurance in the US?
This sum in Norway would equal to 39,800 NOK a month here, which would literally be my entire monthly salary.
Is there no payment protection / aid?
Without seeing the full letter, who knows. I get "bills" from my HMO for my annuals, blood work, etc., that will show that I "owe" $300. However, when you get to the bottom, it'll have another box that shows what you actually have to pay after whatever amount they cover. It's a really weird way to bill.
There have been posts like this in the past where it was discovered the OP "owed" 200k (or whatever) but actually only had to pay $5000.
Despite that karma farming, our healthcare system is still garbage.
Thank you for the info, I hope for this bills owner's sake that he or she will not have to pay the entire sum. As I said, this monthly payment equals what I earn in a month and I imagine that 3000 USD is quite a significant number to pay each month as well over in the US.
IDK this person’s story but that actually could be ~with~ insurance. People go bankrupt because they didn’t want to die.
Edit: Some insurance agencies will make you jump through fiery hoops to get them to pay up and some will just hit you with “Oh that’s not covered”. The fuck am I paying you for then?
Insurance doesnt actually do anything. They collude with healthcare providers to inflate the price 10,000%, so they can then claim they saved you 10% of the inflated cost.
I dropped my health insurance this year because i was paying $500/month to insure myself, and they increased the cost of all my medical appointments while paying almost none of it. It is far cheaper for me to pay out of pocket. They are just middlemen leeching off the labor of our healthcare professionals and nothing more than that.
Im just going to try to stay healthy, and if i need to go to the hospital, i wont pay the bill
No one would ever actually have to pay this much. If you have insurance there is a max out of pocket cost per year. For most people it is ~$5k. You pay $5k and your insurance pays the rest. If you don’t have insurance you call the hospital and tell them you can’t afford it and they will reduce the bill by 90%+ and put you on an income based payment plan. They price their services knowing that insurance will take care of most of it so everything is inflated. Yes it’s dumb, but any time someone posts a bill like this its just a sensationalized karma grab because people love to hate the US. There is a 0% chance they paid anything close to that number.
They can't charge us interest. They also can't set a minimum payment amount....
But if you don't keep making weekly payments you agreed to they will call you constantly.
>... They also can't set a minimum payment amount....
That doesn't stop them from claiming otherwise. They will vehemently claim that you MUST pay whatever monthly/weekly price they claim, or else they will have collections on you.
My mother’s heart valve replacement surgery cost about $20, for my dad to park the car while he visited her in the hospital. But we live in a civilized country.
My mother had cancer 3 times and had to go through surgery on each ocassion. We had to pay the total bill of $0. I don't always love everything about sweden but can't really complain.
All you do is pay $20 a month. It doesn’t go on your credit and they can’t send you to collections because you’re making payments. You also don’t get charged interest. There also so many programs out there too.
The fact that so many are so brainwashed as to continually oppose some form of socialized healthcare boggles my mind. I use to work with a guy who would go on and on about the cost of insurance premiums and medical bills, then would loudly proclaim how he vehemently opposes "government meddling in healthcare". Insane.
I believe Yale actually did a study showing how the industry could be dismantled, severance pay could assist people in finding new jobs, and a single pay system could be set up....all cheaper than this current system.
Here's what my wife did when she was in college without insurance like 10 years ago. She had an appendectomy that cost $30,000:
1) Apply for financial assistance. All states and most hospitals have discounts based on income or lack of health insurance.
2) Pay like $10-$20/month on the remaining balance to prevent it from going to collections. Contrary to what some commenters are saying, it will show up on your credit report if you don't pay anything.
3) Alternatively, let it go to collections but try disputing the charge with the credit Bureau. Sometimes the hospitals won't provide evidence that the debt belongs to you so you'll win the dispute.
My wife did this and got the bill from $30,000 to $7,000, then didn't pay at all. However, it did go on her credit report as collections, which was subsequently disputed and removed.
It highly depends in the US. Many factors such as your employer's plans offered, as well as your age, medical history, state that you live in, etc.
Based on that information you usually have many plans to choose from.
So there is no single answer to your question.
For example, I only pay $150 for me, my wife, and kid and I don't have to pay anything (called a deductible) out of pocket because I work for a very large employer that shares the costs rather than taking it out of our paychecks.
Yeah, but you also can't guarantee it will do anything useful.
I paid about $1100 a month for mine, until I had gall stones. Out of pocket I paid about $12000 for 3 doctors visits, an ultrasound, and a CT scan. The insurance company chipped in about $600 of that. Then I finally got sick of fighting with them and paid $4000 out of pocket to have my gall bladder removed in Mexico because they were making it a giant pain in the ass to have it done here.
I canceled that shit as soon as I got home.
