3 ms·

They have to get you to click the link to find the name so they can get the ad impressions. However, you saved me a click!

lotsofpulp 5y ago
They also have to stir up outrage by falsifying not only how much the person was billed, but also implying that the bill was simply for an x ray.
- Tronno 5y ago
  I'm not sure how 2.5k for an x-ray and antibiotics is anything less than outrageous. Perhaps that's pocket change for this crowd? And that's after insurance. The full price is unthinkable to me - most people would be ruined for years.
  - ars 5y ago
    An x-ray in the US is around $30 if you pay for it yourself. The 2.5K is the article lying to you to get clicks.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    My comment was not intended to indicate whether or not $2.5k is or is not outrageous. The point of my comment is that $69k was apparently deemed to be sufficiently more outrageous and hence clickbait worthy such that it incentivized the writer to lie about the facts.
    - mrguyorama 5y ago
      No. If I go to a hospital and get things done, and do not give them an insurance card, they can send me a bill for whatever numbers they want, and I am legally required to pay that! The fact that you can often negotiate when you have a large debt that you are unlikely to pay does not change the fact that the debt is legitimate
      - lotsofpulp 5y ago
        Sure, but that is not relevant here because the person in the article did not receive a bill for $69k. My comments were strictly about the “journalist” painting the wrong picture about this specific scenario in order to incite emotion, presumably in order to get more people to click.
  - floor2 5y ago
    Because, like every other rage-bait article about healthcare in America, it's a blatant lie. The article states in addition to the x-ray that "the bill included an abdominal CT scan, medication, and two nights in a hospital room". American hospitals are full of multimillion dollar equipment and trained specialists staffed around the clock. "The full price" is a fiction relevant only to negotiation of actual price between providers and government/institutional payers, no individual ever pays that. It's an imaginary number used to start price discovery so that the hospital, insurance companies and critically the government medicare/medicaid program can make some set of concessions and discounts so that in the end everyone comes to a "win-win" agreement.
- chasd00 5y ago
  And there's no way the insurance company paid $66.5K. The dollar amount on the bill is like the opening of the negotiation, it always starts way high and comes down from there. There's a rule that if an insurance company pays the bill you send them then you undercharged.
  - cjrp 5y ago
    It's in the video, the insurance company paid about $8.5k and he paid another $2.5k. So you're absolutely right, that $69k bill turned into $11k pretty quickly.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

They also have to stir up outrage by falsifying not only how much the person was billed, but also implying that the bill was simply for an x ray.

Tronno 5y ago
I'm not sure how 2.5k for an x-ray and antibiotics is anything less than outrageous. Perhaps that's pocket change for this crowd? And that's after insurance. The full price is unthinkable to me - most people would be ruined for years.
- ars 5y ago
  An x-ray in the US is around $30 if you pay for it yourself. The 2.5K is the article lying to you to get clicks.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  My comment was not intended to indicate whether or not $2.5k is or is not outrageous. The point of my comment is that $69k was apparently deemed to be sufficiently more outrageous and hence clickbait worthy such that it incentivized the writer to lie about the facts.
  - mrguyorama 5y ago
    No. If I go to a hospital and get things done, and do not give them an insurance card, they can send me a bill for whatever numbers they want, and I am legally required to pay that! The fact that you can often negotiate when you have a large debt that you are unlikely to pay does not change the fact that the debt is legitimate
    - lotsofpulp 5y ago
      Sure, but that is not relevant here because the person in the article did not receive a bill for $69k. My comments were strictly about the “journalist” painting the wrong picture about this specific scenario in order to incite emotion, presumably in order to get more people to click.
- floor2 5y ago
  Because, like every other rage-bait article about healthcare in America, it's a blatant lie. The article states in addition to the x-ray that "the bill included an abdominal CT scan, medication, and two nights in a hospital room". American hospitals are full of multimillion dollar equipment and trained specialists staffed around the clock. "The full price" is a fiction relevant only to negotiation of actual price between providers and government/institutional payers, no individual ever pays that. It's an imaginary number used to start price discovery so that the hospital, insurance companies and critically the government medicare/medicaid program can make some set of concessions and discounts so that in the end everyone comes to a "win-win" agreement.
chasd00 5y ago
And there's no way the insurance company paid $66.5K. The dollar amount on the bill is like the opening of the negotiation, it always starts way high and comes down from there. There's a rule that if an insurance company pays the bill you send them then you undercharged.
- cjrp 5y ago
  It's in the video, the insurance company paid about $8.5k and he paid another $2.5k. So you're absolutely right, that $69k bill turned into $11k pretty quickly.