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> But it is unfair to have no idea what costs you are facing and whether any of those costs are out of network on your insurance. It's practically impossible t

• nightcracker 8y ago
  Considering she was unconscious she could not possibly have consented to those transactions. What laws exist that allow these companies to unilaterally create these transactions, and what limitations do they have?
  • stdplaceholder 8y ago
    They have literally no limitations. The reason that an advil at the hospital costs $200 is because they were afraid if they made it cost $20000 people would burn down the hospital.
    • mdpopescu 8y ago
      This is the first comment on the page that has something other than "more government regulation" as a solution. Just sayin'.
    • dsfyu404ed 8y ago
      Considering how many people have had their lives ruined by absurd hospital bills I'm honestly surprised nobody's shot one up yet.
      • jopsen 8y ago
        Really, the only surprise is that you didn't Google "hospital shooting", the following hit from Google lists 15 hospital shootings in 2018 alone: https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/tag/hospital_shootings/ https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/tag/hospital_shootings/ I guess you can go look for the motivation, most shootings probably isn't financially motivated thought.
  • giarc 8y ago
    On the flip side, what laws exists to say a hospital can't treat any unconscious person since they can't consent. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
  • gnopgnip 8y ago
    There is an out of pocket maximum of $7350 for 2018(going up to $7900 for 2019) for ACA compatible plans. Many plans have lower out of pocket maximums too. The health insurance company will negotiate and generally pay substantially less than $377k for a $377k bill.
• duxup 8y ago
  Anecdotal illustration time: Both my kids were born early. The medical bills for both totaled (with hospital stays for babies and mom) north of 100k each, the second WAY north. Both involved situations that were "emergency" type situations. We couldn't shop around, we couldn't even sign anything. We trusted the hospitals and doctors and went from there. Fortunately I had good insurance, if for some reason I had to pay it would have been a huge financal burden for years and years. And let's say I did have time to think about it? What then? I'm not a doctor, this isn't shopping for a car... I don't feel like I could possibly know enough about emergency baby birthing, surgery, etc to know... "Gosh honey when the baby's heart rate starts to slow unexpectedly, I think we should save a few bucks".
  • nojvek 8y ago
    Well that’s how they get you. Well it’s your dear ones life. Surely money isn’t an issue right ? Here take this bill that will bankrupt for the rest of your life. The big problem is that every other modern country has this shit sorted out. They don’t bring crippling debt because you got a minor surgery. In US, we are literally murdering people because they are too afraid of what it will cost.
    • dsfyu404ed 8y ago
      >...literally murdering... Literally one of those words is not being used correctly.
  • Verdex_3 8y ago
    I think pregnancy and labor is what's going to finally break the camel's back. Having children is a pretty basic part of being human. And the costs are such that even millionaires are going to feel it. When basically nobody can afford to participate in reproduction, something is going to go sideways. With my "good" insurance, I still ended up with a multi-thousand dollar deductible. Which I thought was problematic until I started hearing about people who have high deductible plans that only make you pay 20% after hitting your deductible. For a 100K bill, 20% is still absurd and especially after you've already paid $2-10K out of pocket.
• cgag 8y ago
  I would imagine regulation is a lot of what stops competing on price like everything else.
  • tivert 8y ago
    > I would imagine regulation is a lot of what stops competing on price like everything else. Say again? Unconscious people don't have the agency to make price competition work, regulation or no. You need to be conscious to comparison shop. You also need lots of time to do so, time you don't have when you're having a heart attack or bleeding out from a severe injury. Regulation isn't the problem here, it's the lack of the right kind of it.
    • cgag 8y ago
      Being conscious or not has little to do with inability to comparison shop for healthcare in general. I wouldn't disagree that what you're talking about should be illegal and I would expect it to already be illegal.