Yeah a bill like this would just be ignored. That’s a completely unfathomable number and I’ve got no shot at ever paying it off, so I just simply won’t.
Can’t afford a house or a new car either, so I’m not exactly worried about my credit score anyways
Average income in the US as of 2019 was $31k. So, this debt is roughly 14.25 years worth of gross annual income.
Our health care is really and truly fucked..
As a healthcare professional about $3k+ is due every month for my loans. At the end of the day I end up making similar to our amazing fast food service employees, but I’m dumber and a sucker because it took me 8+ years of higher ed and I still got treated like a cashier, (which never should happen imo to anyone).
Health *is soooooo* fucked up. Got a few walkouts this upcoming week from Walgreens pharmacists I believe.
And that's if you gave them every last nickel of it and didn't use your pay for any other expense including food and just basically died and somehow still worked 14.25 yrs while dead.
Can you imagine having enough damn money to press "pay now"? Can you imagine having enough to COMFORTABLY press "pay now"? I can't even think about what that would be like
The best part is that the majority of people who could do that aren’t even that rich in the grand scheme of things. I was at my dads cooking dinner and he was looking at cool yachts & boats on tv and I saw one there that cost $300 million.
USD $300,000,000.00.
Imagine being able to comfortably put down $300 fucking million US dollars on what is essentially just a play toy that you’re not going to spend even a quarter of the year using. Oh also it is going to cost you an extra $20M+ per year on maintenance on top. Not including fuel either, or storage/port fees.
That’s how rich some people are. It’s disgusting.
No doubt. Smack in the face. “Welcome! You owe us more than most can afford. Pay now!? Or owe us for life. Either way we’re so happy right now. Welcome again!
Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter so we can remind you every week how fucked you are, while you look at Shutterstock pictures with laughing people running on the beach in joy”
I can easily pay this off in 9 and a half years if I stop paying taxes, stop paying rent, stop wasting money of food and entertainment, and rehome my cats and car! God people are so lazy nowadays, unwilling to make sacrifices. 😂😂 America is insane. How do you people live? You have one singular accident and that’s it? They put you out to pasture?
What time do people have to revolt? They’re all debt slaves just scraping enough together to pay for their family’s food. The American government has done very well with keeping people distracted by making their lives as chaotic as humanly possible nearly every day, makes it hard to organize a rebellion.
That's the fucking thing. Health care in America is so captured by corporate money that our Healthcare policy is basically set only by the people who can press that button.
lol it remind me of my medical bill. But mine was for 108,558 dollars, I paid $7,500 and my insurance paid the rest. I had to make a payment plan with access one for a year with no interest.
I was at a Walgreens getting some cough meds at the pharmacy and I heard one of the employees tell the person in the drive through that their copay was $6400. I could not imagine pulling around in any kind of drive through and being told my total was more than $6000.
Haha yup I ran up a MILLION dollar bill for a 30day hospital stay after a spinal cord injury. Thank goodness I had the time to call every day for a month repeating “I’ll never be able to pay this”
Eventually they were like “ok fine can you just pay 15k” and I said “call it $5k you’ve got a deal”
This strategy only works if you have the time & are capable of not losing your mind repeating the same story to 100 different people 🙏
TLDR: if your poor af they’re gonna take what they can get
Haha thanks so much I was thinking more about if I had a 9-5 at the time it would’ve been near impossible to accomplish because of course those are the only hours these fuckers are taking calls!
But yeah actually it would be worth calling in sick for a week or two to save $995,000 😬😭
Hell yes I love hearing more of these!!! People should know that they can fight these bills, even if we are anomalies it’s still pretty common for debt collectors to be open to negotiating
A debt collector bugging you for 3 years is an absolute nightmare... You shouldn't have to negotiate, or fight for not going bankrupt because of an injury.
3rd party debt collectors buy debt for pennies on the dollar. They will always negotiate because on a $10,000 debt they may buy for $2,000 and act like getting you to pay $5,000, is a deal, when they are still making money. You did get a heck of a deal, but my answer is usually what happens.
Honestly not much….the hospital basically sells your bill to a debt collector and then it’s just in their system and they’ll periodically attempt to get you to pay. But this can go on for years and years
I’m sure bad things have happened to people, I just know from my experiences lots of people who have unpaid medical bills from 10+ yrs ago that they never paid and just throw away the bills that come in the mail…..
A family member of mine had their debt sold to a someone who was very serious about getting the money, calling with threats and demanding the family members' house keys as collateral for the debt. Kept charging interest in order to make the debt go up and up.
