Is this a joke I am too not-American to understand?
Yeah. The bill is real but st judes is a charity hospital. Joking the only way to pay his debt is rob a charity
I still don’t get it. Is 100k the bill or his account balance after the bill was payed? And if it is the bill why is it listed under “other adjustments”?
I think 100k is the amount he still owes. Looks like he had a follow up or something that added $250 and insurance covered $175. Context is he had a seizure in the shower and was in the hospital for a month. A lot of plans you have co insurance after hitting your deductible where you split any further costs with the insurance company say 80/20. So it’s possible he only ends up paying $20k of that, or his bill was much higher and $100k is what he owes after co insurance
Usually there’s still an out of pocket max, like $5000.
But I guess that could depend on your insurance
It’s such a scam and the people voting against universal care are the same ones who complain they don’t go to the doctor because it’s too expensive
Most of the people voting against universal healthcare are comfortably middle class and want to protect their ~premium coverage~ or they’re on Medicare. Few people struggling to afford healthcare even vote lol
And tons and tons are poor in red srates
No, most of the poor in red states don’t vote. That’s universally true across the country - there’s a small minority that do, but they’re not the ones stopping universal healthcare. It’s business owners, landlords, wealthy blue collar workers, farmers, and retirees.
This myth that the poor vote for their own oppression is something made up to make you hate poor people.
Man I (as a german) often trash on the german insurance plan but from my perspective this is just insanity!
We also think that, unfortunately the poorest white Americans would rather die than risk giving insurance to minorites. So we have this system.
Oh, here’s another fun fact for you: an ambulance ride can be so prohibitively expensive that many people actively avoid calling 911 for fear of having to pay the ambulance bill. This results in people experiencing medical emergencies either: (a) driving themselves to the hospital while having their emergency, which is incredibly dangerous; (b) opting to call a ride share like Uber or Lyft instead; or © not doing anything at all and hoping the emergency resolves itself.
The hospital is charging the patient $100k. This is what’s left of the patients “tab”.
Normally a kid isn’t going to a children’s hospital unless they’re super sick, think cancer etc. So they probably had an office visit and the other adjustments is their prior balance or something.
American healthcare is a fucking joke.
I’m so lucky that I live in a country where it’s covered and I don’t have to worry if i get sick.
Yeah I’m about to lose my healthcare for 4 months I’m pretty nervous. Gunna get a physical and my teeth cleaned before it runs out but still a lot can go wrong. Wife’s grandpa was telling me he’s on a pill that’s $10,000 a month if you don’t have insurance
Thanks Martin Shkreli. (Idk how to embed links on this app yet. Kinda embarrassing.)
Edit: let’s see what happens
Thanks again! Wefwef(voyager) doesn’t have that nice little “?”
There’s a little question mark that shows you formatting when you reply it takes you here it’s goes [text] (link) without the spaces
Cheers!
[text](link)
He should ask for an itemized bill. Then he might only owe 50 grand…
Somebody should make a law to make itemized bills obligatory for hospitals, but I guess that counts as communism as well 🤷
And as we all know, if it isn’t Randian Anarcho-capitalism, then it’s Communism, baby!
Here’s my American Healthcare story:
- snap finger bone, go to urgent care to get splint
- pay 50ish dollars that day
- 2 months later, get bill for 200 dollars
- ahah! everyone says to ask for an itemized bill! do that
- get itemized bill back that claims the 200 charge is for ‘visiting with a doctor with knowledge of medical history’ (paraphrasing)
- contest charge because I did not see a doctor, and splinting a snapped finger does not require any fucking context at all
- get runaround for 2 months, while being threatened with late fees
- finally they say they will adjust the bill
- get new bill for $201, ‘for a visit that did not include a doctor’ (no fucking joke)
welcome the USA, where healthcare operations are scams
(these are just 2 of the scams in my state, thanks to shell companies when one is shut, another opens)
edit: and in case anyone thinks I paid that shit, I didn’t. I sent them a polite version of a ‘fuck you’ reply. Then covid hit and I never heard from them again.
