Doctors don't usually charge anything, Bangai. Most doctors these days are employees like any other. If you go to a hospital, and get charged, it wasn't the doctor. He had just as much say in it as the janitor.
I just got threatened to be sent to collections because I can't pay for an ambulance
- Thread starter KevinCow
- Start date
- Status
Oppo
Member
$45. It's a co-pay thing. It's like $250 if you don't have a valid health card. I think it's free in some other circumstances.
Zoe
Member
There are averages here: http://ehbs.kff.org/?page=sections&id=1
Personally, next year under single coverage I'll be looking at $24/month, $3,150 deductible, 30% copay, $6,000 out of pocket max.
The best plan my work offers is $196/month, $650 deductible, 10% copay, $1,500 out of pocket max.
Devolution
Member
It's not BS at all. You have to be on their ass about coverage and make sure that whatever place you visit properly billed your insurance.
I don't think its possible for someone with a for profit health care system to understand the relief of being covered by a universal healthcare system.
I honestly think I feel healthier knowing that I simply never have to worry about paying a medical bill, that if something were to happen to me the only thing I would have to think about is getting better. It is very comforting in kind of constantly in the back of your mind but impossible to quantify kind of way.
I honestly think I feel healthier knowing that I simply never have to worry about paying a medical bill, that if something were to happen to me the only thing I would have to think about is getting better. It is very comforting in kind of constantly in the back of your mind but impossible to quantify kind of way.
Funny that you mention feeling healthier because you don't have to worry - the stress people go through due to health care related costs might actually contribute to more health complications. Even for me, my life is pretty good right now, but all I know is that one big health complication means I could easily lose my job / health insurance and as a result lose all my savings. This would also screw my mom up because if I can't pay my student loans, they go after her instead. Having health insurance tied to employment is barbaric in this day and age.
Hes not wrong. Hes also one of maybe three people in this thread that actually offered advice to the OP.
I'll re-quote. I'm in Med School and people have no idea the hell we go through. I'd estimate that at least 66% of the students here are taking ADD medications just so they can pass their classes.
In any case, a few years back I got into a car accident. Basically smashed my head through a car window. People thought I was crazy for refusing the ambulance and asking a friend to drive me to the hospital. I was fully conscious and at no risk of anything so why should I have to pay however many hundreds (thousands?) of dollars for a car ride?
oneils
Member
Is 33-35 your marginal rate or effective rate? I'm guessing marginal?
Federal Marginal.
Oppo
Member
I have trouble comprehending it in the other direction. Growing up in Canada, I sort of implicitly understood when I was a kid that the healthcare system was one of the main reasons that you lived in a country. Alongside roads, schools, and all the rest.
Fulleffect
Member
I work for a medical alarm company, and if i could keep count of the amount of unnecessary ambulances I send every night, your head would explode! i'm sure they all get their ridiculous bills paid for by medicare.. must be making bank
This is just so sad.
I can go out into my garden, slip off my own ladder and land on a rusty spike and get carted to hospital in a helicopter with 15 broken bones and I'll get patched up and sent on my way with nothing to worry about.
Yeah I pay for it in my taxes. But so does everyone else. I might never use it, but I know that I can rely on it to be there when I do need it, whether it be because I'm a klutz with my power saw or if I just got unlucky with some iffy disease.
My grandparents paid into the system for 50 years and barely took anything out until reaching retirement age. My grandmother has two titanium knees, a catheter and a nurse who comes out once a week to do some shit to her. Total cost fuck all.
My grandfather has just had his right eye done as he had a cataract. They put in a prescription lens so he no longer needs glasses for that eye. His vision is the best it's been in years and in a few months he's in to have the other done. Total cost nothing.
I cannot, in any way possible, understand how any country can not have a NHS type system. It baffles me. Honest to goodness blows my fucking mind.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
WAIT
They're giving people free car rides? Socialized medicine truly is Satan's work. NO FREE RIDES
oneils
Member
Thanks. Huh, that's higher than the top marginal fed rate in Canada (29%). However, top marginal rates for provincial income tax ranges from 10 to 21%.
In the province with the highest marginal rate you would have an effective tax rate of 42.5% on an income of 250,000.
In the province with the lowest marginal rate you would have an effective tax rate of 34.4% on an income of 250,000.
So, I wonder what your effective tax rate is (including state income taxes). Even when you include the 3k in insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles you might still come out further ahead than your canadian counterpart.