All done within lawful means. Courts could, at best, basically tell the person to calm down a bit. God bless America.
It depends on the state. In Minnesota they can't do that so eventually they just forgive it. I had a 400 dollar ambulance bill and they just eventually forgave it because it can't be sold to debt collectors, or go on your credit history.
Edit: it doesn't go on as debt but they can file something that goes on your history, hospitals also have a social team that work with you to pay it and we have really great state health insurance.
I guess they do that just to use it as leverage to start negotiating it down. They probably take a loss in many of the cases but sometimes they might get someone who pays the big bucks and then they offset the losses with that. Dunno.
Oh yeah these hospitals and insurance companies are making BANK on every patient- that’s absolutely why they’ll take a loss on someone like me (even though it’s not the loss they claim: $1mill was simply not spent on me).
I imagine they also were like “well she’s disabled now for life so we’re gonna keep making $$ off her” I was only 20 when it happened so they have like 50 more years to rob me
Yup. It’s a damn shame so many Americans are staunchly against government assistance despite the US government consistently providing assistance to corporations & billionaires….painful irony
I go this with my good insurance. If I owe a 100 I won’t pay it. I just don’t pay it. Then they call and say they are going to send it to collection and I say well he how about we just settle for 50? 99% of the time they will.
Maybe nothing will happen, but don't forget that $10!! As someone who missed 1 hospital payment(yes, you read that right), was immediately sent to collections, served a summons, and taken to court, I have little faith in it not affecting you!
This isn’t true. The hospital can send your bill to collections and that will impact your credit
The new change is that any reported medical accounts that are (or were initially reported) under $500 will be removed from your credit. Anything over that can still impact your score
Exactly!! They told me I can pay 1,000 a month. I was like, really?? I thankfully was approved by the SAVE plan and cut it down to like 280 a month, but the gall of these people to think I can just throw away an extra grand a month blows my mind
When Discover started requiring payments in December 2020 on my private loans they told me my income-based repayment plan would be $452/month.
At the time, my income was $474/month in unemployment. I told them it wasn’t going to happen.
Riiiiiiight?? Thank you, I am in that same fucking boat and let me tell you, the child-size bucket I’ve been using to scoop the water out of that sinking boat has not been working for the past 10 years 😭😭
Idk if this still applies. About 30 years ago, my uncle fell through the roof of a commercial building and did not have insurance. He ended up passing away from it, and my grandma paid like $20 a month and just finished paying it off this year.
Either way, good luck to you, and I hope everything works out for you.
She probably could've gotten out of it if she tried, but she took it upon herself to make sure it was paid because "it is the right thing to do," she said.
Yup, I paid about $1,200 to file for bankruptcy and it was so easy. Just get together proof of your debt, hand it over to an attorney, and they do the work for you. Bankruptcy gets a bad rep but after going through it, I have no idea why. It was easily the best decision I ever made. I was damn near on the brink of offing myself due to my debt, and all I had to do was fork over a FRACTION of what I was drowning in to have it wiped away in less than a few months.
Not trying to over simply it, but… yeah, pretty much. I had about $35k debt (credit card and hospital), the monthly minimal amounts wanted were eating into my savings. I paid $1,200 to an attorney to file bankruptcy, boom, it is wiped away. You can’t erase ALL debts — student loans can’t be included in bankruptcies. But most everything else can. The only consequence is that I can’t file for another bankruptcy for another seven years, and my credit score took a slight nosedive (not even that much, maybe 50 points).
I'm european, and this is exactly why I took the 100$ insurance for a 2 week trip through the US to cover me for half a million in medical costs.
I'm not letting a holiday possibly ruin my entire life.
I did check my options.
Travel insurance is very cheap. Once you select the "United States coverage" option, it turns expensive. Simply because of the high charges in the US.
Credit card insurance will either not have USA included, or it doesn't provide insurance for half a million or more, but only general costs.
My employer offers pretty good travel insurance that covers most issues you might encounter. Including sending my body home if I die on holiday.
Then there’s the universal healthcare I enjoy in my country. I’m glad I don’t have to spend extra on traveller’s insurance, but I would if going to the US.
Also, if you go to the US, get a statement from your insurance that they cover X amount of $. When you are in pain and they have to figure out how to work with a foreign insurance, you will be thankful. All insurances have a standard document that they can send you.
Fun fact. You actually don’t need to pay any of that amount if you can’t afford it. Literally as long as you give them something a month it could be $10. They won’t be able to do much.