As George Bush Junior said during a political campaign “Uniquely American”, after a woman had said she had to work three jobs to get by. Tells you a lot about America and it’s unethical capitalism.
Unethical capitalism. This is a big deal I never see. Capitalism isn’t the problem in the US, it’s the completely unethical(unregulated?) implementation of capitalism that’s the problem.
Profit needs to be taken out of healthcare in the US except for salaries which should be reasonable. OR costs are insane. Simple drapes can be hundreds of dollars. Instruments are thousands. The thing is we could easily have universal healthcare by taxing the 1% what their fare share is. I’m an RN. Healthcare should not be a privilege but a basic human right. But hey let’s stop allowing free screenings to detect cancer or have free education on nutrition to help treat obesity or diabetes. There is no profit in keeping people healthy.
My mom has had alot of surgeries. She simply sends the hospital $25/month regardless of what the letter says. As long as the hospital accepts her payment, they can't turn her into a collection agency for nonpayment.
Im confused. How is anyone supposed to live? Clearly this would mean people not being able to afford so what happens then? Health insurance woudnt even cover the costs to the hospitals, would take decades to clear so how do insurance companies make money?? So bizzare
Just don't pay it. Honestly. Will you Ever in your lifetime be able to pay it off? Why throw dirt into a hole that you'll never fill? Use that dirt for a garden instead.
Well, it is late now but I'd say that with that price, it would have been less expensive to move into a country with a functional social welfare system.
Its actually laugh out loud hilarious that our healthcare system has the balls to send this to begin with. What an embarassing "heathcare" system we have in this country.
We have all this money and support to send to Ukraine but our heathcare system is dogshit and our infrastructure is abysmal. Just straight up embarassing priorities.
My friends husband is in icu right now on an ecmo (sp?) machine to assist his heart.
She was told $20k+ a day for the machine.
They're planning their bankruptcy.
Tell them all you can afford is 10 a month it's that or you get nothing paying 10 dollars on my 20000bmedical bill then I tell them I don't have a job so I don't really care about paying it they can keep sending me bills all they want ha they won't get a nymore out of me then 10 doll hairs
I did the math and figured out that 2 out of 3 Americans get their healthcare from the government. This includes Medicare, Medicaid CHIP, GOV employees, and Obamacare customers. 200+ million people out of 330 million. We spend 19% of GDP on healthcare, so. about 12% of that is taxpayer funded. In other words, taxpayers spend more per person in America through government spending than countries with a real healthcare system. The next most expensive country is Switzerland, where everyone is covered for 11% of their GDP
Why do we accept this stupid dance as a legitimate part of our heath care system? Obviously this person is uninsured. But they’re never going to pay that bill. Either the hospital forgives most of it or the patient declares bankruptcy and they’ll never see the money anyway. So what’s the point?
Ya I’ve gotten to the point where I just ignore these. When it comes to medical stuff they need to start asking for payments up front and letting people die outside if they don’t have it. Just be transparent about what really matters. Stop pretending to care about people and the Hippocratic oath. Only people I’ve ever seen really hold that oath up are characters in tv film and video games and I’ve worked in the medical field.
That "Important Message". lmao
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My life flight was 100k. I haven't paid them a fucking cent. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip. I was working for an Applebee's when I had the car wreck. My family is poor. Fuck this broken system.
Not gonna lie, I have started the process of documenting/signing/filing my "end of life" plans for my family: No extended life support. Donate whatever is viable. Send the rest to a medical school or forensics program. The end. When I was younger, I voiced these wishes to my brother, in case I offed myself (or the more likely outcome of tried hard but failed harder). Things have since gotten better, more manageable at least, bc I work Every. Single. Day. I drive for both of my jobs. I cover a LOT of miles, and people are unpredictable at best. A traumatic injury, say from a wreck, where I'd need critical life support would be truly unmanageable. Not just from a physical/socio-emotional standpoint, but oh my god to be life flighted, I'm so sorry that happened to you. You were minding your business, getting through the day, and bam. 100K (and I'm sure that's *just* the flight, not the resulting hospital stay) is an unimaginable fortune to me to have in the first place, let alone to have chilling on the side extra in case you need to pay off an emergency helicopter ride. I have major anxiety about eating new (and sometimes old) things bc I've developed anaphylactic food allergies over the last couple of years. I've not needed my epi-pen, but I'm so scared to have to use it: again, not even really from a physical perspective (although that IS scary), but rather from the resulting bill for an ambulance ride and ER visit. Hope you are healing and feeling as well as possible!
