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[News] $1.1 million hospital bill
- Thread starter bha100
- Start date
I too am not an expert on the US System but I had to look into it a bit for a client who is a British Diplomat and moves around the Globe a bit for work.
In the UK - The NIC that people pay is what gets designated towards the NHS Healthcare that we all enjoy here. When you don't work, and claim benefits, you get your Annual NIC Credits paid on your behalf hence why we all qualify whether we work or not.
In the Netherlands and most other EU Countries, you can't live there without Private Healthcare. When you become employed. Your Employer is obliged to pay into a Private healthcare Policy on your behalf. So instead of the Government deducting NIC from you. The employer deducts Private Healthcare payments and pays the contributions over to a Private Healthcare provider who will then cover you when you are ill and settle any healthcare costs. If you can't work then you get covered by Private Healthcare Providers that the Government pays on behalf of these people. The Successive Government themselves in those countries decides on how much it pays into these Private Healthcare Providers and of course some years there will be shortfalls which it will have to make up in future years.
The US from what I believe is very different and I and this is where my knowledge falls down - It is not Compulsory for Employers to deduct Private Healthcare cover so many people are not covered. There is no system in place to cover the Unemployed and as such Hospitals will provide no more than Compulsory Care. Anything more provided then the individual will get a Bill for the balance. And if they have Outstanding Health Care Bills then future Salaries earned then the Health Care Provider can Garnish wages for the remainder of your life.
Correct
He did eventually get it through Both Houses but he had to beg and scrape to quite a few Republican Senators to get it passed. Trump has slowly but surely begun to systematically dismantle it.
Obamacare has it's flaws but it has saved the lives of thousands of people and provided basic health care for poorer people who previously had no Healthcare whatsoever.
SeagullinExile
Well-known member
Dirty Money - Season 1, episode 3 - 'Drug Short'
Gives a bit of an insight into some of the madness in this industry over the pond. Unbelievable shit!
Edit: On Netflix btw.
schmunk
Why oh why oh why?
This was originally the idea, but these days taxation is just a big slush fund from which the various spends are made - in the same way that "road tax"(VED) doesn't pay for the upkeep of roads.
Juan Albion
Chicken Sniffer 3rd Class
A little dated, but still one of Michael Moore's finest moments, even if he was cashing in on the man's problems himself.
hart's shirt
Well-known member
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature in the 2007 Oscars.
Well worth a watch in the current climate.
"Deleted American health care scenes include an uninsured woman who was offered a 50% discount for treatment of spinal cancer.
She still could not afford the initial consultations, so she held a fundraiser to pay for it.
After the initial visit, the 50 percent discount was revoked when the hospital discovered that she had obtained the money to pay for her treatment through fundraising, which the hospital considered to be earned income."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko
Well worth a watch in the current climate.
"Deleted American health care scenes include an uninsured woman who was offered a 50% discount for treatment of spinal cancer.
She still could not afford the initial consultations, so she held a fundraiser to pay for it.
After the initial visit, the 50 percent discount was revoked when the hospital discovered that she had obtained the money to pay for her treatment through fundraising, which the hospital considered to be earned income."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko
Jim Van Winkle
Well-known member
Ah, the American healthcare system AKA a ****ing minefield.
The majority of US employers will offer one of the two following options:
Insurance - you will be offered health insurance at different rates depending on how many people in you family you’re insuring e.g yourself, you and spouse, you, spouse and kids. Your premium will be deducted from your pay. Depending how good your insurance is you may have a co-pay/deductable of zero, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% of the bill after it has gone to the insurance company.
Health Savings Account (HSA) - you put tax free $$$ into a HSA. This plan is great if you’re someone that does not get sick. However, if you do get sick you’re expected to cover up to say $5000 for a family out of pocket for the year. The plan maybe tiered so after $4000 out of pocket you pay 20% of the bill. After you have spent $5000 then 100% of the future bills for the year will be covered. If you don’t spend your HSA $$$ for the year they can be rolled over.
Before Obamacare you weren’t obliged to get healthcare. Obamacare forced a lot of poor people to get policy’s they could not afford into buying health insurance. Then when doing their taxes they would be fined for not having health insurance. As ever the right didn’t like having more government interference in their life’s.
The majority of US employers will offer one of the two following options:
Insurance - you will be offered health insurance at different rates depending on how many people in you family you’re insuring e.g yourself, you and spouse, you, spouse and kids. Your premium will be deducted from your pay. Depending how good your insurance is you may have a co-pay/deductable of zero, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% of the bill after it has gone to the insurance company.