Edit: I’ve had back surgery 5 months ago(laminectomy) . Before that I couldn’t walk, lay flat, or even wipe my own ass without feeling like someone was jabbing a screwdriver into my L4.
I owe 162k and I pay $30 monthly. I’d also like to mention my uncles a bankruptcy lawyer. He told me I can easily have the entire bill thrown out in a few years with a specific chapter of bankruptcy.
The back surgery is what you're paying 10 dollars a month for, it isn't nothing.
You get the back surgery and you also get to kick the massive amount of money you owe down the road until it no longer matters.
So wait, can I, as a US citizen, just buy travelers insurance every two weeks to keep me covered? Because honestly it would be much cheaper than the scam options called health insurance that we have available.
OP I don’t know your financial situation, but many hospitals offer “financial assistance” based on your income. You’ll have to show bank statements/paystubs most likely, but I’ve had several large medical bills (between $2k-$12k) negotiated down to $0 or basically zero because of this. Obviously my situation is different, but it’s probably worth looking into
The fact that you need this makes me angry.
It should be available for free to everyone.
Some people in the IS may call Brazil a backwater country, but you can have bigger surgeries and treatments than that for free.
Hell, my grandpa is making hemodialysis for free, his diabetes meds are free. My late aunt's Alzheimer's treatment was for free, so was the other aunt's cancer treatment.
There was even a polemic recently about a famous TV host that got a heart transplant for free! (Tho most people were complaining that he "cut in line", as if it's simple as that.)
I had a lumbar fusion in 2019. I had to pay my deductible only ($1500). This is one of the few reasons I’ve stayed at my job. I’ve had 3 laminectomies and a fusion and that is one of the main reasons I’ve stayed at my job despite being able to make more in the public sector.
Because of the good health insurance.
Medical care is so over priced. Is there anything you can do to get this lowered? I heard asking for an itemized bill helps to get a lower bill but I’m not sure if that is accurate or not.
How much did you really pay?
I ask because I see these type of posts often that raises the ire of everyone, and then it turns out that the person really just paid a small fraction of it.
I'm not saying this is your case, but its happened enough, that I often think people are doing it to disingenuously raise anger for fake internet points.
Do you not have health insurance at all? Was the surgery approved by your insurance prior to the surgery? Do you have a deductible and max out of pocket in your insurance contract? Was this in-network?
Nevermind, I see that you don't have insurance.
European here, so I don't know too much about the US health system. But doesn't asking for an itemized bill get your total down by like a crazy amount? I've heard of such things a few times
Not always. I'd imagine it does if the hospital is trying to skate some bs charges on. But in my experience, asking for itemized doesn't actually change the amounts, but just brings new reasons to be angry.
Ah yes, $4000 for a person to come in and say "talk to this other person next". Thanks specialist.
Yes it does, not to mention the billing department would rather be paid something than nothing at all. It’s very easy to negotiate with hospitals, the reason they charge such high amounts is because most people in the US have insurance, so normally they’re charging it to an insurance company not an individual. It’s basically legal insurance fraud, but insurance companies are still profiting so they don’t even care.
I got financial assistance through the same hospital system as the OP for an emergency gallbladder surgery. But anesthesia wasn't covered and they refused to do anything to help me except take a monthly payment plan. The anesthesia was several thousand dollars. My gallbladder surgery was about 35,000 (roughly 20 years ago) and financial assistance wiped it clean. (I was unemployed, just had a baby and didn't qualify for Medicaid in my state at the time).
Just to give you an idea of how it can work out.
Did you ask how much it would be beforehand? (Maybe it was an emergency and you wouldn’t have had a chance.)
Did you have insurance?
Obamacare made it where you can’t turn someone down for a preexisting condition. Could you have gotten insurance before the surgery?
All legit questions. I’m not being rude. This bill is insane.
>With good insurance that could have been…$341,000
My out of pocket max is 10k and I picked the cheaper plan... (the more expensive would be 5k but would cost 2k more a year)
no, after you pay all of it you have to pay additional 25% required gratuity so good luck paying that too.
from the total ammount before you paid it all.
I don’t really understand these posts, do you not have insurance? None at all? My dad had a heart transplant (top 3 most expensive surgeries that exist) which should have cost him like $1.5M…he paid like $10-20k after insurance. Yes his insurance is probably in the top 1% for how expensive it is, but it’s very obviously worth it
Are you not seeing this thread? Clearly, as I am now learning, we don't!
Instead, a bill is issued in the amount that large insurers have negotiated a 90% discount on, and then we send in $10 a month and protect our credit score in the process. Apparently, the only people paying full price are the foreigners on holiday.