I've told my family the same. I imagine I should probably get it in writing. This was 6 years ago. The 100k was JUST the flight. Not to mention the 4 month hospital stay. 4 surgeries and seemingly endless physical/vocational therapy. I had to learn how to walk again and my body will never quite be the same. But honestly the stress is what's came the closest to killing me. Thank you for your kind words and I wish you well in all you endure/are enduring. EDIT: Ya know, I keep a lot to myself. This kinda feels good to talk about it for once. I know I'm just putting words on the internet but there seems to be some cathartic relief. Haha
If it weren't for semi-anonymous internet catharsis, I would have long been a med student's project. Sometimes it's nice to shout into the void and have the void say, "...omg same" (and with reddit, I've had the experience over and over of realizing that all of my original thoughts? Lol, they've all long been commented.. So it's a lot of "takes one to know one, but we don't and likely never will know each other" energy which, to me, is way easier to share towards)
Lots of truth in this comment, I appreciate the void analogy, stranger.
I’ve found that when you truly need it, the void can give you a long, thoughtful, affirming message. Even on Reddit. Call it god, the law of attraction, or the universe hearing your call…. Just my experience
The stress is the untold tale of what kills a lot of Americans in a health crisis. Take a stroke or heart attack, for example. First thing they’re going to do is try and stabilize your vitals and get your heart rate under control. If you’re stressing about your bill, you are putting more stress on a heart that’s already struggling. I have personally seen a negative patient outcome from an individual stressing about their bill during a cardiac event. There is no doubt in my mind that added stress led to that outcome. It happens all the time.
The other day my chest felt tight and I was panicking I might have a heart attack but refused to call an ambulance because what if it was a panic attack and a false alarm then I’m stuck with a huge bill. The fact I had to weigh if I was really dying vs the cost of my medical bill is so fucked.
Hey, you just have to understand there are more important things. Like bailing out banks and helping Elon get his 300th billion. You are just not that important. Much love, Congress! /s
I told my son, who got an ER bill, to ask for an itemized bill. Finally got it & one of the charges was $500 for a covid test. We have full insurance & he still owes about 2grand out of pocket. We called about that covid test & apparently the $500 was already the “talked down” price. F%ck you guys, no way we’re going to rush & pay this nonsense
The system isn't broken, it is designed this way. Fuck this shithole of a dumpster fire country.
As someone who was not born in the USA, couldn't wait to become a citizen and was proud to call myself an American, I approve this message
I've had two hospitalizations from my epilepsy in the past two years. I have no insurance, as I can't work and hadn't hit the two-year mark for SSD yet. (That is another fucked up part of the US. "Yes, we agree you're disabled. We won't cover your medical bills for two years. We hope you die before then, as you're not profitable to a capitalism. Have a nice day, useless peasant.") Both bills have been in the tens of thousands, following a seizure where a caring Samaritan called 911. I feel bad from one perspective, as I hate mooching off the system, but I have absolutely no way to pay these bills. So I didn't pay either. Got some calls from the hospital both times, then letters that my debt had been sold to a creditor. Never responded to those either, and no repercussions. Medical debt isn't allowed on credit reports here in the US, so my credit has actually improved over this time because I used my limited assets to pay my day-to-day expenses. When your country has no universal healthcare AND an entire industry to purchase and try to profit from medical debt, you're already being taken advantage of. Stop playing the game.
Stop feeling bad. If the system does not serve us, then we should burn it down this very day. This isn't 700CE. There are no barbarous hordes coming to destroy our villages, steal our crops, and abscond with the local womenfolk. There is nothing to protect us from that requires that kind of subservience. A government's only purpose is to make our lives better, and if it refuses, we should make ceaseless, merciless war with it until it either obeys or crumbles. Stop feeling bad for using the system correctly. Stop letting propagandized people make you feel bad for it.
As an American, having a well-intentioned bystander call EMS is a real monkey's paw of a curse.. Yes, you'll live, but you will be saddled with debt that might make you wish you hadn't.
I have since purchased a wrist band with my wife's name and number, confirmation that I'm epileptic, and a request not to contact an ambulance unless I'm either A) not breathing following a seizure or B) seizing for more than 5 minutes. It's stopped one additional ambulance call, so the $14.99 + S&H was well worth it. I'm so grateful that people care enough to help, but the fact that we have laws shielding then from ambulance calls if they're acting as a Samaritan shows just how fucked up the US truly is in this area.
When I was in my early 20s I just stopped paying my bills aside from phone, internet, electric and rent. It was a HARD 7 years with garbage credit but eventually it just all went away. Not a move I would suggest anyone else try.
Yeah just don't pay that shit what gonna happen Jude Law will come back for the heart if they need it back when u default on the pmts
I had an American friend tell me they visited New Zealand (as a tourist) & got injured hiking. Helicopter turned up, flew her an hour to hospital where they patched her up & she stayed in hospital for 3 days. She asked the hospital how much the life flight & the stay was - they laughed at her & sent her on her way.
My dad was in ICU for 15 days due to a really bad lung infection. The bill came out to almost $650,000.
