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Serious question: Why were these bills paid by the son who would have no financial obligation in the case of his mother's bankruptcy? America's health care sa
by thatthatis 13y ago
Serious question: Why were these bills paid by the son who would have no financial obligation in the case of his mother's bankruptcy?
America's health care safety net is bankruptcy and the 'cannot refuse critical treatment based on ability to pay' role of emergency rooms.
Seems the right course to take in these situations is to string along the hospitals until it ends up in bankruptcy and only pay out of pocket from the next generation when a deposit is required before care will be given. I don't like it, but that's the way the system works currently.
Edited to add: I'm clearly ignorant of some of the mechanics here, so longer explanations of how things work with illnesses like this would be very much appreciated.
- EGreg 13y agoYes I hope there will be some discussion around this!
- altero 13y agoI would say naive folk fucked by the system. In Europe it is kind of similar, but not as bad. My relative has non-lethal cancer. It was diagnosed by private doctor and waiting list for operation is a few months. So he called ambulance and went to public hospital with 'unknown pain'. The very same doctor (who also work in public hospital) diagnosed cancer second time and bumbed him on top of the list, since it is an 'emergency'. Just in case someone ask about morals: it is very commom here. This guy has bellow average salary, worked 40 years and got medal for rescuing 5 soldiers in combat.
- whyleyc 13y agoWhere is "here" for you ? Europe has a pretty diverse range of healthcare facilities, varying greatly depending on which country you are in.
- altero 13y agoDoes not really matter, I know similar stories from all over Europe including UK, post-soviet countries and southern states.
- whyleyc 13y agoIt does matter because Europe doesn't have a single homogenous healthcare system so I think it is not as easy to generalise about a "European" system.
- delluminatus 13y agoThere is a very big difference between non-lethal cancer and lethal cancer. "Treating" a late-stage cancer is an order of magnitude more expensive than treating a cancer that was diagnosed early.
- altero 13y agoYet there is a waiting list...
- lotsofmangos 13y agoAll hospitals have to do triage, you just hope they do it on the basis of cost rather than profit.
- meritt 13y agoBecause on-going treatment for a terminally-ill patient is not something the hospital will continue to do without being paid. They would cut her off.
- bippi 13y agoYeah, but they usually allow some level of payment or some time period before they call it late.
- carbocation 13y agoI have never seen that in the United States. Where is that true?
- ars 13y agoNo they won't. The people doing the treatment and the billing department don't talk to each other. She might not be able to be transferred to another hospital if there are outstanding bills, but once inside the hospital they can't refuse to treat. Plus this is exactly why medicaid exists. She would qualify easily.
- benched 13y agoSince I see people suggesting Medicaid all over the thread. It seems there is a basic pervasive misunderstanding of government services in the US. For anyone who doesn't realize it, it is very difficult to qualify for Medicaid. Even if you miraculously qualify for it objectively, which can be derailed if you own anything or you or someone in your immediate family has an income, but even if you should qualify, the nuts and bolts process of applying, documenting, and in some cases liquidating your assets can be so daunting that it's common for people to hire lawyers just for this. If you're already busy dying, it can be fairly discouraging. Good job taking care of your own, Land of Opportunity. Make sure nobody accidentally gets anything unless their back is to the grindstone of capitalism.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- pessimizer 13y agoI don't think you can get treatment for your terminal cancer in the emergency room unless somebody stabbed you in it.
- tptacek 13y agoNo, this is false.
- michaelochurch 13y agoYou might be able to get ER treatment for when the cancer throws a clot and causes a stroke or infarction, but somehow I'm guessing that ERs don't perform chemotherapy and radiation for people who can't pay. Am I wrong on that? Do ERs perform chemotherapy?
- tptacek 13y agoPublic hospitals, for instance, are required to provide indigent/uncompensated care.
- EliAndrewC 13y agoDefinitely, which means that hospitals soak up a lot of uncompensated E.R. costs associated with people whose long term health issues are not being treated. Those hospitals are not required to actually provide that long-term care, e.g. chemotherapy regimens. (Unless you're saying they are, which would be happy news to me, since I understood the situation to be a lot bleaker than that for the uninsured.)
- bippi 13y agoI'm very sad it's come to this, but bankruptcy is what I was thinking. That said, lets start the discussion: a) They're only obligated to provide some treatment (Here's a band-aid for your tumor) to get to stability. That counts, right? ...and that seriously is the case. My aunt who had no insurance had to get a thyroid tumor removed. She got it done, but she had a less-than hospitable stay. Normally you get a day or two monitoring. She got...well... "Here's your homecare". I have to wonder b) I've noticed they've gotten very good about seeing if you can pay or not. I don't know how legal it is, but like my elective birth control procedure was cash-n-carry (in a reputable clinic, even). My wife going to the ER got a scan of the discover card on admission.
- kendalk 13y ago> Here's your homecare I read on the news this morning that the administration is proposing to cut homecare by 40%. I did a double-take when I read that. Unless the article I read got it wrong, a lot of people are going to be hurt. I lost my Mom to cancer this past September.
- veidr 13y agoI went through a similar thing. My mom had advanced ovarian cancer ten years ago, and even though she 'had insurance' in the American sense of the phrase then, when you added up the things they didn't pay for, it was thousands of dollars a month, punctuated by five-figure expenses here and there. (Spoiler alert: I spent all my savings, went $100k into debt, and then she died.) I think there is a misconception about the health care you get in the USA if you are broke and uninsured/underinsured. They will set your broken bones, they will amputate a gangrenous limb, they will do what they need to do in order to prevent you from dying today in their hospital. But you certainly won't have an easy time scheduling a consultation with the specialist who is treating patients with that new cutting-edge chemotherapy compound with less violent side effects, or obtaining long-term treatment to suppress multiple sclerosis episodes, etc. The son pays the bills because otherwise his mom will probably have to suffer more and will probably die sooner.
- ars 13y agoSo why not apply for medicaid or medical assistance, or whatever it's called in your state? That's what it's for!
- delluminatus 13y agoThe problem is that cancer treatments are extremely expensive and not usually very effective. Believe me; the hospital is not pulling these charges from thin air. The right course to take is avoid contracting cancer for as long as possible, and if you do get cancer, to find and treat it ASAP. If you do get late-stage cancer, you can pay for a drug and treatment regimen that may provide you with a few more months of life at great expense to your wallet and your body. This is an American phenomenon; nowhere else in the world do people spend so much money on caring for terminally ill patients.
- clavalle 13y agoCancer, even late stage cancer, can be successfully treated.
- WoodenChair 13y agoYes, I bet this guy is glad he didn't live in a society where they don't rest terminally ill people: http://www.pancan.org/section_stories/story_details.php?id=1902&lang=1#.Uw53gNzXGCY http://www.pancan.org/section_stories/story_details.php?id=1...