Health Savings Account (HSA) - you put tax free $$$ into a HSA. This plan is great if you’re someone that does not get sick. However, if you do get sick you’re expected to cover up to say $5000 for a family out of pocket for the year. The plan maybe tiered so after $4000 out of pocket you pay 20% of the bill. After you have spent $5000 then 100% of the future bills for the year will be covered. If you don’t spend your HSA $$$ for the year they can be rolled over.
Before Obamacare you weren’t obliged to get healthcare. Obamacare forced a lot of poor people to get policy’s they could not afford into buying health insurance. Then when doing their taxes they would be fined for not having health insurance. As ever the right didn’t like having more government interference in their life’s.
Dorset Seagull
Once Dolphin, Now Seagull
I purchase through a lot of US companies and its very rare if they don't **** the order up!
Doonhamer7
Well-known member
- Jun 17, 2016
- 1,454
When working overseas I was told never talk about religion, politics or sex (or guns if in USA). Therefore ignoring all this when I last chatted about healthcare when i was in the states (it was Texas) it was at the time Obama was standing for election so c2008, it was shocking what educated Americans thought. So they told me that the NHS had ‘death panels’ which decided if you got treated or not. That you had to wait weeks just to see a GP and so on. Turns out this is what the media told them. So I asked how much was medical insurance- I’m sure they said $800-1000 per month for a family with a $2500 excess. We the chatted about other benefits And they said no one should get anything from the state when not working. I then had an argument with another senior manager about guns and why he had a concealed one on him all the time, he then made a big thing about stabbings in the UK, I said I could run away from someone with a knife. We then had lively discussions on donating large money to the church, didn’t go down well. I gave up when discussing over Obama s MCCain, when a regional director (from a southern state)said to me that Obama couldn’t get elected and if he did he’d be dead in a month!! Been back to states 20 times since now never discuss religion, politics, guns - not worth it
I mis-worded it - I should have said that the NIC is what qualifies people for Benefits and Healthcare
I know that it isn't separated out ''in house'' per head of population in the ratio that it is collected.
AZ Gull
@SeagullsAcademy @seagullsacademy.bsky.social
Prior to Trump being elected President, there were at least 70 attempts by Republicans in the House to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) - Efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
These, of course, were little more than publicity stunts as President Obama would have vetoed any such legislation crossing his desk.
Trump repeatedly promised that on day one of his administration, he would ask Congress to deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.
Trump duly won the 2016 election, of course, and the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate. And the result? A complete ****ing failure to repeal Obamacare due to infighting in the Republican party.
Fact-checking Trump's 'repeal and replace' Obamacare timeline
I'm not into party politics but that has to go down as one of the most inept political failures in the history of the world.
As an American, I can tell you that the healthcare system in this country is an atrocity against its peoples.
Any attempts at MEANINGFUL evolution have been blocked in the name of "freedom" and "choice".
The insurance companies are heavily invested in lobbying and nothing will change anytime soon.
The same people crying about "socialist death panels for grandma" when Obama and co. got the Affordable Care Act through are the same people who nowadays say "sorry your grandma has to die from COVID but it's just the cost we have to accept to start the economy"
The concept of secret negotiations between insurers and hospitals, such that they all agree a separate price on each individual service, is completely absurd.
The concept of out-of-network and surprise billing is completely absurd.
So many aspects are completely absurd.
A recent example I faced:
My primary care physician wrote me for an Xray. I called my insurance to ensure that the facility I was getting the Xray done at was "in-network" for my insurance, which they insisted it was.
I got a bill for over $200.
When looking into it, I was charged a fee for the xray and a separate fee from the radiologist who read the xray.
The radiologist who read the xray is a "contractor" for the hospital who is not "in-network" under my insurance, so my insurance billed as out-of-network and paid nothing.
He works part time. There is no way to have known I would have received two bills, nor even that I had to check not only the facility but the doctors at the facility. It wouldn't have mattered, because he works part time he doesn't show up in the doctors' list.
When I called and asked how I could have possibly known who would be reading my xray, they agreed, then said you still have to pay.
Another example:
I was hospitalized last year.
The hospital bill came to ~$30,000.
The amount insurance paid the hospital was ~$4,000 because of the number of things "disallowed" meaning that my insurance company and the hospital have previously had negotiations and determined a maximum amount payable for each service, so they simply said "NO" to paying $26,000.