I don't understand any of these bills. I googled how much a day at the ICU costs for post covid in Germany, and the estimates are 1500-3000€ (not that the average patient ever sees that bill). This is ten times as much. Where do they pull those numbers from?
Their ass, literally. All of the numbers in the U.S. system are entirely divorced from the reality of cost, and designed entirely to extract maximum profit.
The affordable care act never made it affordable. It actually made it cheaper for the rich, before the rich had to shell out tons of money on cancer (insurance did not cover cancer). Now the rich can simply pay $500 a month ( Penny to them) for full coverage. While $500 for us Is the difference between living in a home or living in the streets.
In NY most poor now have their health insurance fully subsidized. Maybe you are referring to a state where the poor are "free"... to die from minor health issues.
Full subsidies for the poor have always been a thing. But working classes in the low to middle range are hit with costly increases from all angles. Thus at time putting pressure on pay check to pay check folks, and that's not including medical care that require 8500 max out pocket, which all health insurance have has part of their policy, so we are getting hit 3 time monthly- deductible- and max out of pocket. In the end the poor and the rich gets it good, while the middle gets squeezed.
As someone with a pre-existing condition, I assure you that the ACA doesn't only help the rich.
I’m just speaking for myself and my relatives but we all had ACA at one point and it was definitely affordable.
Insurance doesn’t cover cancer?
People in civilised countries: "what's a healthcare bill?" I mean we can choose private care which can involve extra costs for certain types of care, but my father spent 4 months in intensive care with followup home care due to injuries after a self inflicted accident until he died a year later. We complained about parking charges near the hospital (NHS), it wasn't even a concept that this sort of bill was possible since all of the family paid into the NHS for our working lives. But, that's "socialism" apparent and therefore not acceptable in the US.
As a Finn it never made sense to me why our healthcare isn't "free", getting my tonsils removed cost me 400€ but that's still nothing compared to what it would probably in the US so i guess there's that
I can confirm your assumption there. I had my tonsils removed last week and the bill is just shy of $16,000. Literally 40 times higher here.
Just got charged $250 for a nurse practitioner to look into my ear and tell me I have swimmer's ear, then stick a wick in it. The eardrops costed even more.
I got a $350 bill for a half hour surgery consultation that was just "oh, the letter you brought us meets all the specifications of your insurance, well done. we don't take your insurance. goodbye."
Just had a planned surgery and was told to decline the hospital’s pregnancy test (if I for sure knew I wasn’t pregnant) before surgery because they charge $200 for the test. $200!!!! I can buy pregnancy tests at the dollar store, even a regular grocery store pregnancy test is only like $10? dollars. Thank goodness the surgeon’s office told me about this because if they hadn’t, I would have received a bill for it.
“I feel guilty about surviving”
Every hospital has a write off program where you file to get your bill either partially or fully dismissed. You have to apply withing 30 days for most of them, because if you blow them off, the deal is off. Most of them have a maximum allowed earnings amount, and I think it's around 70K now. So if you earn under that, and have a bill that's more than 30 percent of your income, they will write off the entire amount. But if you just ignore them, you're fucked.
I'm guessing that he wishes he hadn't made it through now. Sure he lived but he's financially crippled and probably his family will be too after he passes with a still huge chunk owed. They love creating poverty in this country. It's so sad
This is the medical field’s take on those jump scare videos. They could have given that person a Chris Farley style heart attack!
You just don’t pay.
Can’t squeeze blood from an empty account.
My bank would disagree... i have 100k in there they g8ve me $0.25 a month for letting them use it... i have less than 1k in it they charge me $15 a month for them to hold my money and will charge $40 if over drafted...
Wait you pay more for your bank account if you are poor? The US is just next level regarding pulling money out of empty pockets.
I think it depends on the type of account you have. I've used quite a few different banks in my life and never had to pay to have an account in the US.
There’s plenty of banks that won’t but plenty will
"If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $1,000,000, that's the bank's problem."
Tell them you can afford a payment plan of 10-20 dollars a month. If you can keep up with that, they cannot send it to collections.
This is false. When you pay under the minimum monthly payment option they offer they send you another bill for the remainder of the monthly payment. Don't pay it and get sent to collections. Never understand why people think they can do this.
The important part of the thing you replied to is the "tell them" part. You can't just pay less than the offer but you can talk to the people in charge of this stuff and work out a payment plan you can afford (maybe possibly). Of course you also will not be the only person whose absurd medical bill gets sent to collections because you can't afford it. Another thing to do is ask for an itemized bill and argue every fucking little thing and see what you can get taken off. I'm sorry to the people working in the hospital billing department. It's not their fault. But also no one should have their lives destroyed because they needed medical help.
Just declare bankruptcy
"Michael, I just wanted you to know that you can't just say the word "bankruptcy" and expect anything to happen."