Mine was when I cut the tip of my finger off… Bottle broke and sliced my middle finger from the middle of the nail down to the corner. Only thing holding it on was the nail itself. I go to urgent care because it’s closer than the hospital. The doc soaks it in iodine and alcohol, checks for glass, then says he can stitch or glue it. He opts for glue. I get a wrap and splint to protect it, “keep it dry and unwrap it in a few weeks to make sure it took.” Couple weeks go by and I get a bill. $8,000 for superglue and a bandage! A little less than 1/4 of what I made in a year at the time. Best part? “Payment in full is expected one month from receipt.”
Fucking greedy bastards…
My mom called 911 a few years ago and got taken to a local hospital by the ambulance that showed up. Charged $2500 just for the ambulance ride. The hospital she went to had its own associated ambulance service, not the company that actually took her; my mom ended up getting another bill from this associated ambulance service for $2800 despite the fact that they literally did nothing at all. I almost had to tie my mom up in the basement to prevent her from paying this second bill out of pocket.
Meanwhile, I was hospitalized due to covid and bronchitis combo, paid less than 20 dollars because Government covered all my ass.
And I am in a third world country.
Heres mine:
Emergency root canal.
How much does this cost?
Idk.
What will my insurance cover?
Idk.
I need1500 now 1500 after.
Ok please make it stop.
3 months later get a bill already in collections for 3000.
Credit score goes up 30 points
Thats my favorite when the due date is always a few days before the letter arrived and its in collections the first time Ive seen it
Meanwhile in austria even the dentist is covered
The UK used to have that. This year, 98-99% of NHS dentists shut down or became private. Conservatives, eh?
No big deal. You have until August. Just skip the avocado toast until then and you’ll be fine.
Idk they might have to skip Starbucks for a day or 2 also and that’s just not really fair, ya know?
Oooh, yeah, I didn’t consider that.
St Jude’s is a charity hospital that does not charge patients or their families. They accept insurance payments only and the rest is covered as charity.
AKA the only way an American can afford to live.
what the hell is “other adjustments”???
Free money!
That’s kind tone deaf, considering st Jude’s doesn’t believe in charging families.
Edit : tone
The joke is that he’s robbing a charity…
It’s a lame joke.
Nobody said comedy was easy.
American health care is fucked. That said:
I watched a promo for St Jude a few years back. They cover all expenses for families so they can focus on their kids. You should donate. They’re awesome.
I feel like it’s a no win situation.
Here in Canada, my coworker has needed back surgery since last year in September. He just got into a specialist for a consultation last week to get surgery scheduled. He’s been living for almost an entire year on light duty at work with back pain.
I feel over the past 10 years our Government has mismanaged their financials and our healthcare and education systems have taken the beating for it. Public services are only as good as the people who are trusted to safeguard them.
That’s still better, cause if I needed back surgery I’d just suck it up because I know (see OP photo) is waiting for me if I do go
Unless I have money for good insurance.
Sounds like your coworker is getting healthcare.
In America he’d just suffer for the rest of his life and then off himself when he was too old to handle the pain and still work.
That’s what happens when people vote the Conservatives in. They fuck up healthcare funding, and quality goes down the drain. Then the Liberals do fuck all to restore funding and fix it, and over time it just gets worse.
And I’d argue that Conservatives are trying to balance the budget after the Liberals reckless spending habits. Though the older I get the more I start to believe that that is what they want. You and me fighting over left and right when they both are there just to serve their own needs.
They don’t balance the budget, they haven’t in decades. All they do now is enrich their donors and friends. If they really wanted to balance the budget they would raise taxes on the rich, not cut essential services.
