<---- wanted to go to Urgent Care but they said I needed to go to ER.
But yea, growing up we always went to those places because we didnt have insurance. They take care of a lot of stuff.
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<---- wanted to go to Urgent Care but they said I needed to go to ER.
But yea, growing up we always went to those places because we didnt have insurance. They take care of a lot of stuff.
[QUOTE=Djoser;1352484]This is why I have always refused to knuckle under to the healthcare/insurance scam. But it means you can't get sick or really injure yourself badly, of course. You have to be immortal, or it doesn't work.
Like 100$ a month health insurance?? And that's cheap? If I don't get hurt for 5 years, then get a bill like yours, it evens out.
/QUOTE]
Her bill was relatively cheap. Three nights in a hospital averages out to over $20,000. How many years until you pay that one off Djoser? Go one, keep neglecting the importance of health insurance. I only hope your good luck continues.....:-X
^^ Thats also assuming you put that $100 a month into an account so that when the time comes that you get a huge med bill you have the extra cash on hand to pay. People just dont do that.
Weve been saying lately everyone should get healthcare. I think it takes a HUGE bill for people to realize this - or at least it did for me.
Well, our healthy insurance was almost $1000 a month for a family plan.
They refused to pay for shit when I had my son...everything was "not covered" or some other lame ass excuse.
So, we canceled insurance and we put $980/year away for the past year. We saved $11,760. With our 4% savings interest, we earned about another $400 on that money. When I have the baby in June, we'll pay 1/2 of the birth out of that account ($1400) and the other 1/2 "out-of-pocket". With Adrian's birth...we were paying $980/month, plus our $500 annual deductible, plus all of the charges they refused to pay. Out of $3800 birth charge, we ended up paying $3000 (insurance covered a whopping $800). Not a savings when we also had to pay our monthly insurance premiums.
Add that to the fact that we don't do "normal" doctors (we are preventative maintenance by using reflexologist, naturopaths, homeopaths, etc) and we're paying out the ass for insurance we don't ever really use. Yes, the kids could wind up in the ER...and Adrian did...and left with a $3,000 bill...which was paid off with part of the fund.
Much easier to deal with that way. Much. At least for our family.
I don't get how the medical system can be so expensive.
I don't have health insurance but if I went to a public hospital in Australia for the same thing as you did I would simply have to wait if they were busy and then wouldn't pay a thing. Our new government is also putting money into elective surgery as well so in a few years everybody on waiting lists in the public system for electives (eg: knee reconstruction) will have their operations.
the medical system in america is not expensive for everyone. some people never pay anything, and others pay a little, and still others pay quite a lot. where i live, the local hospital gives away specialist care to poor people and does sliding scale care for working-class people if they have no insurance. that care is, you know, cheap or free.
that's not unusual in america, for doctors and hospitals to just give away the care and time. but it never gets mentioned because the narrative that healthcare in america is always crappy and expensive is a preferable one to advocate.
america has eight or ten times the population of countries like australia. in the case of AUS, it's 15 times the population. you simply can't even compare the two things. you can compare individual american states and their socialised healthcare options to socialised countries, to have a fair population-to-population comparison, but america is just so big and has so many different kinds of healthcare options that it's madness to compare it to anything else and say it comes up failing.
in some parts of america, healthcare is expensive and difficult to come by. in still other parts, it is cheap and high-quality. and there is the range in between.
i still remember the canadian who came into the ER, ran up about 6k in hospital bills and never paid. of course, he was in the USA illegally...
there's just too many diverse circumstances to say 'this person was charged x because AMERICAN HEALTHCARE IS JUST ALWAYS HORRIBLE FULL STOP'.
On the subject of going to urgent care or something similar, it wasn't up to me. I had a head injury and was acting out of it. My friend made that call because I was scaring the shit out of him with my eyes rolling back in my head. Apparently , the whole time I said , "I'm fine"
Fuck. As it turns out, I would have been fine instead of 5gs in the red. Fuckity fuck fuck.
The thing that upsets me is that I can't afford to pay . So now what my credit is ruined because some hopspital wants to make money off an uninsured person? Fucking uncool.
And Miabella, show me the person who doesn't have to pay in the U.S. Watch Michael Moore's "Sicko" and show who the system benefits. Fucking bureaucrats and insurance assholes and god damned MDs !!!! Thats who.
Sorry. I am pissed as hell .
Honey, relax. This was recent, correct? They won't report you to a collections for quite a while.
Call them up and work out a payment deal. I've done it before. Do what Audrey did. Sure the initial bill isn't affordable, but $100/month is.