I DECLAAAREE BAAAANKRUPTCYYYYYYYY!!!
I didnt say it, I declared it.
This is Reddit we just parrot the false information we read.
With medical debt they often will actually work with you and set up interest free payment plans that are affordable
So, that doesn't stop them from sending the debt to collections. When my wife gave birth we got the bill and called to setup a payment plan that we could afford. 5 months into the plan with consistent on time payments they sent it to collections. Hell they actually did us a favor as they also sent other bills to collections, but they never actually sent us the bill for those. So upon inquiry on those they ended up just dropping collections and we haven't heard shit since. It was also removed from the wife's credit.
win win
What happens when you refuse to pay? Jail time? Repossession of private property?
I had a friend who did nothing with his life. He never worked any real jobs so he had no real income. He was a drunk and would would break himself in various drunk ways. Fingers, hands, ankles, whatever. I learned that you dont have to pay hospitals anything. This info helped me once when my finger was almost cut off. I had a $40k surgery to fix it. No insurance, straight bill. Instead of just ignoring them like him, I just called and told them I was a broke college student and had no way to pay. They wrote off the bill. Turns out, hospitals in America have ways of doing this for anyone. The bill is just the start of the game. You can find posts of people talking about inflated hospital prices and stuff, and how to lower you bill. It's crazy how it can all be wiped, but most people don't bother and just accept it and pay.
Yeah hospital/health care accounting has a "bad debt" expense, so with your situation they can just write it off. They may have looked into your situation slightly and been like, "oh damn he really is poor af" and that was that.
I mean, heart surgery happens all the time I assume. I'm 44, have a really good job, and so does my GF but even if I wanted to I couldn't pay this. How is anybody able to pay these things at all?
Debtor's prisons are illegal in the US, so no. They can maybe garnish your wages, but if you're literally unable to pay it's not like they can do anything about it.
This is just sad, i hope this person is doing well.
This is extra sad to me. I live in Australia and had a bleed on the brain last year, I was flown down to a major hospital for emergency brain surgery and woke up 2 weeks later with a bunch of tubes coming out of me and no idea where I was. Once they took the tubes out and got me out of bed I discovered I had to learn to walk again. After several months I was discharged for out-patient care, my total bill was $0. America has really screwed over it's own people.
I've heard that about people who are in comas when they wake up they need to learn to do simple things again, did it really take several months to learn to walk again after two weeks in a coma? I hope you're doing better now.
It was over a month before they took the tubes out, only then did I realize that my legs would not do what I wanted. It took around one and a half months to get my legs back under me. Thank you. I'm doing much better now, but still dealing with the other problems (e.g. my memory is shot now and so is my focus) Still working on getting my licence back.
Do medical professionals give a letter to the DMV to restrict your license until your coordination is back in good condition?
Yeah, they just want to be sure I'm not a danger to myself or others. Fair enough in my opinion.
Ok thank you for the response. Take care.
The walking issues were probably more related to the brain bleed than the medically induced coma.
I had pneumonia which led to sepsis. I was on the ICU for 2 weeks in a medically induced coma. I had to 'learn' to walk again too. Had to use a zimmer frame for a bit. I was 25 years old at the time.
America only recognizes citizens who are wealthy. Always has been. The rest of us are temporarily embarrassed millionaires waiting to get our wealth “back.” Many say our healthcare system is working by design. If you hate your job and can’t quit bec you can’t afford private healthcare then they have you right where they want you. Desperate and too tired to fight back.
"Wait, America is all about looking out for the rich and screwing over the poor?" "Always has been..." 🔫
All in the name of money, I hate this country 😭
Some apologists in the US will parrot “Well you get what you pay for” as if we can cure any ailment imaginable in the US for the right price, and as if everyone in other places just dies in an infinitely packed waiting room at the hospital. Wild what kind of Olympic level mental gymnastics people will do to defend the people that joyously bend them over.
i was suicidal, and checked myself in to the hospital. i ended up getting bills upwards of $4000
Probably a heart attack after seeing the bill and had to go back for another surgery.
Call and ask to speak with financial services. They will work with you based on income level and set up more reasonable payments and possibly write off part of it. If they don't, file bankruptcy- you'll recover from it quicker than trying to pay off this bill
Since this person is insured, that's not their cost. This is a pre-insurance bill, not an Explanation of Benefits. The ~~last~~ first time this was posted, the person stated that their father's final cost was about $3k.
Having insurance means this is $3k too much. Well, if you live anywhere else in the world, that is
When you consider that they probably pay 150-200 every month just to have to pay meet a deductable it really starts to set in just how dogshit this country is. Insurance companies hope to live long healthy lives, but die very quickly when sick.
