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If you are alert and able to talk, yell, write to a hospital staff member you can refuse care and just let me die. There have been times and years I have gone with no health insurance and I rather die than face hundreds of thousands in debt I will never pay off.
That is my plan. My concern is if I'm incapacitated.
Honest question… how is the hospital supposed to know the value of your estate on any given day?
More of an instruction to my representative or family member. If I'm not lucid and have no one speaking for me... that is my big concern because hospitals are compelled to do anything to keep someone alive.
My hope is that I am lucid enough to make the decision. Basically everything in my living will says the effect of "do NOT take extraordinary measures, just keep him comfortable." My big concern is if I'm unconscious or something.
More of an instruction to my representative or family member. If I'm not lucid and have no one speaking for me... that is my big concern because hospitals are compelled to do anything to keep someone alive.
My hope is that I am lucid enough to make the decision. Basically everything in my living will says the effect of "do NOT take extraordinary measures, just keep him comfortable." My big concern is if I'm unconscious or something.
You are right. I signed a DNR for the hospital. I woke up in ICU (resuscitated). I was very sore from what they did to my jaw and throat to force air into me. The anesthesiologist did something very strange with me with gas (never experienced anything like it and I had a few surgeries). I was choking and then out and then I woke up in ICU.
I tell you. I want no more of any of that. I have had a few surgeries too many (and only one was elective if you want to call it that).
My point is they absolutely ignore the DNR. I'm not sure you can do anything about it either. Your loved ones might be able to stop you from being kept alive artificially; but, in the heat of the moment when you are "code blue" or whatever I'm not sure someone that's not in that immediate medical setting would be able to control much. Correct me if I'm wrong.
If I were hit with a bill like that I'd kill myself. My life savings is all I've got. I fact I keep a gun in my car to end my life before I ever get taken to intensive care because of an accident. I will blow my brains out before I let the health system steal my family's inheritance from them.
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Do you not have health insurance and/or Medicare? Health insurance isn't hard to access and if you've worked in your life for more than 2 seconds, Medicare is yours free (part A at least) Isn't your scenario a tad dramatic?
Do you not have health insurance and/or Medicare? Health insurance isn't hard to access and if you've worked in your life for more than 2 seconds, Medicare is yours free (part A at least) Isn't your scenario a tad dramatic?
I do, but after seeing what happened to my father, I don't trust health insurance any further than I can throw it.
Do you not have health insurance and/or Medicare? Health insurance isn't hard to access and if you've worked in your life for more than 2 seconds, Medicare is yours free (part A at least) Isn't your scenario a tad dramatic?
Most people who declare bankruptcy due to medical debt do have health insurance. There are many things it doesn't cover, and large co-pays. I paid a total of $14,000 out of pocket over a ten-month period treating my back up to and including back surgery. With a health insurance plan I paid $700 a month for.
I am grateful that they recently passed the "No Surprises" act, to protect people from some of it. What happened often before, is that you'd go to the hospital your insurance company tells you it covers, but while there doctors, anestheiologists and other care providers who are NOT in your network provide care to you, and their bills weren't covered at all. I always thought it was grossly unfair. If you are in the hospital you're supposed to be in, everyone who touches you should be covered by your plan while you are in that hospital.
This happened to my old boss. She took her 13 year old to the ER after some kind of severe allergic reaction, and several providers who attended him turned out not to be in our work health plan. She ended up with over $13,000 in bills for a few hours ER visit. Thankfully that can't happen now.
It happened with ambulances too. You get in accident and flown unconscious to hospital via air transport, and end up with a $50,000 bill that insurance won't cover. The new bill protects against that, but does NOT unfortunately protect against surprise ground ambulance bills. Many ambulance companies are now privatized and predatory today. This article tells about a person who got an $8,000+ bill for ambulance from one hospital to another, and another person billed $3600 for a 4 mile ride.
Student loan debt is cancelled when you die. Is medical debt? I’m sure they can go after the estate unlike student loans.
They do. I am still getting bills and collection agency letters for a pharmacy my mom's ALF used to get her bandaging supplies for wound care to her legs. She was on Medicaid though and didn't have any money.
Medical debt can be discharged in bankruptcy though, unlike student loans. It shouldn't have to come to that though. It's getting worse and worse the more privatized all our health care gets, there are no limits to what they can charge and you're often not in a position to ask questions at the time you're getting care.
I hope they do more to regulate medical bill transparency. If I am scheduled for surgery in a month, and I ask the hospital to tell me ahead of time what my costs will be, there will be no one who can or will answer that question. Meantime, you can't get the surgery without signing a paper ahead of time saying you will pay whatever they bill you.
I do, but after seeing what happened to my father, I don't trust health insurance any further than I can throw it.
Sorry about your father.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
Most people who declare bankruptcy due to medical debt do have health insurance. There are many things it doesn't cover, and large co-pays. I paid a total of $14,000 out of pocket over a ten-month period treating my back up to and including back surgery. With a health insurance plan I paid $700 a month for.
An NBC news link you posted, not the best source for truth.
And, "your mileage may vary" as they say. What was your total bill minus the 14k? I'm assuming a LOT.
I've had a back and a neck surgery in the past two years, the bill is at 650k and counting. My insurance is excellent. It cost me a couple of grand last year and this year as well since it reset Jan 1. $250/mo. Since it has maxed out again, we won't pay a penny for anything because it's at 100% coverage until next Jan 1. Not one red cent for doctors, ambulance rides, RXs, more surgeries, anything.
An NBC news link you posted, not the best source for truth.
And, "your mileage may vary" as they say. What was your total bill minus the 14k? I'm assuming a LOT.
I've had a back and a neck surgery in the past two years, the bill is at 650k and counting. My insurance is excellent. It cost me a couple of grand last year and this year as well since it reset Jan 1. $250/mo. Since it has maxed out again, we won't pay a penny for anything because it's at 100% coverage until next Jan 1. Not one red cent for doctors, ambulance rides, RXs, more surgeries, anything.
So you’re proving the point, if you have excellent insurance you won’t have the debt. But most people don’t have plans like that. It really doesn’t matter what the total was, it mattered that I was burdened by the $14,000 because I’d been out of work for 10 months because of the back. I lived on my Roth, credit cards and emergency savings and an $1800 month disability policy. I was 55, and it set me back years in terms of saving for retirement. It matters that as the years go by I am looking at multiple spine problems and joint problems because I have arthritis everywhere, and if I have to pay 14,000 or 30,000 every year I will be eating cat food in my old age. This is the problem, everyone’s healthcare is not created equally. Many people go broke because of medical bills.
Medical debt is the number one reason for bankruptcy in this country.
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