I've been there before too. I had to pay for a surgery out of pocket because my shitty health insurance at the time only covered procedures up to $900. WTF. That charge is crazy though, because I only had to pay around $5,000 for an entire endoscopic surgery (outpatient)!
It really sucks, but I am glad you are ok. This will be resolved. Or you can ask your friend to help pay since he dragged you there?
I get angry that you have to pay so much more than an insurance company would pay.
I have so many complaints against the US health care but for today.
The US system is far more expensive than any other country in the world.
Medicine like lawyers creates its own demand. There was a study where they compared 2 areas in the US, and the place with twice the per capita hospital beds still used them all but there was no difference in outcomes between the places.
yeah, a lot of times the bills keep coming. I broke my baby toe and it ended up costing $1200. But do try and get it reduced and if you can't pay it all just pay what you can. I hate the healthcare in the US, and I've ranted about it on and on. Nobody wants to insure you unless you've never had any health issues, ever. It's a fucking joke.
I love how medical professionals charge people who are too poor to get insurance 3x the price for proper care. Where the fuck is the logic in that ??
A $100 a month isn't shit for an insurance premium. I am surprised they even exist. Mine is like $300+ and if I had a family -- oh boy!
Massachusetts has it worked out. Everyone has insurance there. If you don't, they will fine you for not having it. ;)
I owe a ton of money to a few hospitals & one crappy OB/GYN....& They didn't help much at all for what I paid already and will continue to pay. The most caring "care" I've received is from Planned Parenthood & my local female health clinic & that was all low-cost!
I don't even trust doctors anymore. Fack.
I'm sorry...but I've never heard of anyone having insurance for $100/month. Maybe if it's through a company...the employee portion may be $100. But, to cover it all yourself? No way. Joe even looked for insurance just for himself (a couple of years ago) and the lowest was around $300/month.
GreatWest insurance sucks major ass. They take your money and they don't pay out jack shit. Ever. For anything. Of course, that's pretty much how most insurance companies are these days. Which is why we will never have insurance again. >:(
Not to mention health is becoming a new method of control. Smokers - fatties - need not apply for that job or be punished if already part of the group with higher rates. Those are just the obvious ones.
Don't get me started on the personal violation I believe drug testing is.
I got the $100 idea from this post.... thats why I used it in my post. I thought that was cheap too because for me and my daughter it was $350/month for Kaiser - which isnt too bad but its still a lot if you dont use it. Ill say Im very happy we get free health/dental/vision through Bs work. I wish I was smart enough to have had Kaiser in the first place rather than letting the policy lapse.
:wave: I do. I have a policy through BCBS, it's 114 bucks a month. They have been fabulous as far as coverage. Prior to that I had coverage through United American, it was 156 bucks a month, and sucked ass. I found my coverage at www.ehealthinsurance.com.
Cost of insurance will vary by:
Coverage amount
Deductible
Amount and type of benefits
Age
Gender
Smoker/weight/pre-exist conditions
So $1,000 for 3 people is very possible. However, I am not advocated full-coverage health for everyone. Rather, a bare bones major medical catastrophe policy, and monthly savings into an HSA for routine checkups and tests.
The monthly savings amount will vary. $100 may or may not be enough. For me, having $1,200 saved tax-free over a year would take care of most basic medical needs. A family would need more.........
I broker health insurance through a major firm. FYI, I make less than peanuts from doing this, and its a huge pain in the ass. So I'm not shilling my services.
Most policies I've done are between $90-150 per individual....
There is also short-term medical.
All I'm saying is...the system is fucked. So fucked. I agree wholeheartedly. But the system doesn't care if you get sick or hurt. So protect yourself.
Almost all of the dancers here can afford some basic health coverage and don't want to spend the money. Of course, I know there are some exceptions who are uninsurable, or barely insurable.
I agree with Kat. I just switched my company insurance over to an HSA/high deductible policy. Would I like to continue to give them a PPO with minimal deductibles and low co-pays? Yes I would. Can I continue to afford it? No, not if I want to stay in business. My employees are protected 100% once they hit their 3K individual/6K family limits. And their monthly contributions to the policy are lower than they were before.
I do have great sympathy for the OP. And I understand why she would lament about it here. But what I don't understand how someone could go to an emergency room and be surprised that the bill would be so expensive.
FBR
Twister- have you called the hospital to request an itemized bill yet, and do they know you are uninsured and paying "out of pocket"? They should be able to send a detailed bill out to you, and possibly adjust your bill since you are uninsured. Also, you could also ask them about any sort of assistance or charity programs they offer, or maybe an extended payment plan as well. At the very least, get the paperwork and see if you qualify, you never know! I'm sorry you have to go through this--I had an ER visit that turned into a 2-day hospital stay a few years back and left me with a 15k bill. :(