I’m Canadian. And I’m already sorry for asking an ignorant question.
I know you have to pay for hospital visits in the states. I know lower economic status can come with lower access to birth control and sex education. But then, how do they afford to give birth? Do people ever avoid hospital visits because they don’t feel like they can’t afford it?
Do hospitals put people on a payment plan? Is it possible to give birth and not pay if you don’t have the means? How does it work in the states?
How does it all work?
Again. Canadian. And sorry.
Ah… In short… Insurance covers a portion of it and whatever insurance doesn’t pay, I just… Simply don’t pay it. It goes to collections and they spam call me and I don’t answer my phone. Suddenly they give up and after 7 years, it’s gone. Is it right? I don’t know. I definitely haven’t devoted half of my paycheck to medical bills though.
Does that bork your credit?
Yes it does
That seems like an unfair and inescapable conundrum.
“Should’ve thought of that before you had kids while poor” -Republicans
“if you thought about it though and decided not to, too bad, we’ve decided for you that you must go through with it”
-Also Republicans
“And this is our plan to have a steady supply of impoverished, under educated people to make into wage slaves, military killbots, and to bolster the for-profit prison system!”
Once I got some physical therapy bills sent to collections. It wasn’t because I failed to pay. The practice was really shitty about billing and record keeping and never billed me for a bunch of visits. They went under and sent their records over to collections.
The collectors called me and pretty much opened with “this place went out of business. We would settle for pretty much anything. How about 10% of what you owe?”
They get a percentage of everything they collect so you might think they’d go for the full amount. But I think the game is sometimes just “what can we get easily and quickly.”