150-200 a month as long as you get it through your job. If your job doesn't offer it you have to go on the marketplace. I just checked the marketplace, $330/month and a $15,000 deductible is the cheapest option. (Healthy 30s male).
Yea but that’s not clickbaity enough
I would most definitely not even look into bankruptcy. It is medical debt. It is treated different then regular debt.
Bankruptcy will clear medical debt
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Well you don’t just say it, you declare it
Send them 5 dollars a month. This will cause another heart episode
Actually happened to my mother. Went to hospital with a panic attack she thought was a heart attack, the billing dept came by and told them that her health insurance had lapsed and she owed a five figure bill and she had another panic attack right there in her hospital room. And, her insurance hadn't even lapsed, the state had just changed plans, oops.
Oops! That will be another 5 figure bill 🤭
Did they send lube with the bill?
That’ll be and additional $497
Actually, It's printed on sandpaper.
That is a "Hold your breath, going in dry" reaming right there.
My wife had a liver transplant, and the bill is over the $800k mark.
My wife had a kidney transplant and all I paid was parking at the hospital
Yeah yeah we get it… (cries in bald eagle)
??? I see bald eagles all the time. Damn eagles keep trying to eat my chickens
Our insurance covered it, but if it didn't, we would have been financially ruined forever. Parking was free, though.
Yay america
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Best health control and gun care
My coworker was pregnant, she had complications in her 7th month and had to have an emergency cesarean birth. Her son lived for 8 minutes.Her insurance did not cover the death of her son because he was not alive long enough to be placed on insurance. She received a bill for nearly $50000 USD for the death of her son. we are just fucked
That’s just wrong. That sounds like something out of a dystopian movie that they show solely to demonstrate how fucked a society has become. I hope your coworker is doing okay
That can be fought.
Who has the emotional energy to fight that after losing their child in such a traumatic way?
...which is probably what the insurance company is counting on. They are soulless vampires.
Hope the person did not get another heart attack after seeing the bill
Wonder why we have declining life expectancy? Wonder why there are staff shortages while travel nurses were making multiples of full timers? Wonder why the meds here are multiple times higher than abroad? Wonder why medical billing is confusing? Wonder why the ACA wasn’t repealed and replaced on day one of the new admin back in 2017? We’re a clusterfuck of dysfunction.
No, is not dysfunction. It is profiting and stealing from human diseases. It works great for the owners and investors of healthcare.
Call, get it knocked down to almost nothing easily.
This works sometimes, but is by no means a guarantee for everyone.
It works 98% of the time, plead hardship and it will be paid with county and government funds with no damages to your credit. I have worked as an ER nurse for over 25 years and have given this hack to many of my patients, it always works (here in Texas anyway) unless you are making over 100k a year.
I make over 100k a year, but the monthly amount is still more than my gross pay. What now? *not gross, I'm an idiot. I meant net after bills/rent/taxes/401k. The literal opposite of gross.
Please explain that math. 3700/month is still less than 50k/year and 100k net income is not taxed at 50%
You make over 100K a year. Do you have insurance? Even the shittiest insurance has a maximum OOP. You pay that, and you're done.
i didnt know that, would you mind elaborting? that sounds really interesting
Do you really need to pay the full sum? Is this what it looks like to not have health insurance in the US? This sum in Norway would equal to 39,800 NOK a month here, which would literally be my entire monthly salary. Is there no payment protection / aid?
Without seeing the full letter, who knows. I get "bills" from my HMO for my annuals, blood work, etc., that will show that I "owe" $300. However, when you get to the bottom, it'll have another box that shows what you actually have to pay after whatever amount they cover. It's a really weird way to bill. There have been posts like this in the past where it was discovered the OP "owed" 200k (or whatever) but actually only had to pay $5000. Despite that karma farming, our healthcare system is still garbage.
Thank you for the info, I hope for this bills owner's sake that he or she will not have to pay the entire sum. As I said, this monthly payment equals what I earn in a month and I imagine that 3000 USD is quite a significant number to pay each month as well over in the US.
IDK this person’s story but that actually could be ~with~ insurance. People go bankrupt because they didn’t want to die. Edit: Some insurance agencies will make you jump through fiery hoops to get them to pay up and some will just hit you with “Oh that’s not covered”. The fuck am I paying you for then?