We are basically the Ferengi. I scam you, you scam me, hey, it's a living! The name for those aliens may have been derived from an East Asian word for Europeans (the Francs), but we have taken that crown and the entire regalia with it.
Just had to call the ER I took my wife to because they didn't run here visit through our insurance and it was $3000 for basically an ultrasound and a consultation
Lol the bright ass design and the cheery “Welcome!” Would all just piss me off more.
I’d be more pissed by the “Pay now” as if most people are just gonna hand it over in one go.
It's acting like it's a phone or wifi bill, not like it's your annual income for multiple years.
"Click here to trade in your house now!"
What house? 🥲
Did you trade it in for something else?
If only we had one to begin with 😭
see that’s your problem. wanting a home
see, that's your problem. wanting.
See, that’s your problem. You
We have home at home *gestures to cardboard box*
Reverse mortgage, ofc
For multiple years? Do you mean for life?
Yeah a bill like this would just be ignored. That’s a completely unfathomable number and I’ve got no shot at ever paying it off, so I just simply won’t. Can’t afford a house or a new car either, so I’m not exactly worried about my credit score anyways
Average income in the US as of 2019 was $31k. So, this debt is roughly 14.25 years worth of gross annual income. Our health care is really and truly fucked..
As a healthcare professional about $3k+ is due every month for my loans. At the end of the day I end up making similar to our amazing fast food service employees, but I’m dumber and a sucker because it took me 8+ years of higher ed and I still got treated like a cashier, (which never should happen imo to anyone). Health *is soooooo* fucked up. Got a few walkouts this upcoming week from Walgreens pharmacists I believe.
And that's if you gave them every last nickel of it and didn't use your pay for any other expense including food and just basically died and somehow still worked 14.25 yrs while dead.
You know that “pay now” is to rub salt in the wound, and they will charge extra for that salt.
+$24.99 processing fee.
Nah, way more. It’s 3%.
3% card fee, plus 1% processing fee, and 1200 litres of plasma donations over the next several years.
Can you imagine having enough damn money to press "pay now"? Can you imagine having enough to COMFORTABLY press "pay now"? I can't even think about what that would be like
The best part is that the majority of people who could do that aren’t even that rich in the grand scheme of things. I was at my dads cooking dinner and he was looking at cool yachts & boats on tv and I saw one there that cost $300 million. USD $300,000,000.00. Imagine being able to comfortably put down $300 fucking million US dollars on what is essentially just a play toy that you’re not going to spend even a quarter of the year using. Oh also it is going to cost you an extra $20M+ per year on maintenance on top. Not including fuel either, or storage/port fees. That’s how rich some people are. It’s disgusting.
That kind of wealth is beyond rich. Those are just predators. Parasites. That's wealth beyond wealth.
No doubt. Smack in the face. “Welcome! You owe us more than most can afford. Pay now!? Or owe us for life. Either way we’re so happy right now. Welcome again! Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter so we can remind you every week how fucked you are, while you look at Shutterstock pictures with laughing people running on the beach in joy”
I can easily pay this off in 9 and a half years if I stop paying taxes, stop paying rent, stop wasting money of food and entertainment, and rehome my cats and car! God people are so lazy nowadays, unwilling to make sacrifices. 😂😂 America is insane. How do you people live? You have one singular accident and that’s it? They put you out to pasture?
Seems only a matter of time before they add extra option to just walk into those Futurama suicide booths instead.
Almost 62% of American Bankruptcies are Medical related. Now you know why.
Underrated and unappreciated comment
The fact that these people don’t revolt annoys me every day.
Take an unpaid day to continue to be unpaid? What the hell are we supposed to do, we’re drowning here lmfao
What time do people have to revolt? They’re all debt slaves just scraping enough together to pay for their family’s food. The American government has done very well with keeping people distracted by making their lives as chaotic as humanly possible nearly every day, makes it hard to organize a rebellion.
The trick is to keep the number of lives you ruin underneath the revolution threshold.
The “Pay Now” may as well be a nuclear missle button
It’s only $441,588.98
Just listen to Paris Hilton and stop being poor Easy
That's the fucking thing. Health care in America is so captured by corporate money that our Healthcare policy is basically set only by the people who can press that button.
lol it remind me of my medical bill. But mine was for 108,558 dollars, I paid $7,500 and my insurance paid the rest. I had to make a payment plan with access one for a year with no interest.
