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Well, I know the best option would be national healthcare, but like I said before, greedy Americans will never agree to it. And if you have something like cancer, are the hospitals really going to lack so much compassion and deny treatment if you don't have insurance? They won't let you make monthly payments on your chemotherapy treatments even if you can only afford $50?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kgordeeva
I have personally known people who have done this. All you have to do is tell the hospital how much you can pay each month and as long as you make the payment on time each money, they can't do anything to you. Many people are not aware of this and will not question the hospitals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kgordeeva View Post
Like I said before, you can make monthly payments. No one would expect you to pay $400,000 all at once.
You have not been in the hospital for anything more than a splinter, I can tell by your posts. You may have glossed over what I wrote, but I'll go ahead and add to that:
Again, in 2004 I broke my ankle. The E/R bill alone was over $1700. Here is what you do NOT understand....
That was not ONE bill. I had a bill from the doc, a bill from the x-ray tech for the services, a bill for the actual x-rays, a bill for the crutches, a bill for the Vicodin, (happily paid for that because within 5 minutes of taking one pill, I no longer felt pain and was laughing my ass off with the x-ray tech, cracking jokes....yep, high as a kite), a bill for all the tape and gauze and the splint, (notice the E/R did nothing more than put a SPLINT on it, that's called "stabilizing the patient), and a bill from the orthopedic surgeon who poked and prodded, stared at the x-rays and said, "you need surgery".
ALL of those bills were SEPARATE. The total cost of all of them combined came out to over $1700. It was not ONE bill at $1700.
So, when you call up and say, "Gee, I can't afford to pay $1700 in one shot, can you work with me?" You hear: "No, because your bill with us does not exceed 'x' amount of dollars. It has to be paid in one lump sum."
What happens if I do not? Off to collections I go, my credit is destroyed. Not once, but by every single person I owe for that one E/R visit. If I paid the x-ray tech for his work and the x-rays, (two separate bills), and that was all I could afford, I would still have all of those other people I had to pay. I would have 5 or more outstanding bills for one visit. My credit would have been hit 5 times.
That was just for the E/R. We haven't even gotten to the surgery part yet...where you have a bill for the doc, a bill for the anesthesiologist, a bill for the nurses, a bill for the supplies that went inside, a bill for the sutures, a bill for an extra night's stay when my blood pressure went from its normal 110/70 to 88/40, a bill for the new crutches, a bill for the meal I had while I watched Godzilla on hospital tv, a bill for the nurses who came in and checked on me throughout then night....
You don't understand hospital bills at all. No, you do NOT get to just tell them, "All I can afford is $25 a month". It doesn't work like that.
Further, someone was talking earlier about how insurance companies do their homework, they NEVER pay what the hospitals charge. I mentioned that in my previous post. Had I had the insurance, the bill would not have been that high. How do I know? BECAUSE THEY TOLD ME. Yes, the people I talked to on the phone actually told me this. Insurance companies get charged a different rate than you do if you pay out of pocket, and the reason for that is because, as was mentioned, they KNOW what the real cost actually is.
Will they refuse treatment for someone who can't pay? I can answer this, as well. I told you about the surgery and that it was going to cost $8000. I told you that I was informed that I could pay part of this bill in one month, and the rest of it one month later. What I did fail to mention, but will mention now, I STILL HAD TO PAY SOMETHING UPFRONT before anyone would give me the surgery that I required. Now, it took me a few weeks to get things set up, so for a few weeks, I was using that splint that was put on in the E/R. I was supposed to be in surgery in less than one week. That splint was fricken useless and pointless by the time I got wheeled in to be dissected. It was not offering support at all. And I would NOT have gotten care if I could not come up with the "down payment", if you will.
Yes, that does happen. Just because you haven't had it happen to you, does not mean it does not happen. I was stabilized, that is all that was required. If I needed further treatment, that was on me.
Having said all of this, I do NOT advocate a national health care system, in case anyone thinks by my posts that I do. I do not. As has been pointed out, it does NOTHING to the cost of health care. Nothing. The problem is not the insurance companies. The problem is what people are charged for health care.
