He may have been traveling when he had his heart attack: https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-stockmans-medical-bills-to...
He may have been attended-to by out-of-network practitioner: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Out-of-Network-ER-S...
He may have been attended-to by out-of-network practitioner: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Out-of-Network-ER-S...
In fact in the 25 years I’ve paid for mine or my families health care I’ve never seen what you describe over lots of ER visits.
There are lots of things wrong with the US health system, providers systematically trying to get out of network fees isn’t one of them.
> It is basically impossible not to get fleeced by "health care" in the US.
The experience is evidence against this very strong statement. You have uncharitably decided it was making an equally strong statement in the opposite direction.
Out-of-network does not have this protection. Your insurance will possibly cover some of the bill, normally up to some percentage of what they consider a normal amount for the procedure in the area, and then you will be billed for the entire balance. Say your provider bills $100k and your insurance says they think that procedure normally only costs $50k and you have 80% out of network coverage. You would be billed for 20% of the $50k covered as coinsurance, plus the remaining $50k that would've been written off if you were in-network.
This is generally how people get surprise bills.
For a real world example: last year my insurance got billed ~$3k for a routine blood test for my wife as part of an annual checkup. It was in-network and the insurance paid $27 and the provider wrote off the rest.
There's been a lot of revealing reporting over the past decade but people don't seem to care: the price of a procedure in two different hospitals in the same city can vary by 10x because they literally pull prices they charge from their asses. They tend to justify this by saying "no one ever pays that price".
But when I got a bill for my wife's surgery that included 15k for 1 hour in a recovery room, another 25k for 1 hour in a surgery room, and 9k for an overnight stay (on top of the 20k from the surgeon, 3k from the anesthesiologist, and 3-5k from random doctors we saw for a few seconds) those words sure as shit were not reassuring.
All my past attempts to get an idea of what something might cost me, even when I knew insurance wouldn't cover it, have failed. It takes days worth of time on the phone only to get the wrong answer. One even told me that I only get the cash price if I don't have insurance even if my insurance won't cover it - and I must have insurance because its illegal to not have insurance so I can't get the cash price. What the fuck man?
Hospitals can fuck off. I have no idea why they don't get more blame in this mess.
Same situation here; "health care costs are for those sick losers. I'm not going to get sick, so it doesn't matter to me how much it costs, and I don't want to pay more tax to reduce healthcare costs for those losers".
I exaggerate, but it does seem like there's something like this going on...
But those attitudes are carefully cultivated by the media. They don't just happen.
Congress and the Senate are full of corrupt leeches, and both parties are equally guilty.
Votes make no difference. Corporate money buys political careers, and it pays for both sides.
There are a few exceptions, cultivated to maintain the appearance of representative democracy, but they're rarely - if ever - allowed anywhere near policy.
No, the Democrats and Republicans are not the same.
One party is suppressing the vote and constantly sabotaging the workings of the government to retain power.
Both parties eat food.
Both parties drink water.
What's the point of this equivalency? I identify a moved goalpost. Your initial post was "both parties are equal." We are far from there, down here.
I don't think it's specifically an American thing to avoid much thought about becoming really ill. It's an uncomfortable subject.
In most cases you will not know that it's an OON provider. You may be under sedation at the time.
The practice is outlawed in many states, as far as I know.
This would be a grave defect if the purpose of democracy was to achieve good government, but in fact we haven't the faintest idea how to get good government, democracy is a fix for bloodshed during the inevitable power transitions. So, a bunch of idiots with no clue are still in charge, but now a _different_ bunch of idiots can take over without having to murder a bunch of people to do it.
I cannot wait for reform and I hope it hits before I get old and need it often.
As an aside, even the billing system is fucked up. When I get a receipt for covered care, it often looks a lot like a bill. This has to be by design. Its bad enough that I just ignore both "receipts" and bills and wait for the collectors to call me. That's how I know which is which.