In America, similar wait times for specialists/surgeries are common as well. You just also have to pay for them. My grandma’s husband has been waiting years for a hip replacement which keeps getting rescheduled. My husband is scheduled for a colonoscopy 2 months from now. It normally would be free/low cost under insurance, since it is “preventative,” but in his case it is a follow up check for a health problem which he has to get done every three years as a man in his 30’s, so insurance no longer considers it “preventative.” Therefore it will cost about $2500 after insurance (which he also pays for.) It’s just ridiculous. Also the $2500 is only a ballpark figure based on the last time he had this done; there is no way to get anyone to tell you exactly how much a procedure will cost. They bill you afterwards, and it will change based on different “variables.” It’s sometimes difficult to even get them to tell you how much an office visit will cost. They do this so that you cannot shop around. Usually you will get several different bills at different times, for things like labs, fees, etc. Nobody in the process makes it transparent how many bills you will get. Some places are shadier than others, and will add fees that you shouldn’t have even incurred, and you then have to call and ask for an itemized list to fight it, which is not normally provided. Most people don’t bother to call, and end up owing thousands that go to collections, messing up their credit.
That makes me so incredibly sad to hear. I had a small sliver of hope that there would be a trade off with speed vs the cost, but it sounds like you will get medical attention no quicker than I would.
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That’s actually really good to know I was debating whether COBRA was worth it
Thank you for this message. I agree, and this is what my family has had for about 16 years. $250/month for a family of 3 with 2 adults well over 50. Everything about it is great, and they deliver my prescription to my home.
It is when I see this that I am grateful for having been born in a country with 100% public and universal health
Privatized healthcare is immoral.
Insurance companies are a joke. I hate it here. I worked at a certain restaurant for years who make an entire thing out of getting donations for St. Judes a few weeks a year. What are we donating for if people still get bills like this?
This isn’t a bill from st judes but you should know you were just soliciting a tax write off for your company. That’s why they do that stuff
I had a medical emergency yesterday that may me realize how lucky I am to live in Canada.
I’m getting weekly immunotherapy allergy shots (which are also covered by the free healthcare here) and I had a bad reaction to a shot. They needed to give me 2 epipens and some ventilator drug and stretchered me in an ambulance to the hospital where I waited about 5-10 min (I was stable at this point) for a private room. They kept me there for like 4 hours with IV drip and prescribed me another EpiPen.
Total cost was 0 with no questions asked. I know for non life threatening injuries like broken bones you might be waiting a few hours to get in, but I’d rather it be like that then have the possibility of going in massive debt.
As an American I never understood the “you have to wait longer in Canada” argument. My sibling almost cut off a few of their fingers and was bleeding profusely and had to wait with a rag around their fingers for almost 4 hours in the ER before they got seen. This is in the US. I’ve had past partners waiting in large amounts of pain for upwards of 10 hours in the ER too (thankfully I brought some bugles to snack on). It’s a problem in general, I’d rather it at least be free
For sure, it’s definitely not perfect here, for example I’m on a year long waitlist for surgery for a deviated septum. But from what I’ve heard they get you in fast if it’s life threatening. I think in my case anaphylaxis can be life threatening so they got me in fast even though I was stable. We also have the option of paying for surgeries privately anyway if we don’t want to wait.
I know for non life threatening injuries like broken bones you might be waiting a few hours to get in, but I’d rather it be like that then have the possibility of going in massive debt.
It’s not as if waiting times here in the US are any better. (In fact, they can be worse, since the profit motive has e.g. been causing rural ERs to close entirely.)
Make no mistake: us here in the States aren’t choosing to pay more to get better healthcare; we’re being forced to pay more to get absolutely fuck-all in return except for the unjust enrichment of insurance industry middlemen.
Interesting, I never realized it was also that slow to get in for the States. To be fair it’s not perfect here, surgery wait times can be really bad. I’m on a year long waitlist for deviated septum surgery and my dad waited quite a long time for a hip replacement and he was in a ton of pain everyday. But the thing is we also have the option to pay to get it done privately.
It’s not “private healthcare”, it’s the complete lack of any healthcare system in US. In Canada for example, many hospitals are private and you don’t see them complaining about it.
When the state spends more on giving money to oil companies than creating a working healthcare system you know that country is fucked.