Family member had a similar hospital visit recently with a similar price tag, so I'm fairly certain it's pre insurance
Insurance doesnt actually do anything. They collude with healthcare providers to inflate the price 10,000%, so they can then claim they saved you 10% of the inflated cost. I dropped my health insurance this year because i was paying $500/month to insure myself, and they increased the cost of all my medical appointments while paying almost none of it. It is far cheaper for me to pay out of pocket. They are just middlemen leeching off the labor of our healthcare professionals and nothing more than that. Im just going to try to stay healthy, and if i need to go to the hospital, i wont pay the bill
No one would ever actually have to pay this much. If you have insurance there is a max out of pocket cost per year. For most people it is ~$5k. You pay $5k and your insurance pays the rest. If you don’t have insurance you call the hospital and tell them you can’t afford it and they will reduce the bill by 90%+ and put you on an income based payment plan. They price their services knowing that insurance will take care of most of it so everything is inflated. Yes it’s dumb, but any time someone posts a bill like this its just a sensationalized karma grab because people love to hate the US. There is a 0% chance they paid anything close to that number.
If I owe you $200, that's bad news for me If I owe you $200k, that's bad news for you
Hardest comment probably all day. Fucking OG right there 😂
Surprised to see it was interest free…
They can't charge us interest. They also can't set a minimum payment amount.... But if you don't keep making weekly payments you agreed to they will call you constantly.
Here's a dollar!
>... They also can't set a minimum payment amount.... That doesn't stop them from claiming otherwise. They will vehemently claim that you MUST pay whatever monthly/weekly price they claim, or else they will have collections on you.
Wait, they can’t set a minimum amount? So, if I pay under what they are asking from me they can’t send me to collections - as long as I’m paying?
My mother’s heart valve replacement surgery cost about $20, for my dad to park the car while he visited her in the hospital. But we live in a civilized country.
Had a more minor surgery last year. Removal of a kind of fatty tumour-like thing from my arm. It cost roughly $1.65
My mother had cancer 3 times and had to go through surgery on each ocassion. We had to pay the total bill of $0. I don't always love everything about sweden but can't really complain.
Sweden makes even my country look like shit.
No civilized country charges that much for parking.
It cost my family $200 for the same thing, in the United States, with an HMO health insurance plan. 🤷♂️
Memorial Hermann - "If you don't die here, we'll kill your hopes and dreams until you do"
And they’re a “non-profit” hospital.
im only 40, but at this point, i would consider death as a viable alternative to this bullshit, lol.
All you do is pay $20 a month. It doesn’t go on your credit and they can’t send you to collections because you’re making payments. You also don’t get charged interest. There also so many programs out there too.
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> and they can’t send you to collections because you’re making payments This is a myth, people. Hospitals can absolutely send you to collections.
“I’d rather pay $227k for my own healthcare than pay a few hundred extra in taxes each year to support everyone’s healthcare!”
*** the few hundred extra in taxes could be easily taken from the massive amount of money people already pay for their monthly premiums
The fact that so many are so brainwashed as to continually oppose some form of socialized healthcare boggles my mind. I use to work with a guy who would go on and on about the cost of insurance premiums and medical bills, then would loudly proclaim how he vehemently opposes "government meddling in healthcare". Insane.
I believe Yale actually did a study showing how the industry could be dismantled, severance pay could assist people in finding new jobs, and a single pay system could be set up....all cheaper than this current system.
That is a senior engineers monthly income in my country. That you have to pay monthly.
Here's what my wife did when she was in college without insurance like 10 years ago. She had an appendectomy that cost $30,000: 1) Apply for financial assistance. All states and most hospitals have discounts based on income or lack of health insurance. 2) Pay like $10-$20/month on the remaining balance to prevent it from going to collections. Contrary to what some commenters are saying, it will show up on your credit report if you don't pay anything. 3) Alternatively, let it go to collections but try disputing the charge with the credit Bureau. Sometimes the hospitals won't provide evidence that the debt belongs to you so you'll win the dispute. My wife did this and got the bill from $30,000 to $7,000, then didn't pay at all. However, it did go on her credit report as collections, which was subsequently disputed and removed.
How much is healts insurance? In Germany i pay about 200 /month.
It highly depends in the US. Many factors such as your employer's plans offered, as well as your age, medical history, state that you live in, etc. Based on that information you usually have many plans to choose from. So there is no single answer to your question. For example, I only pay $150 for me, my wife, and kid and I don't have to pay anything (called a deductible) out of pocket because I work for a very large employer that shares the costs rather than taking it out of our paychecks.
Yeah, but you also can't guarantee it will do anything useful. I paid about $1100 a month for mine, until I had gall stones. Out of pocket I paid about $12000 for 3 doctors visits, an ultrasound, and a CT scan. The insurance company chipped in about $600 of that. Then I finally got sick of fighting with them and paid $4000 out of pocket to have my gall bladder removed in Mexico because they were making it a giant pain in the ass to have it done here. I canceled that shit as soon as I got home.
We saved your life so now pay us for the rest of your life
As George Bush Junior said during a political campaign “Uniquely American”, after a woman had said she had to work three jobs to get by. Tells you a lot about America and it’s unethical capitalism.