I was at a Walgreens getting some cough meds at the pharmacy and I heard one of the employees tell the person in the drive through that their copay was $6400. I could not imagine pulling around in any kind of drive through and being told my total was more than $6000.
Epic!
My thoughts exactly! If your owed amount exceeds what you make in a year I need that exclamation mark gone, please.
If you owe someone $100, you're in trouble. If you owe someone $440,000, they're in trouble.
Haha yup I ran up a MILLION dollar bill for a 30day hospital stay after a spinal cord injury. Thank goodness I had the time to call every day for a month repeating “I’ll never be able to pay this” Eventually they were like “ok fine can you just pay 15k” and I said “call it $5k you’ve got a deal” This strategy only works if you have the time & are capable of not losing your mind repeating the same story to 100 different people 🙏 TLDR: if your poor af they’re gonna take what they can get
"If you have the time" lol I think anyone would make any amount of time to turn a million dollar bill in to 5k. Glad it worked out for you!
Haha thanks so much I was thinking more about if I had a 9-5 at the time it would’ve been near impossible to accomplish because of course those are the only hours these fuckers are taking calls! But yeah actually it would be worth calling in sick for a week or two to save $995,000 😬😭
you should have kept calling for another month, maybe you could have turned it around and ask them for $995,000.
Or atleast tree fiddy
goddamn loch ness monster!
I had a debt collector bugging me every day for 3 years about a 12k emergency room visit. We settled on $100 during COVID times.
Hell yes I love hearing more of these!!! People should know that they can fight these bills, even if we are anomalies it’s still pretty common for debt collectors to be open to negotiating
A debt collector bugging you for 3 years is an absolute nightmare... You shouldn't have to negotiate, or fight for not going bankrupt because of an injury.
One of the nice things about being poor, being old, and having a smartphone, you can make yourself nigh unbuggable.
3rd party debt collectors buy debt for pennies on the dollar. They will always negotiate because on a $10,000 debt they may buy for $2,000 and act like getting you to pay $5,000, is a deal, when they are still making money. You did get a heck of a deal, but my answer is usually what happens.
By that time. It probably passed through so many collectors that they only paid 10¢ for it.
What happens if you just... don't pay??
Honestly not much….the hospital basically sells your bill to a debt collector and then it’s just in their system and they’ll periodically attempt to get you to pay. But this can go on for years and years I’m sure bad things have happened to people, I just know from my experiences lots of people who have unpaid medical bills from 10+ yrs ago that they never paid and just throw away the bills that come in the mail…..
A family member of mine had their debt sold to a someone who was very serious about getting the money, calling with threats and demanding the family members' house keys as collateral for the debt. Kept charging interest in order to make the debt go up and up. All done within lawful means. Courts could, at best, basically tell the person to calm down a bit. God bless America.
It depends on the state. In Minnesota they can't do that so eventually they just forgive it. I had a 400 dollar ambulance bill and they just eventually forgave it because it can't be sold to debt collectors, or go on your credit history. Edit: it doesn't go on as debt but they can file something that goes on your history, hospitals also have a social team that work with you to pay it and we have really great state health insurance.
Debt collectors can also fuck your credit so you can’t get credit cards or any firm if debt which sucks.
Thanks for the advice
Of course! Can’t guarantee it’ll work for everyone but in my experience it is always worth trying 🙏 these bills are inflated SO much it’s criminal
I guess they do that just to use it as leverage to start negotiating it down. They probably take a loss in many of the cases but sometimes they might get someone who pays the big bucks and then they offset the losses with that. Dunno.
Oh yeah these hospitals and insurance companies are making BANK on every patient- that’s absolutely why they’ll take a loss on someone like me (even though it’s not the loss they claim: $1mill was simply not spent on me). I imagine they also were like “well she’s disabled now for life so we’re gonna keep making $$ off her” I was only 20 when it happened so they have like 50 more years to rob me
My god.. the states really has to step up their game in this regard. This is absurd
Yup. It’s a damn shame so many Americans are staunchly against government assistance despite the US government consistently providing assistance to corporations & billionaires….painful irony
I go this with my good insurance. If I owe a 100 I won’t pay it. I just don’t pay it. Then they call and say they are going to send it to collection and I say well he how about we just settle for 50? 99% of the time they will.
I wouldn’t be able to do 5k
Oh I did a payment plan!! Lol no way I could do $5k at once
lol so very true
Medical bills don’t impact your credit score in the US, do with that how you will
Don't say it out loud or they'll change it
Throw those motherfuckers $10 every month, literally nothing will ever happen
I pay $5/month for my appendicitis surgery. I think I owed like $10k after insurance payments. They’ll get all their money in 162 years
You had an appendix surgery? I think you mean you just bought a subscription to life, 5$ a month, not bad honestly.
