Nothing to do with costs, but several years ago while on holiday in Florida my son got a nasty sunburn (big ugly blister on this shoulder) we went to the local doctor who sorted him out. No problems at all with the treatment but what made me laugh was that he said we should get him checked out by our doctor in London when we got home. I pointed out that we lived about 250 miles from London, but he insisted we should see our doctor in London. I assume that it was the only place in England he had heard of and couldn't imagine anyone living anywhere else!

What the fuck?

A pertinent question about the US. If a pregnant woman needs to give birth and with no insurance, will she be charged for the care she will be given?

Probably.... unless:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

Quote:However, the Supreme Court ruled in NFIB v. Sebelius that this provision of the ACA was coercive, and that the Federal government must allow states to continue at pre-ACA levels of funding and eligibility if they chose. Several states have opted to reject the expanded Medicaid coverage provided for by the act; over half of the nation's uninsured live in those states. They include Texas, Florida, Kansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.[14] As of May 24, 2013 a number of states had not made final decisions, and lists of states which have opted out or were considering opting out varied,[15][16] but Alaska,[16] Idaho,[17] South Dakota,[17] Nebraska,[15] Wisconsin,[17] Maine,[17] North Carolina,[17] South Carolina,[17] and Oklahoma[17] seemed to have decided to reject expanded coverage.[17]

Guess what all of those states have in common?







*Republicunt governors.

(August 27, 2016 at 10:18 pm)Aroura Wrote: My little bro was just in the hospital for 7 days for a very serious blood infection.  Herecovered, but since he has no insurance (he's one of the Obamacare haters who opted out even though he had the money to get insured), I have no idea what he's gonna do.  He was in critical care for 3 days, and regular rooms for 4.  With all the tests an medications he was given, and knowing the base rate for critical care is like 8k a day, and for regular room is like 4 k a day, he's basically just screwed.

I work for a non-profit hospital organization.  I'm in radiology I.T. and not privy to specific financial information, but our organization does disclose general financial data to us.  I don't know about the hospital he went to, but here is what would probably happen in ours.
 
If he's like most people without insurance and money, he'll ignore the first few bills.  Eventually he and the hospital will get in contact and some sort of "settlement" will be agreed upon that is well below the face value of the bill.  He'll pay some amount per month, but maybe he'll even blow that off.  The remaining balance will get written off.
 
People like your brother are a large part of the reason why prices are artificially bloated.  Those of us with private insurance are subsidizing everyone without insurance.  Drug pricing is negotiated and factors into this as well.
 
I will say this, none of the insurance companies pay the "face value" of the bills either.   The amount they pay is negotiated behind closed doors.  This is why having a medical procedure outside of your insurance companies primary network is so costly.
 
Tell your brother to fuck off because he is part the reason our insurance rates are so high.

(August 28, 2016 at 6:24 am)zebo-the-fat Wrote: Nothing to do with costs, but several years ago while on holiday in Florida my son got a nasty sunburn (big ugly blister on this shoulder) we went to the local doctor who sorted him out. No problems at all with the treatment but what made me laugh was that he said we should get him checked out by our doctor in London when we got home. I pointed out that we lived about 250 miles from London, but he insisted we should see our doctor in London. I assume that it was the only place in England he had heard of and couldn't imagine anyone living anywhere else!

You should have asked him how long he's been living in New York

I've had 2 kidney biopsies, both of which costed around $4,000. Both times my insurance didn't want to cover it. I had to fight with them for a week both times, and in that time span they kept saying shit like, "Okay we reviewed your case and we will cover X%" and I had to make a dozen phone calls a day and scream at everyone who answered until they finally stopped at 85%. This exact thing happened twice. And it's not like I just have 600 fucking dollars laying around.

It's a game between insurance companies and hospitals to see how little they can pay. And we get shafted for it.

(August 28, 2016 at 12:43 pm)Kosh Wrote:

(August 27, 2016 at 10:18 pm)Aroura Wrote: My little bro was just in the hospital for 7 days for a very serious blood infection.  Herecovered, but since he has no insurance (he's one of the Obamacare haters who opted out even though he had the money to get insured), I have no idea what he's gonna do.  He was in critical care for 3 days, and regular rooms for 4.  With all the tests an medications he was given, and knowing the base rate for critical care is like 8k a day, and for regular room is like 4 k a day, he's basically just screwed.

I work for a non-profit hospital organization.  I'm in radiology I.T. and not privy to specific financial information, but our organization does disclose general financial data to us.  I don't know about the hospital he went to, but here is what would probably happen in ours.
 
If he's like most people without insurance and money, he'll ignore the first few bills.  Eventually he and the hospital will get in contact and some sort of "settlement" will be agreed upon that is well below the face value of the bill.  He'll pay some amount per month, but maybe he'll even blow that off.  The remaining balance will get written off.
 
People like your brother are a large part of the reason why prices are artificially bloated.  Those of us with private insurance are subsidizing everyone without insurance.  Drug pricing is negotiated and factors into this as well.
 
I will say this, none of the insurance companies pay the "face value" of the bills either.   The amount they pay is negotiated behind closed doors.  This is why having a medical procedure outside of your insurance companies primary network is so costly.
 
Tell your brother to fuck off because he is part the reason our insurance rates are so high.

It's a chicken and egg issue.  Why can other countries afford to have lower costs, and cover their poor and uninsured?
And who's to say insurance would even have covered any of it?  As others have pointed out, insurance companies often refuse to pay for procedures, as well as "negotiating" a lower price, when regular citizens are actually billed these ridiculous amounts, so THEY are covering what the corporate insurance companies are refusing to cover.

I do wish my brother had insurance, but at the same time, blaming a sick guy who you don't even know is so American, instead of understanding this stems first from our "corporate rulers".

So go fuck off, yourself.

(August 28, 2016 at 1:03 pm)Aegon Wrote: I've had 2 kidney biopsies, both of which costed around $4,000. Both times my insurance didn't want to cover it. I had to fight with them for a week both times, and in that time span they kept saying shit like, "Okay we reviewed your case and we will cover X%" and I had to make a dozen phone calls a day and scream at everyone who answered until they finally stopped at 85%. This exact thing happened twice. And it's not like I just have 600 fucking dollars laying around.

It's a game between insurance companies and hospitals to see how little they can pay. And we get shafted for it.

THIS ^^.

Blaming the uninsured is so wrong.  It isn't them causing the problem in the first place.

I am disabled and on medicare.  Like Min, I see both the bills and what medicare actually pays.  What medicare even pays is still too much.  I was approved for a one night stay at a sleep center to test for narcolepsy and sleep apnea.  The final bill was just under 4k.  No blood tests, just hook me up to a machine and record me sleep for 6 hours (not even 8), then kick me out the next morning...4k.  Medicare payed about $1200 (which they said should covered the full bill).  The hospital attempted to bill me for some of the remainder, but after a couple of months of fighting over it, they let it go.  This is not money that some other person needs to pay somewhere else, no, this is money that was overcharged in the first place so some CEO can get a million a year salary.

I have full VA coverage (took awhile to get it - after a few years they miraculously "found" my paperwork and acknowledged both my existence and service..as in, as soon as obamacare passed they sent me a mailer, lol). I never pay a dime, for anything.  I wonder how many dimes get charged to the account though...at 1k% markups...just to provide bartering fodder for accountants and attorneys.  You all pay for that.

Thx, and gratz. Bit like a turd in a pretty box with a red bow, isn't it, lol.