If hospitals were charging the true cost of healthcare, then I should have been paying the same price as the health insurance companies. That is not what happened. Take care of the health care costs, you take care of the damn problem. We have been bitten by a snake and we are putting a band-aid on that bite all the while allowing ourselves to believe big government who says, "You don't have a wound because you got bit by a snake, you have a wound because it happened on the first Friday after Labor Day and you were wearing white". In other words, what they are telling us is the reason for all of the problems is about the stupidest lie possible....and we believe it.
Last edited by Three Wolves In Snow; 11-20-2013 at 04:24 PM..
Reason: The horrible spelling!
I actually think diseases are 50 percent genetics and 50 percent lifestyle. There are so many people in the United States with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc. If they would just lose weight can ditch their unhealthy habits, a lot of these diseases can be reversed.
And then there are diseases like mine (MS) where they have NO idea how one gets it. Not my lifestyle choices and not my genetics. If I didn't have insurance the advertised rate (advertised to me when prescribed these meds) would be over $1500/mo. Just to keep me from getting sick. Gain some life experience before you take on such a topic. You won't always be young, naive, and on your parents plan. Get back to us when you have worked in the real world for a few years.
You have not been in the hospital for anything more than a splinter, I can tell by your posts. You may have glossed over what I wrote, but I'll go ahead and add to that:
Again, in 2004 I broke my ankle. The E/R bill alone was over $1700. Here is what you do NOT understand....
That was not ONE bill. I had a bill from the doc, a bill from the x-ray tech for the services, a bill for the actual x-rays, a bill for the crutches, a bill for the Vicodin, (happily paid for that because within 5 minutes of taking one pill, I no longer felt pain and was laughing my ass off with the x-ray tech, cracking jokes....yep, high as a kite), a bill for all the tape and gauze and the splint, (notice the E/R did nothing more than put a SPLINT on it, that's called "stabalizing the patient), and a bill from the orthopedic surgeon who poked and prodded, stared at the x-rays and said, "you need surgery".
ALL of those bills were SEPARATE. The total cost of all of them combined came out to over $1700. It was not ONE bill at $1700.
So, when you call up and say, "Gee, I can't afford to pay $1700 in one shot, can you work with me?" You hear: "No, because your bill with us does not exceed 'x' amount of dollars. It has to be paid in one lump sum."
What happens if I do not? Off to collections I go, my credit is destroyed. Not once, but by every single person I owe for that one E/R visit. If I paid the x-ray tech for his work and the x-rays, (two separate bills), and that was all I could afford, I would still have all of those other people I had to pay. I would have 5 or more outstanding bills for one visit. My credit would have been hit 5 times.
That was just for the E/R. We haven't even gotten to the surgery part yet...where you have a bill for the doc, a bill for the anesthesiologist, a bill for the nurses, a bill for the supplies that went inside, a bill for the sutures, a bill for an extra night's stay when my blood pressure went from its normal 110/70 to 88/40, a bill for the new crutches, a bill for the meal I had while I watched Godzilla on hospital tv, a bill for the nurses who came in and checked on me throughout then night....
You don't understand hospital bills at all. No, you do NOT get to just tell them, "All I can afford is $25 a month". It doesn't work like that.
Further, someone was talking earlier about how insurance companies do their homework, they NEVER pay what the hospitals charge. I mentioned that in my previous post. Had I had the insurance, the bill would not have been that high. How do I know? BECAUSE THEY TOLD ME. Yes, the people I talked to on the phone actually told me this. Insurance companies get charged a different rate than you do if you pay out of pocket, and the reason for that is because, as was mentioned, they KNOW what the real cost actually is.
Will they refuse treatment for someone who can't pay? I can answer this, as well. I told you about the surgery and that it was going to cost $8000. I told you that I was informed that I could pay part of this bill in one month, and the rest of it one month later. What I did fail to mention, but will mention now, I STILL HAD TO PAY SOMETHING UPFRONT before anyone would give me the surgery that I required. Now, it took me a few weeks to get things set up, so for a few weeks, I was using that splint that was put on in the E/R. I was supposed to be in surgery in less than one week. That splint was fricken useless and pointless by the time I got wheeled in to be dissected. It was not offering support at all. And I would NOT have gotten care if I could not come up with the "down payment", if you will.
Yes, that does happen. Just because you haven't had it happen to you, does not mean it does not happen. I was stabalized, that is all that was required. If I needed further treatment, that was on me.
