I am NEVER going to the hospital again.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Brian votes straight ticket ( D ) and you are surprised that he thinks someone else should pay his medical bills?

Found the sociopath, Who thinks for-profit medicine is good.

[tackattack]

In GA tests are free regardless of income or insurance. You just have to go to a particular place. I have insurance for any stay costs

[Aegon]

Are you insured? This may be of interest to you: Hospital Bills for Uninsured COVID Patients Are Covered, but No One Tells Them

You can also directly negotiate with the hospital over your bills. I don't know any details about your stay, but I certainly hope you didn't pay for an entire hospital stay OOP.

Not the point. What the insurance does not pay, comes out of your pocket, and what they do pay they get a tax deduction. Both are over priced and a scam. And I can tell you that insurance companies will look for a reason not to pay out. 

Oh no, I paid the entire fucking thing off just now. I don't want that shit hanging over my head. 

And I was not in for covid, I was in for something else, I brought up that other guy because his bill was nearly 1 million for a month, and even he is not sure how much his insurance will pay. I only had two visits to the ER and the first time one over night stay. And that was like buying a new car, just for two visits.

Yeah I'm aware that private insurance sucks and the whole system is a dumb, amoral, inefficient mess. I work in health policy, that's why I'm concerned. You can fight your carrier tooth and nail to cover more and more. You can also work with the billing department of the hospital to lower the costs. Literally all healthcare costs in the United States are arbitrary. They are not based on anything real, they're only based on how much they think they can milk your insurance. This means you have more negotiating power than you think, and hospitals would rather have a lower pay-out then spend even more money trying to get paid for your original bill.

You probably know this. I'm probably preaching to the choir. But it's vital that you understand you're not powerless despite the fact that it may feel that way.

They already gave me a discount. . But that was nothing compared to the total cost, and quite frankly, I am not getting into that with anyone here. I already have monthly bills, and have had car loans and have had to pay off a credit card. I hate long term payments. I had the money to pay, so I did. 

The point of the post is nobody should be drained of their savings or be put on long term debt, insurance or not.

Anyone who has gotten a gigantic bill, even if the insurance company paid out, is still getting ripped off. What they do pay out is covered by paying virtually no taxes and the increasing corporate and and CEO breaks they keep getting from the GOP, which adds to the long term debt, which outside the top percent, gets passed down to the rest of us, not only in taxes, but higher costs.

So, you’re unhappy with the size of your bill. That’s fine, I can your point. But you also seem unhappy about insurance companies. I don’t understand how those two work together - if you’d had insurance, your bill would have been much smaller. I did a little research and there are a lot of policies that pay around 80% on a covered claim. So, if you’d had one of those, you’d have saved 80% on your bill, wouldn’t you?

Boru

If only it were this simple.

Brian votes straight ticket ( D ) and you are surprised that he thinks someone else should pay his medical bills?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

If only it were this simple.

If I oversimplified, it was done through ignorance - I’m not really familiar with private health insurance.

Say I buy a policy that will cover 80% of the cost of a broken bone - the doctor, the nurse, the meds, taking up space in hospital, any physical therapy I may need...all of it. Then I break my leg. If the bill for everything come to...I dunno...$20 000, are you saying my policy won’t pay $16 000?

Boru

[tackattack]

I believe he saying that 20,000 is ridiculous that they should have to pay 16 anymore than he should have to pay 4

[arewethereyet]

If only it were this simple.

If I oversimplified, it was done through ignorance - I’m not really familiar with private health insurance.

Say I buy a policy that will cover 80% of the cost of a broken bone - the doctor, the nurse, the meds, taking up space in hospital, any physical therapy I may need...all of it. Then I break my leg. If the bill for everything come to...I dunno...$20 000, are you saying my policy won’t pay $16 000?

Boru

In most cases you would have to pay a deductible before insurance kicks in.  There is also often a co-pay.  Your insurance won't pay 80% of $20K.  They will pay 80% of 20K after the deductible and co-pay...so the 80% is deceiving.  And that's dependent upon going to an in-network medical provider...and the whole thing is just a headache to keep up with and figure out.

Some insurance pays in full, without all those other costs, for preventative things like an annual physical.

I am ssssoooo thankful that insurance was different when I had breast cancer requiring a surgery in 2009 and another in 2010.  The policy my husband had through work had no deductible and the co-pay was negligible.  The 10s of thousands of dollars in medical care cost me very little out of pocket.  I can't even imagine how high the bill would have been had I done chemo and/or radiation.

Beginning in January I will have to pay $2K out of pocket before insurance pays anything.

Insurance will make a payment to a medical provider and then an agreed upon adjustment held between the provider and the insurance company.  The rest is left to the insured.

Don't get me started on dental insurance which is just about useless.

[Jackalope]

If only it were this simple.

If I oversimplified, it was done through ignorance - I’m not really familiar with private health insurance.

Say I buy a policy that will cover 80% of the cost of a broken bone - the doctor, the nurse, the meds, taking up space in hospital, any physical therapy I may need...all of it. Then I break my leg. If the bill for everything come to...I dunno...$20 000, are you saying my policy won’t pay $16 000?

Boru

It depends.

We got stuck paying nearly $5000 in charges after paying our maximum annual out-of-pocket expenses because while the clinic we used was in network, the individual provider the billing was under was not. Yes, we asked whether they were in network prior to receiving service, and the provider had zero fucks to give and would not budge when we learned three months into treatment that we were on the hook for the full amount. They literally waited three months to submit the claims to insurance all at once.

We tried in vain multiple times to negotiate a reduction over the course of a year but they had zero interest in doing so. The charges were a substantial multiple of what the negotiated rate would have been if they had been in network.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Brian votes straight ticket ( D ) and you are surprised that he thinks someone else should pay his medical bills?

He does realize that anyone who pays taxes is contributing to their own healthcare in a single-payer system. If Brian pays taxes then these contributing to his own healthcare.

[Prycejosh1987]

I had to different stays last month. I won't get into total, other than to say FUCK THE GOP! I wont even go if I get covid, I'll fucking die first. A couple weeks ago I heard a story on tv that a guy that got covid stayed a month and his bill was nearly 1 million. 

I have the money, but never again. I would rather be able to give it to my best friend than to make some asshole CEO richer.

I am lucky I have a savings, but even with that, it is going to cut into my ability to get to social security.

Its best to be secure financially, this is most important thing someone could do.