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I am sure they would lien my house like a mouse. I paid cash for my house. I don't mean to sound mean, but lets be real here. Say someone walks in with a broken hand or leg, and they charge $6k to wrap it up. Now does it really cost $6k to fix someone up with a broken hand or leg. I have never needed a DOC or seen a DOC in over 30 years other than one time back in 2012 for back pain. They ran some x rays and gave me some pills and did all kinds of test and blood test. I have never had HC ins, so guess what i paid the $1k and that was that.
I don't mind paying what i think is a fair price. But i am not gonna pay some crazy price if i walked into a ER.
I had some kind of insane pain way down in my tummy area back in 2010 like down to my leg and i stuck it out for 8 hours and rolled on the floor. There was no way i was going to a ER and ruin my perfect 800+ credit score. Never knew what that pain was and it never came back. Health care should be free for all as long as someone is working.
What ER's charge and pitals charge is just insane. No way i would pay the bill, and i would burn my house down and turn the land it sits on into a supper fund site with so much toxic stuff they would never get a dime out of me for some crazy trumped up charges.
No insurance?
Hope you carry more than your state minimum liability insurance for your car.
Hope you don't have an accident.
Hope you don't become a victim of a violent crime.
Hope you don't eventually get diagnosed with a serious life threatening disease.
With most purchases in the US, you can shop around for the best price. You can't do that with the current system (and to be fair you cannot do it with single payer, although price isn't really a concern with that model). Most hospitals aren't able to tell you how much a procedure costs, because it varies for everyone. Also, some insurance companies limit where you can receive care.
We always hear from people who have employer covered insurance that the system here is fine. Yes, it's probably fine for you. But what about for people who are self-employed and cannot afford $800/mo basic health coverage? What about people who work retail jobs with insurance plans that cost half your monthly salary?
The system works for 50% of Americans, but is completely broken for everyone else.
About the only thing most politicians tend to agree, regardless of party, is that US healthcare was broken long before the ACA and remains broken after the ACA.
When one goes back 25 years and reads Hillary's state of healthcare testimony before Congress, with an emphasis on the Individual Plan Market, one would think this testimony was given was yesterday.
( I did not vote for Hillary. Just citing her testimony 25 years ago)
The Individual Plan Market has been contracting for more than 25 years.
With most purchases in the US, you can shop around for the best price. You can't do that with the current system (and to be fair you cannot do it with single payer, although price isn't really a concern with that model). Most hospitals aren't able to tell you how much a procedure costs, because it varies for everyone. Also, some insurance companies limit where you can receive care.
We always hear from people who have employer covered insurance that the system here is fine. Yes, it's probably fine for you. But what about for people who are self-employed and cannot afford $800/mo basic health coverage? What about people who work retail jobs with insurance plans that cost half your monthly salary?
The system works for 50% of Americans, but is completely broken for everyone else.
About the only thing most politicians tend to agree, regardless of party, is that US healthcare was broken long before the ACA and remains broken after the ACA.
When one goes back 25 years and reads Hillary's state of healthcare testimony before Congress, with an emphasis on the Individual Plan Market, one would think this testimony was given was yesterday.
( I did not vote for Hillary. Just citing her testimony 25 years ago)
The Individual Plan Market has been contracting for more than 25 years. The ACA eliminated the junk plans masquerading as insurance to consumers who tend to think all insurance is alike.
You can shop on price for many things medical that are non-emergent. Lab work, testing, x-rays and scans. Elective surgeries and procedures.
As you know, patient's age, overall health and medical history matters as it relates to all surgery, including elective surergy. Type of anesthesia, typically billed separately, and recovery matters.
Over the past few years my husband has had multiple non- emergency surgeries. Each time, we knew to the penny, how much it was going to cost , out of pocket, weeks before the scheduled surgery. Given these were elective surgeries, there were waitings periods, months, before each surgeon had an available slot.
By and large you can not. Its so different than "shopping on price" compared to a car or TV its a totally different world. Thats one of the big reasons why its so expensive. You get a disease. Need a year of treatment. You are totally clueless about what procedures at which hospital constitute "good value for money". Hospitals are not disclosing their "success rates" when it comes to procedures, that all depends on the individual. The last last thing you need to worry about trying to recover from a severe disease. It works for the health care racket. They grab 18% of GDP or $3 200 billion per year. It doesnt work for the people who need care.
The poster you are responding to is an MD.
Insurers and healthcare providers agree to predetermined reimbursement rates. There is not likely going to be much difference in reimbursement rates within a local network.
Sucess rates are highly variable and dependent on factors beyond a hospital's control. The patient's overall health matters. The patient's medical history matters. The patient's willingness to follow orders pre and post surgery matters.
The number of like surgical procedures performed at any givin hospital tends to be a reflection of the hospital system's ability to attract and retain top specialists. No shortage of independent ranking systems track hospital performance. A top ranked breast cancer surgeon does not do brain surgery or treat heart disease.
There's a shortage of doctors, etc., in my state, as in many rural areas, so no, there are no choices. There's one really great doctor locally, and a few I wouldn't go to unless I had no choice. Doctors aren't like cars, they don't just leave you on the roadside if you pick a bad one because of price, your life depends on the quality of their work. And then add in drug companies having a monopoly on a particular drug for several years and you have a handful of pills costing what a house costs locally to me (those hepatitis C drugs are a good example).
Rural areas have been and remain under served in many specialties. There's not enough patients to make competition practical.
Conversely, competition in some metro areas is borderline cut throat and more like to be less costly than a rural area with lower costs of living.
Reimbursement rates ( Medicare and private insurers) and thus premiums are highly variable within and across states by geography. The ratio of providers: population, beds: population, insurers and number and type of claims made all matter.
Anthem doesn't have to follow Medline guidelines. What happened here is that Anthem got approval for this in four states that are notorious for lack of oversight of insurers. It's unconscionable, they are paying claims based on the diagnosis not the symptoms that caused the person to go to the ER and this is part of the argument against allowing insurers to use the rules of one state for policies sold across the US, if they could then I'm sure this policy would be nationwide.
What this means is that if a person presents with chest pain even though they might have a history of heart disease, if it turns out not to be a heart attack they won't pay, and I'm sure they will be very subjective in what they deem "severe bleeding"
Once again, another opportunity to acquaint readers with how each state retains primary responsibility to regulate insurers, beyond the Ten Essential Healthcare Benefits. No two states have the same regulations.
It is one of many major impediments to selling insurance across state lines, contrary to the ignorant proclamations of some politicians and the media that feeds off them.
These are all parts of the ER docs assessment of whether to take on the job/contract or not. Most docs during their career have had to or voluntarily take no payers to some extent.
Indeed. People would be shocked to learn how much many ER practices have to write off as bad debt on an annual basis.
I don't specifically recall her cap, but that sounds about right.
I'm almost embarrassed to say that her OOP for 2017 was negative! In a few months my accountant will be looking it all over. The bills are incredibly complicated. She paid very little OOP in year 2017, and we received more 'refunds' if you can believe it, than what she paid in OOP. It could be that the insured year is offset from 2017. My accountant will figure that out.
If I recall, your wife's health was a tad iffy before the horrible accident. I can imagine how complex billing/ reimbursement/ reconciliation is.
Indeed. People would be shocked to learn how much many ER practices have to write off as bad debt on an annual basis.
One big reason in AZ hospitals kicked in $250M to help push through Medicaid expansion. Lower reimbursements, but fewer no payers.
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