Having said all of this, I do NOT advocate a national health care system, in case anyone thinks by my posts that I do. I do not. As has been pointed out, it does NOTHING to the cost of health care. Nothing. The problem is not the insurance companies. The problem is what people are charged for health care.
If hospitals were charging the true cost of healthcare, then I should have been paying the same price as the health insurance companies. That is not what happened. Take care of the health care costs, you take care of the damn problem. We have been bitten by a snake and we are putting a band-aid on that bite all the while allowing ourselves to believe big government who says, "You don't have a wound because you got bit by a snake, you have a wound because it happened on the first Friday after Labor Day and you were wearing white". In other words, what they are telling us is the reason for all of the problems is about the stupidest lie possible....and we believe it.
Well, all I can say that is I have personally known people who were able to work things out with hospitals. I know a family who were charged like $1,500 for a hospital bill and they allowed them to pay just $100 a month, so some hospitals will work with you.
And if you do get stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills you can't afford, just file for bankruptcy. So many people are afraid of bankruptcy and think it's the end of the world. It's not. There's more to life than having perfect credit.
And if you do get stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills you can't afford, just file for bankruptcy. So many people are afraid of bankruptcy and think it's the end of the world. It's not. There's more to life than having perfect credit.
And why should getting medical treatment have to necessitate filing BK? That is not really a solution.
To chime in here, I find it funny that some of the men on this forum...
are saying to do away with hospitals and doctors for delivery.
To chime in here that was the example Kat chose to focus on.
But on the point of women and doctors... how the heck did all those babies get born before?
Well, all I can say that is I have personally known people who were able to work things out with hospitals. I know a family who were charged like $1,500 for a hospital bill and they allowed them to pay just $100 a month, so some hospitals will work with you.
And if you do get stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills you can't afford, just file for bankruptcy. So many people are afraid of bankruptcy and think it's the end of the world. It's not. There's more to life than having perfect credit.
Or, you could, you know, find a way to pay the bill, like I did.
Filing for bankruptcy means that everyone else has to pay for your medical care. Why should I have to pay for your medical care? Did you pay for mine? You did not. If you want everyone else to pay for your medical care, I sure could use that $9700 back. Paypal payments only, thank you.
You continue to miss the point.
I think you must be doing it deliberately.
Bottom Right of the schedule:
$4800 TOTAL COST... no insurance involved.
(especially vs $14,400 in hospital even if Santa Clause is paying the other $10,000)
In case you're wondering... yes, this is better.
And the model should be the default for the planned and budgeted
and low level common incidents and treatments.
All this is fine and dandy as long as it's not your child and your life and there's no complication during the actual birth. My maternal grandmother lost two children during home births (1920s/1930s). One of my paternal uncles was mentally retarded because he suffered from lack of oxygen during birth.
To chime in here that was the example Kat chose to focus on.
But on the point of women and doctors... how the heck did all those babies get born before?
but only with a doctor in the room?
Lol seriously? Look up the mortality rates in a time when doctors and hospitals didn't exist. He'll go look at mortality rates in third world countries!
Until YOU are the one at risk during labor and delivery and until YOU push a baby out of your body you have no right to simply dismiss childbirth as something simple that can be done at home and without a doctor!
To chime in here that was the example Kat chose to focus on.
But on the point of women and doctors... how the heck did all those babies get born before?
How did they set broken limbs before they had anesthesia?
How did they treat wounds before they had antiseptics?
How did they prevent smallpox, polio, diptheria, rubella, etc before they had vaccines?
How did they fight cancer before chemotherapy and other protocols?
What you're advocating is eschewing modern medical practices that have been proven effective and life-saving in order to lower medical costs. If you wish to turn the clock back to the 18th century for yourself, then you go ahead, but don't try to advocate that for everyone else.
Or, you could, you know, find a way to pay the bill, like I did.
Filing for bankruptcy means that everyone else has to pay for your medical care. Why should I have to pay for your medical care? Did you pay for mine? You did not. If you want everyone else to pay for your medical care, I sure could use that $9700 back. Paypal payments only, thank you.
That's not true. You will not be responsible for paying anybody's bankruptcy through your taxes. The hospital is the only one who loses out.
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