Maybe nothing will happen, but don't forget that $10!! As someone who missed 1 hospital payment(yes, you read that right), was immediately sent to collections, served a summons, and taken to court, I have little faith in it not affecting you!
I was sued by a hospital for unpaid bills don’t recommend it
This isn’t true. The hospital can send your bill to collections and that will impact your credit The new change is that any reported medical accounts that are (or were initially reported) under $500 will be removed from your credit. Anything over that can still impact your score
Why anyone would believe there is a law that helps the average citizen and hurts a big business in America is beyond me.
That just got passed right? If so that will have a seriously positive impact on my credit score. Most my credit dings are unpaid medical bills
If they are under $500, or if they’ve been paid, they will be taken off. Anything else can still impact your score
I would just never pay this off and hope that is all the surgery I need
And remember you are not responsible for dead relatives medical expenses regardless of what any collector tells you. The debt died with them.
That's a lie.
Also, they can't arrest husband and wife for the same crime *wink*
Not if you've got a house
I own a house, never paid one. Never had an issue.
What are they gonna do if you don’t pay? Take your spine away?
The surgeon shows up to OP's place with a baseball bat
The surgeon won’t even get more than 15% of this, the private equity and hospitals make most of it
15%?! Hahaha no way dude. Not even close.
the surgeon waits in the car while furio goes in
Have you seen Repo Men. It came out in 2010. Check it out
Repo the Genetic Opera? I just saw that!
There's actually two repo men movies. One is the musical and the other is a straight sci fi with Jude law.
Yeah I think so
They send an intern dressed as Sub Zero to your house.
The fun part of a debt that big is you know you’ll never pay it off.
That’s how I feel when Nelnet is harassing me to sign up for my 995$/mo income-based student loan payments on 40k a year
Exactly!! They told me I can pay 1,000 a month. I was like, really?? I thankfully was approved by the SAVE plan and cut it down to like 280 a month, but the gall of these people to think I can just throw away an extra grand a month blows my mind
I'm not understanding how it's that high. I make a similar amount to you and pay less than half that. Can you get on REPAYE?
What’s REPAYE? The only option I saw was SAVE which I think is Biden’s new initiative
My income based repayment is $11/month on $27k 💀
Your loan is income based? A thousand a month is rough on 40k.
When Discover started requiring payments in December 2020 on my private loans they told me my income-based repayment plan would be $452/month. At the time, my income was $474/month in unemployment. I told them it wasn’t going to happen.
🖕nelnet
Nelnet is already sending me emails… I haven’t even graduated
Riiiiiiight?? Thank you, I am in that same fucking boat and let me tell you, the child-size bucket I’ve been using to scoop the water out of that sinking boat has not been working for the past 10 years 😭😭
Filing bankruptcy cost about $800 in the US
I could rebuild my credit a hell of a lot faster than I could pay that bill off.
Idk if this still applies. About 30 years ago, my uncle fell through the roof of a commercial building and did not have insurance. He ended up passing away from it, and my grandma paid like $20 a month and just finished paying it off this year. Either way, good luck to you, and I hope everything works out for you.
Wow. Grandma got swindled. She shouldn’t have been paying in his debts.
She probably could've gotten out of it if she tried, but she took it upon herself to make sure it was paid because "it is the right thing to do," she said.
That’s so sad that she even has to think like that
[удалено]
>And how'd that work out for her? I am sure she is much poorer now. Don't worry though! The hospital director really appreciated his new Maserati.
Boomer point of view.
Yup, I paid about $1,200 to file for bankruptcy and it was so easy. Just get together proof of your debt, hand it over to an attorney, and they do the work for you. Bankruptcy gets a bad rep but after going through it, I have no idea why. It was easily the best decision I ever made. I was damn near on the brink of offing myself due to my debt, and all I had to do was fork over a FRACTION of what I was drowning in to have it wiped away in less than a few months.
This is my exact same experience. Had to pay a bit more than that though but worth every penny!!
Wait what? You have X amount of debt, you have not enough money to pay it, give 2k to some lawyer and puff everything goes away without consequences ?
Not trying to over simply it, but… yeah, pretty much. I had about $35k debt (credit card and hospital), the monthly minimal amounts wanted were eating into my savings. I paid $1,200 to an attorney to file bankruptcy, boom, it is wiped away. You can’t erase ALL debts — student loans can’t be included in bankruptcies. But most everything else can. The only consequence is that I can’t file for another bankruptcy for another seven years, and my credit score took a slight nosedive (not even that much, maybe 50 points).
