4 ms·
Bottom line is that if you're middle class and don't have health insurance, a serious accident could bankrupt you. The system was designed with the idea that y
by a5seo 15y ago
Bottom line is that if you're middle class and don't have health insurance, a serious accident could bankrupt you. The system was designed with the idea that you don't exist, and would never actually pay the rack rates that hospitals charge.
Planet Money had some good coverage of the joke that is medical billing a couple of years ago:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/06/128338526/ex-ambulance-driver-tries-squeezing-cash-from-health-insurance-companies http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/06/128338526/ex-ambul...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/01/128243987/medical-billing-is-a-hassle http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/01/128243987/medical-...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/11/podcast_paying_doctors.html http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/11/podcast_paying_doctor...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/08/the_wild_wild_west_of_health_c.html http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/08/the_wild_wild_west_of...
- llimllib 15y agoThis econtalk podcast with the CEO of a hospital system in St. Louis is also very enlightening: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/12/lipstein_on_hos.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/12/lipstein_on_hos.htm...
- tomjen3 15y agoActually you simply offer to pay whatever they would have gotten from the insurance company -- they are likely to get even less if they sue you into bankruptcy.
- snorkel 15y agoI don't understand why an uninsured patient who pays out of pocket can not dispute the charges and prove that the price has been fraudulently inflated due to "cost shifting".
- a5seo 15y agoYou can /try/ to negotiate, but you don't have much leverage after the fact. If your BATNA is going bankrupt, you get into a game of brinksmanship. Should you really have to threaten to declare bankruptcy to settle a hospital bill?