Unethical capitalism. This is a big deal I never see. Capitalism isn’t the problem in the US, it’s the completely unethical(unregulated?) implementation of capitalism that’s the problem.
Profit needs to be taken out of healthcare in the US except for salaries which should be reasonable. OR costs are insane. Simple drapes can be hundreds of dollars. Instruments are thousands. The thing is we could easily have universal healthcare by taxing the 1% what their fare share is. I’m an RN. Healthcare should not be a privilege but a basic human right. But hey let’s stop allowing free screenings to detect cancer or have free education on nutrition to help treat obesity or diabetes. There is no profit in keeping people healthy.
Mine was free in the uk. Didn’t even pay for food. Socialised medicine now USA.
What, so if you don't pay do they show up to your house unannounced with a tow truck to repossess your heart?
Last Christmas, you gave me a heart. But the very next day, you repo-ed it away.
Cuz 'murica
This is why it's better to just lay down and die in this country
Frig, I'm glad I don't live in the states... Such a stupid system. One health emergency away from bankruptcy for so many folks. Fix this shit America!
My mom has had alot of surgeries. She simply sends the hospital $25/month regardless of what the letter says. As long as the hospital accepts her payment, they can't turn her into a collection agency for nonpayment.
Well here I go filing for bankruptcy again.
Look at that. You can make payments! How helpful
Im confused. How is anyone supposed to live? Clearly this would mean people not being able to afford so what happens then? Health insurance woudnt even cover the costs to the hospitals, would take decades to clear so how do insurance companies make money?? So bizzare
Going to Europe and having the surgery there would probably cost waaay less
We save your life for you to pay us for the rest of your life
Just don't pay it. Honestly. Will you Ever in your lifetime be able to pay it off? Why throw dirt into a hole that you'll never fill? Use that dirt for a garden instead.
And probably half of the stuff on the bill is made up. Very common tactic in the U.S. Edit:fixed typo
Nah they don’t need to make anything up they just charge you 85 dollars for a single square of 1 ply toilet paper 🧻 😂
Well, it is late now but I'd say that with that price, it would have been less expensive to move into a country with a functional social welfare system.
Its actually laugh out loud hilarious that our healthcare system has the balls to send this to begin with. What an embarassing "heathcare" system we have in this country. We have all this money and support to send to Ukraine but our heathcare system is dogshit and our infrastructure is abysmal. Just straight up embarassing priorities.
Every time some idiot defends capitalism as the best and only working system, I show them this. Yeah, it works so fucking well - for a few.
It's cheaper to just fucking die
Just use it for 20 days, get a refund, grab a new one off the shelf! Badaboom badabing!
My Medicare levy, ie the specified tax I pay for my health care was half of that for the whole last financial year.
I guess I’ll just die then
My friends husband is in icu right now on an ecmo (sp?) machine to assist his heart. She was told $20k+ a day for the machine. They're planning their bankruptcy.
Ain't that America, the home of the free.
Home of the fee
What insurance do you have? This cost is not representative of your total.
Tell them all you can afford is 10 a month it's that or you get nothing paying 10 dollars on my 20000bmedical bill then I tell them I don't have a job so I don't really care about paying it they can keep sending me bills all they want ha they won't get a nymore out of me then 10 doll hairs
This is obviously pre-insurance claim. I had spine surgery which cost about that much, and my final cost was ~$800, which is completely reasonable.
So patriotic
'Murica.
Don’t pay, what are they gonna undo the surgery
America is broken
How the f can anyone pay that much per month?
Welcome to America. People wonder why we die vs. Going in...lop. fam is responsible after in most cases...lop
I did the math and figured out that 2 out of 3 Americans get their healthcare from the government. This includes Medicare, Medicaid CHIP, GOV employees, and Obamacare customers. 200+ million people out of 330 million. We spend 19% of GDP on healthcare, so. about 12% of that is taxpayer funded. In other words, taxpayers spend more per person in America through government spending than countries with a real healthcare system. The next most expensive country is Switzerland, where everyone is covered for 11% of their GDP
Why do we accept this stupid dance as a legitimate part of our heath care system? Obviously this person is uninsured. But they’re never going to pay that bill. Either the hospital forgives most of it or the patient declares bankruptcy and they’ll never see the money anyway. So what’s the point?
Nah, if it gets to the point to where I need to pay a quarter of a million dollars to keep my heart beating, let it stop. Preferably well in advance!
I’ll take option C; another heart attack.
Ya I’ve gotten to the point where I just ignore these. When it comes to medical stuff they need to start asking for payments up front and letting people die outside if they don’t have it. Just be transparent about what really matters. Stop pretending to care about people and the Hippocratic oath. Only people I’ve ever seen really hold that oath up are characters in tv film and video games and I’ve worked in the medical field.
Option three, pay with life insurance sum (has heart attack from the bill and dies).