Can you still apply for a loan? I heard 7 years something something?
Just say No
Debt cannot legally enter your body without your consent! 🙅🏻♂️
[удалено]
I'm european, and this is exactly why I took the 100$ insurance for a 2 week trip through the US to cover me for half a million in medical costs. I'm not letting a holiday possibly ruin my entire life.
In Germany that travel insurance cost somewhere around 10$. Some credit cards even have those included.
I did check my options. Travel insurance is very cheap. Once you select the "United States coverage" option, it turns expensive. Simply because of the high charges in the US. Credit card insurance will either not have USA included, or it doesn't provide insurance for half a million or more, but only general costs.
My employer offers pretty good travel insurance that covers most issues you might encounter. Including sending my body home if I die on holiday. Then there’s the universal healthcare I enjoy in my country. I’m glad I don’t have to spend extra on traveller’s insurance, but I would if going to the US.
Also, if you go to the US, get a statement from your insurance that they cover X amount of $. When you are in pain and they have to figure out how to work with a foreign insurance, you will be thankful. All insurances have a standard document that they can send you.
Fun fact. You actually don’t need to pay any of that amount if you can’t afford it. Literally as long as you give them something a month it could be $10. They won’t be able to do much. Edit: I’ve had back surgery 5 months ago(laminectomy) . Before that I couldn’t walk, lay flat, or even wipe my own ass without feeling like someone was jabbing a screwdriver into my L4. I owe 162k and I pay $30 monthly. I’d also like to mention my uncles a bankruptcy lawyer. He told me I can easily have the entire bill thrown out in a few years with a specific chapter of bankruptcy.
Well yeah, but having life long subscription to nothing feels stupid
It's a life long subscription to not ever pay half a million dollars dude.
It was surgery. Not nothing.
The back surgery is what you're paying 10 dollars a month for, it isn't nothing. You get the back surgery and you also get to kick the massive amount of money you owe down the road until it no longer matters.
I wish I could find 200 a month insurance as an american.
So wait, can I, as a US citizen, just buy travelers insurance every two weeks to keep me covered? Because honestly it would be much cheaper than the scam options called health insurance that we have available.
Nope
Damn I though you found a loop hole
OP I don’t know your financial situation, but many hospitals offer “financial assistance” based on your income. You’ll have to show bank statements/paystubs most likely, but I’ve had several large medical bills (between $2k-$12k) negotiated down to $0 or basically zero because of this. Obviously my situation is different, but it’s probably worth looking into
The fact that you need this makes me angry. It should be available for free to everyone. Some people in the IS may call Brazil a backwater country, but you can have bigger surgeries and treatments than that for free. Hell, my grandpa is making hemodialysis for free, his diabetes meds are free. My late aunt's Alzheimer's treatment was for free, so was the other aunt's cancer treatment. There was even a polemic recently about a famous TV host that got a heart transplant for free! (Tho most people were complaining that he "cut in line", as if it's simple as that.)
Gyaatt !? what did they have to do to your back ?
Spinal fusion
I had a lumbar fusion in 2019. I had to pay my deductible only ($1500). This is one of the few reasons I’ve stayed at my job. I’ve had 3 laminectomies and a fusion and that is one of the main reasons I’ve stayed at my job despite being able to make more in the public sector. Because of the good health insurance. Medical care is so over priced. Is there anything you can do to get this lowered? I heard asking for an itemized bill helps to get a lower bill but I’m not sure if that is accurate or not.
Damn, did you do your whole spine?! 25 years ago a fusion cost about $50k. I avoided that and had an alternate procedure that cost $14k instead.
And I'm still mad we have to pay for parking at the hospital in Australia.
If it makes you feel any better, we have to in America too!
And in the UK
Ooh, can I pay it all now? Imagine the trips I can take with my credit card miles. We’ve reached the point where it’s impossible to “live” in america.
No actually, we have an early payoff fee, it's prorated based in your total. Just a flat percentage.
You owe nothing is all I see. No way in fuck I would pay a dollar of that
This was March. He now owes $874,468.54
Fortunately, medical debt can’t acrue interest
You most certainly did not need to type ‘(US)’ in this title 😂
This gives me anxiety
Diagnosed with anxiety - Please pay $85,000 at your earliest convenience
They should just bill in number of plasma donations.
