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Let me tell you it will also wipe you out with insurance it did my dad . My dad had super good health insurance and once it got maxed out the creditors went after his second wife and she is now dead probably from all the stress of having to take care of my dad and his illness and being his constant caregiver . I hear from her daughter that they still send bills to her house the daughter sends them back with deceased across the front . Im not directing this at you but some folks think if you have good insurance you wont die from cancer . You know you are going to die with or without health insurance .
This is true. My DH was in a severe car accident that required many surgeries over several years and all those deductibles an co-pays, etc added up! So our health insurance paid out over a million (yes over a million) and we paid out over $40k in medical bills. And that's not easy to pay back when your DH is on STD due to this so his paychecks are 30% less and you don't work because you're a SAHM with 2 small kids and have to take your DH to procedures and doctor appointments regularly. Five years later we are still paying that off and trying to get back on our feet. And all of this was with so called GOOD insurance!
A very good friend was hit head-on by a driver who was stoned. He also had 2 previous DUIs and no insurance. My friend suffered 7 cracked ribs and 2 broken legs, 1 broken foot. None of this was her fault, nor could she avoid it. She was minding her own business driving home from work on a lighted 4 lane road doing the speed limit (45 mph). The driver, who was in a large pick up truck, was "distracted by the lights" and "drove towards them" (his words). Unfortunately, they were her headlights.
Her uninsured motorist insurance has a medical limit.
Her health insurance is currently picking up the bills, but she is unmarried, has no children, and is 59 years old. She has no one to take care of her. Following surgery, she was moved to a rehab facility. The medical insurance is now telling her that she has to leave. The doctor is trying to find a way to get them to let her stay. She is immobile as both of her legs are in casts. Due to her rib injuries, she is not able to maneuver herself from a bed to a wheelchair. (It currently takes 2 people to do this). It will be 6-8 weeks before she is mobile again and she will need a caregiver or to stay in a rehab facility for weeks. She needs to be transported by medical staff (on a gurney) to doctor's appointments.
I can't imagine what this would cost her if she were uninsured. No matter what kind of "negotiated" discount she received, it would not be enough. The cost will be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.
You never know what will happen. She did everything right. Hopefully her health insurance will cover most of her bills. Without it she would probably be bankrupt and have nothing left for retirement, with no time to recoup it. You never think this could be you. But it might.
That's ll well and good until someone gets hurt. Cancer will wipe you out completely without insurance, not to mention the hospitals wont be taking you on as a patient if you cant pay. This always boggles my mind how anyone thinks they can skip having health insurance
Exactly. The idea that you are never going to have a serious illness, never have a serious trauma, and will die instantly in your sleep one night is just a fantasy. You can be in debt for hundreds of thousands in no time. Thanks to the fantastic health care system we have here in the USA.
Back when we could (before ACA), my wife and I had only Catastrophic Coverage (was about $80/month, $20k deductible). I happened to run my hand through a table-saw at one point and racked up about $8k in hospital bills. My wife worked with the billing department to pay cash, in full, and they were more than happy to take 40% of the original bill.
Our new $2500/month ACA silver plan has worse coverage, so if something should happen we will most likely take the same route.
It is amazing what we will put up with. Protests about the border and pink hat parades and violent combat over statues in a park, but corporations can completely mess with us when it comes to life and death and we just go along with it.
If you don't have a family, then perhaps ethically you can justify not being insured.
I have a pre-existing condition that I can manage on my own, but is considered "extreme" by the insurance companies. For a small employer I can cause their rates to skyrocket. That's why I opted out of my employer's insurance plan when I changed jobs some years ago. I feared losing my job because a previous employer I had years earlier had an unwritten policy of firing sick employees to keep their health insurance rates low. I went without insurance for about 6 or 7 years. Fortunately, nothing bad happened. I now have Obamacare (retired at 62), but come 2019, I may be out in the cold again, uninsurable, if Obamacare is repealed or found unconstitutional. If Obamacare falls then hopefully the GOP senate bill will pass that will enable me to at least be able to get insurance, even though any pre-existing condition won't be covered. This is the first time since I was a child that I wish to be older (65)!
Last edited by mitchmiller9; 09-05-2018 at 01:42 AM..
Exactly. The idea that you are never going to have a serious illness, never have a serious trauma, and will die instantly in your sleep one night is just a fantasy. You can be in debt for hundreds of thousands in no time. Thanks to the fantastic health care system we have here in the USA.
A lot of us literally plan to "off" ourselves if we are confronted with medical bankruptcy. I keep a copy of "Final Exit" handy. Still haven't bought a handgun so I"m not tempted to be too hasty about using it when the chips are down. Death by charcoal would seem to equate to that fantasy you allude to.
I'm on my husband's policy, but it was cut quite close.
Less than a year after I got on my DH's policy, completely out of nowhere I got appendicitis. Bill was $80,000, I had to pay about 2k of it.
To a previous poster, I'm very sorry about what happened and that you're struggling but 40k out of pocket vs over a million dollars insurance paid is still "good" coverage. Damn good coverage, actually. That's only 4% if we round to a million.
Still though, I'm very sorry for your unfortunate turn of events.
A lot of us literally plan to "off" ourselves if we are confronted with medical bankruptcy. I keep a copy of "Final Exit" handy. Still haven't bought a handgun so I"m not tempted to be too hasty about using it when the chips are down. Death by charcoal would seem to equate to that fantasy you allude to.
????
Nice that citizens in a first world country would have to come to this.
I would just do the bankruptcy and start over. I am surprised how many well off people have a history of bankruptcies.
Until we care enough to fix the system this is how it goes.
You are simply out of your mind if you don't have health insurance. Heaven forbid you get cancer ( and we are all one step away ) and you will find yourself bankrupt, and sick.
Don't think it cant happen to you
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