Is this an American post im too European to understand?
Yes. Medical care is so batshit insanely expensive in the US that people often drive themselves to the ER in the most dire circumstances because it's more economical to risk dying on the way than to call an ambulance that would basically bankrupt them. I heard that an ambulance can cost upwards of $3000.
Insurance companies put you on a "plan" which means you are paying a hefty sum each month/quarter for dubious pay-off. You always have to pay medical bills yourself if they are below a threshold that is set in your plan, that's the deductible. After reaching that, the insurance company will provide a partial payment of the excess if, and only if, your plan covers it. What matters here is choice of hospital (your insurance of course doesn't cover every hospital), form of treatment (your insurance of course doesn't cover all drugs or treatments), whether it was an emergency or not, etc. It's a scam, but you need to go with it or you risk not getting healthcare at all.
The best part is that it's not even that large of a bill compared to what you can receive after using the insurance that you pay hundreds of dollars every month to have.
Believe it or not, dying is also expensive.
Not to you it isn't
Yeah but you are dead why do you care?
You care about the family you leave behind, that will need to deal with it.
Did you ever vote Republican? If so, that’s why.
The only Republican I ever voted for was Arnold Swartzenegger when he was running for governor of California.
And now I get to have a ferret as a pet legally in this state. So all in all it was a win.
You can have one in Colorado too; no problem there. Plus: skiing, (mostly) better air, hiking everywhere, and multiple brewpubs in every town it seems.
Downsides: The Colorado Rockies are your team, and the first-frost car accidents when Texans and Californians are on the road.
The current president isn't republican and people are still people thousands of dollars for basic procedures.
You do know how creating a bill works, right? House, then Senate, then to the President for signing…? The President doesn’t work by edict - this is a democracy, and all parts need to work together. The Republican-led lower House had for decades been too busy creating chaos and not taking their responsibilities to the American people seriously. They support their donors.
The democrats are just blue Republicans. You people should start voting 3rd parties.
The last healthcare laws were 100% democrats, things that are fucked are that way because of them.
Poor deluded person. Mostly though…poor.
But enjoy your blindness and rage.
It's not like you have much of a choice, lol.
you might have to defeat the entire point of insurance and talk to the hospital yourself
Don't pay. Make them fight you. If we all refuse to pay the system collapses.
I went to the ER, saw a doctor for like 2 minutes, they have me a diagnosis that turned out to be incredibly wrong, prescribed me expensive medicine that I didn't need and wasn't covered by insurance, and costing me a ton on unnecessary specialist visits and tests.
They had the gall to ask me for an extra 2 grand in the mail a few weeks after my visit.
They ain't getting shit.
The charged me $1k after saying literally: "Well I can see something is wrong with it, but it's not broken, so I'm going to give you some Tylenol".
That was 9 years ago. My shoulder has been dislocated ever since.
The hospital sells medical debt at a fraction of the bill to recoup their actual costs, which are often times in the $100 range. The debt collector goes after you for years until you pay, they give up, or a small chance they take you to court, where you pay.
If you don't pay, the debt collectors are only out a fraction of the debt anyway. Frightening one person into paying up pays for 10 people who don't from the debt collector's perspective.
Unfortunately, not paying them is accounted for by the system.
Other than one meal a week I go meatless. This won't end global warming. This is what I can do.