I ended up paying 10% of the $4,000 = $400. But if I did not have insurance
I would have been stuck with the full $30,000 bill.
Mental.
Any attempts at MEANINGFUL evolution have been blocked in the name of "freedom" and "choice".
The insurance companies are heavily invested in lobbying and nothing will change anytime soon.
The same people crying about "socialist death panels for grandma" when Obama and co. got the Affordable Care Act through are the same people who nowadays say "sorry your grandma has to die from COVID but it's just the cost we have to accept to start the economy"
The concept of secret negotiations between insurers and hospitals, such that they all agree a separate price on each individual service, is completely absurd.
The concept of out-of-network and surprise billing is completely absurd.
So many aspects are completely absurd.
A recent example I faced:
My primary care physician wrote me for an Xray. I called my insurance to ensure that the facility I was getting the Xray done at was "in-network" for my insurance, which they insisted it was.
I got a bill for over $200.
When looking into it, I was charged a fee for the xray and a separate fee from the radiologist who read the xray.
The radiologist who read the xray is a "contractor" for the hospital who is not "in-network" under my insurance, so my insurance billed as out-of-network and paid nothing.
He works part time. There is no way to have known I would have received two bills, nor even that I had to check not only the facility but the doctors at the facility. It wouldn't have mattered, because he works part time he doesn't show up in the doctors' list.
When I called and asked how I could have possibly known who would be reading my xray, they agreed, then said you still have to pay.
Another example:
I was hospitalized last year.
The hospital bill came to ~$30,000.
The amount insurance paid the hospital was ~$4,000 because of the number of things "disallowed" meaning that my insurance company and the hospital have previously had negotiations and determined a maximum amount payable for each service, so they simply said "NO" to paying $26,000.
I ended up paying 10% of the $4,000 = $400. But if I did not have insurance
I would have been stuck with the full $30,000 bill.Mental.
Jim Van Winkle
Well-known member
As an American, I can tell you that the healthcare system in this country is an atrocity against its peoples.
Any attempts at MEANINGFUL evolution have been blocked in the name of "freedom" and "choice".
The insurance companies are heavily invested in lobbying and nothing will change anytime soon.
The same people crying about "socialist death panels for grandma" when Obama and co. got the Affordable Care Act through are the same people who nowadays say "sorry your grandma has to die from COVID but it's just the cost we have to accept to start the economy"
The concept of secret negotiations between insurers and hospitals, such that they all agree a separate price on each individual service, is completely absurd.
The concept of out-of-network and surprise billing is completely absurd.
So many aspects are completely absurd.
A recent example I faced:
My primary care physician wrote me for an Xray. I called my insurance to ensure that the facility I was getting the Xray done at was "in-network" for my insurance, which they insisted it was.
I got a bill for over $200.
When looking into it, I was charged a fee for the xray and a separate fee from the radiologist who read the xray.
The radiologist who read the xray is a "contractor" for the hospital who is not "in-network" under my insurance, so my insurance billed as out-of-network and paid nothing.
He works part time. There is no way to have known I would have received two bills, nor even that I had to check not only the facility but the doctors at the facility. It wouldn't have mattered, because he works part time he doesn't show up in the doctors' list.
When I called and asked how I could have possibly known who would be reading my xray, they agreed, then said you still have to pay.
Another example:
I was hospitalized last year.
The hospital bill came to ~$30,000.
The amount insurance paid the hospital was ~$4,000 because of the number of things "disallowed" meaning that my insurance company and the hospital have previously had negotiations and determined a maximum amount payable for each service, so they simply said "NO" to paying $26,000.
I ended up paying 10% of the $4,000 = $400. But if I did not have insurance
Mental.
I hope you’re feeling better now.
Crazy how health care is tied to a job, especially now 44 million people are unemployed.
Like you said with the lobbyists and medical companies in bed together a single payer system is a long way off.
Also, the number #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical debt.
We provide healthcare insurance for our staff in the US at no cost to the employee which is apparently quite unusual, but helps us attract people. One of my guys recently left us without having another job to go to - his biggest concern was not having healthcare cover so he looked into getting his own insurance. The premium was over $3000 per month..........
Lower West Stander
Well-known member
Yep - its like banging your head against a brick wall.
The thing that's gets me is that many who display those attitudes are intelligent, educated people. The US is one of the most insular nations on earth, driven by the conception that no country could ever do anything better than they do. And this is underpinned by a very nasty type of jingoism - you only have to listen to the words of the national anthem and the fact that some member of the military has to be applauded before the start of pretty much every single NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB game.