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Anecdotal story, a few years ago my dad had a heart attack. He was self employed, living the american dream so no insurance. He had to stay 2 nights plus ambula
by wonderwonder 8y ago
Anecdotal story, a few years ago my dad had a heart attack. He was self employed, living the american dream so no insurance. He had to stay 2 nights plus ambulance ride. Total bill ~80k. I kid you not, 3 days after he got out my mom shattered her wrist and was taken to emergency surgery. ~40K. They wracked up a bill slightly less than their mortgage in under a week.
Of course they could not pay and the hospital dropped it down to something affordable over a long period of time. How could the hospital expect anyone to pay either of the bills? Don't get me wrong, hospitals and doctors do amazing things and deserve to get paid well, but their has to be some sort of reality applied to the billing process or they are just breaking people.
- novalis78 8y agoA similar motivation got a friend and me started with pricepain.com - but the ACA made us take a step back and see if anything changed / got better... apparently not. Though some of these state bills that try to force more transparency have since pushed the topic a bit further. Still so far from a market place.
- wonderwonder 8y agoChecked out the site, very cool concept. Obviously needs some polish but the idea could be very monetizable if you can get traffic. Nice work.
- olliej 8y agoThat’s easy - medical debt isn’t written off by bankruptcy. So they’re pretty much guaranteed unending money.
- grandmczeb 8y agoAt least in the USA, this isn’t true. Medical debt can be discharged in bankruptcy.
- victor106 8y agoSource? “Medical debt can be completely discharged if you qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy or you can pay it over three to five years through a Chapter 13 repayment plan” https://www.thebalance.com/tactics-to-deal-with-medical-debt-960859 https://www.thebalance.com/tactics-to-deal-with-medical-debt...
- wonderwonder 8y agoParents were US based so Bankruptcy was an option. In the US to the best of my knowledge the only thing not discharged in a Ch. 7 is student loans and debt obtained fraudulently.
- olliej 8y agoOk - I’d swear when I moved here I was told that it was excluded from bankruptcy proceedings (much like student loans) - maybe I misunderstood? Anyway, I’d directly correct my comment but it’s been too long for edits apparently :-/ Upvote the replies :)
- masonic 8y agoliving the american dream so no insurance Since when does "living the dream" mean choosing to go uninsured?
- neffy 8y ago"living the american dream" has indeed started to be used rather sarcastically in foreign parts, for exactly this reason. Your dream, everybody else´s nightmare.
- wonderwonder 8y agoLiving the american dream as in being self employed and attempting to make your mark. America reveres the self starter and the entrepreneur. Unfortunately for small business owners that can often mean not being able to afford insurance. They did not choose to have no insurance, they were poor. Perhaps life choices led them to being poor but to suggest it was a cognizant choice is a little disingenuous.