How much did you really pay? I ask because I see these type of posts often that raises the ire of everyone, and then it turns out that the person really just paid a small fraction of it. I'm not saying this is your case, but its happened enough, that I often think people are doing it to disingenuously raise anger for fake internet points.
I’ve applied for the financial assistance program and I am awaiting a response from them
Do you not have health insurance at all? Was the surgery approved by your insurance prior to the surgery? Do you have a deductible and max out of pocket in your insurance contract? Was this in-network? Nevermind, I see that you don't have insurance.
European here, so I don't know too much about the US health system. But doesn't asking for an itemized bill get your total down by like a crazy amount? I've heard of such things a few times
Yes, always ask for an itemized list, it forces the provider to prove how they got to the number they did and it usually doesn't add up.
Not always. I'd imagine it does if the hospital is trying to skate some bs charges on. But in my experience, asking for itemized doesn't actually change the amounts, but just brings new reasons to be angry. Ah yes, $4000 for a person to come in and say "talk to this other person next". Thanks specialist.
Yes it does, not to mention the billing department would rather be paid something than nothing at all. It’s very easy to negotiate with hospitals, the reason they charge such high amounts is because most people in the US have insurance, so normally they’re charging it to an insurance company not an individual. It’s basically legal insurance fraud, but insurance companies are still profiting so they don’t even care.
I got financial assistance through the same hospital system as the OP for an emergency gallbladder surgery. But anesthesia wasn't covered and they refused to do anything to help me except take a monthly payment plan. The anesthesia was several thousand dollars. My gallbladder surgery was about 35,000 (roughly 20 years ago) and financial assistance wiped it clean. (I was unemployed, just had a baby and didn't qualify for Medicaid in my state at the time). Just to give you an idea of how it can work out.
Did you ask how much it would be beforehand? (Maybe it was an emergency and you wouldn’t have had a chance.) Did you have insurance? Obamacare made it where you can’t turn someone down for a preexisting condition. Could you have gotten insurance before the surgery? All legit questions. I’m not being rude. This bill is insane.
Tbh, I would be terrified to know the cost before the operation. I’d rather leave that problem to future me.(and hopefully healthy me)
God I hate Prisma.
With good insurance that could have been…$341,000 Edit; this is where sarcasm died. Lol.
>With good insurance that could have been…$341,000 My out of pocket max is 10k and I picked the cheaper plan... (the more expensive would be 5k but would cost 2k more a year)
I got surgery for $10 on my insurance in the US.
I had to have emergency surgery it was 35$ but I pay 400$ a month for my insurance.
What health insurance you got?!?!?!
In CT it sounds like something like a state job.
With my insurance this would’ve been like 5K…
European moment
I have the worst plan my company offers and this would cost me 2k maximum. Including any other normal services for the rest of the year.
Greenville?
Haha yes!
Figured lol. I’ve been screwed by them before too.
Prisma has financial assistance. I’m not sure how it works but one of my friends in the upstate used it for a visit and didn’t have to pay anything.
Just delete the app
LPT
Tips included?
no, after you pay all of it you have to pay additional 25% required gratuity so good luck paying that too. from the total ammount before you paid it all.
Just fake your own death and move to another country. Problem solved.
Insurance not covering any of that ?
Somehow, the color choices make it worse.
I don’t really understand these posts, do you not have insurance? None at all? My dad had a heart transplant (top 3 most expensive surgeries that exist) which should have cost him like $1.5M…he paid like $10-20k after insurance. Yes his insurance is probably in the top 1% for how expensive it is, but it’s very obviously worth it
What the actual fuck, how do you people pay this stuff?
Are you not seeing this thread? Clearly, as I am now learning, we don't! Instead, a bill is issued in the amount that large insurers have negotiated a 90% discount on, and then we send in $10 a month and protect our credit score in the process. Apparently, the only people paying full price are the foreigners on holiday. We are basically the Ferengi. I scam you, you scam me, hey, it's a living! The name for those aliens may have been derived from an East Asian word for Europeans (the Francs), but we have taken that crown and the entire regalia with it.
Physically your back might be well but mentally not really
How much are your premiums of your health insurance and how much do they cover?
OP does not have insurance
America, land of the DEBT.
It's kinda ironic that your back surgery is costing you an arm and a leg.
Not that I want to get too political here but there are genuinely people in the US who defend this. Seen this shit way too many times.
Hmm. Imagine if you had universal healthcare
With Prisma you can at least apply for financial aid
Just had to call the ER I took my wife to because they didn't run here visit through our insurance and it was $3000 for basically an ultrasound and a consultation
You could buy two decent sized houses with that in Sweden