Interesting. Looks like folks with high incomes might not do too bad under the american system. Guessing the low income folks fare worse in comparison to their canadian counterparts.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I don't oppose it either and I can see how it would be a psychologically valuable form of resistance to a corrupt system.
However, there are obvious real-world consequences to making that decision. And, I mean, causation exists. Again, from a normative perspective, yes, this system is wrong. But from a descriptive perspective, if he chooses to dodge his bills forever, that's going to lower his options later in life. I think everyone regardless of politics can agree that human self-actualization (rather through individual or collective outlets) is important for happiness, and choosing a path of resistance/rebellion--if we're thinking of this in Mertonian terms--is going to result in real consequences.
It's still an individual decision, although given that the OP has chosen to invite GAF as a whole to comment on it (and has previously... repeatedly... chosen to involve GAF in his personal life), it's natural that we react as though we have say in the matter.
empty vessel
Member
Without a doubt, I think. Our health care system makes us sick.
Theyve been doing that for a long while. They can get away with it because of the high unemployment. It really has nothing to do with obamacare
I have a couple thousand dollars in collection from medical bills right now.
Not really much I can do about it.
Last year I went to the ER because I had been having chest pain for 6 months so I went to my mothers doctor because I didn't have one at the time. I told him I have anxiety disorders and my blood pressure is always high at a new doctors office. He said ok, came back and took it again and it was still high so he decided to give me an EKG.
After reading it he tells me I might have a blood cloth in my lung and to go to the ER ASAP. I was there for almost 6 hours getting test after test done but everything was fine there and everyone was kind of confused as to how he could have thought I had a blood clot from an EKG reading.
They told me I had chostochondritis and to take ibuprofen.
When I got the bill for over $1000 from the ER I felt like going into his office and stapling it to his forehead.
Not really much I can do about it.
Last year I went to the ER because I had been having chest pain for 6 months so I went to my mothers doctor because I didn't have one at the time. I told him I have anxiety disorders and my blood pressure is always high at a new doctors office. He said ok, came back and took it again and it was still high so he decided to give me an EKG.
After reading it he tells me I might have a blood cloth in my lung and to go to the ER ASAP. I was there for almost 6 hours getting test after test done but everything was fine there and everyone was kind of confused as to how he could have thought I had a blood clot from an EKG reading.
They told me I had chostochondritis and to take ibuprofen.
When I got the bill for over $1000 from the ER I felt like going into his office and stapling it to his forehead.
Impeccable
Member
Zoe
Member
You can also claim it on your taxes so...
Medical expenses* are tax deductible in the US as well. Though the average person probably won't spend so much that it would exceed the standard deduction.
(barring some exceptions such as OTC medication)
empty vessel
Member
Zoe
Member
Your total expenses have to be at least 7.5% of your AGI. Next year it will go up to 10%.
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html
Try contacting your insurance again. I had to go through something similar with my grandma with an ambulance charge. Normally it's not covered, but if its ordered by a doctor and/or medically necessary it might be covered. We ended up opening a dispute, getting a letter from my grandma's doctor and insurance eventually covered it. She was also sent to collection, but the collection service was pretty understanding about the situation.
Our ambulances have gold plated rims and emit perfume instead of exhaust
Thankfully, we havent gone that far into a libertarian's fantasy land
In some cities you have to subscribe yearly to the city's fire fighter service, or they simply watch your house burn down.
I think you do get a bill for dialing 911 (the emergency number), which is the number you usually call for a police emergency. But I'm not 100% sure if that's true.
Zoe
Member
For people who don't get the reference: it's possible to live in unincorporated areas so you don't have to pay certain taxes. That means if you want to have access to the city/county services, you have to pay them directly.
That's not what I'm talking about. There are a few towns where you have to pay your fire bill every year or you won't receive any fire fighting service.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39516346/ns/us_news-life/t/no-pay-no-spray-firefighters-let-home-burn/
I guess in the above case, it is because the resident was outside of the area. Perhaps I am not remembering correctly.
Zoe
Member
That's what I'm talking about.
akachan ningen
Member
did they do a wallet biopsy?
Jesus fucking Christ.
My girlfriend has a heart condition. She passed out once and needed emergency treatment. We live in a rural area, so she had to be airlifted. Operated on immediately, spent three weeks in hospital being cared for. Meals three times a day, care around the clock. Left to go home, and had nurse checkups afterwards.
Total cost? £0. NHS!
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Hold on... looking for a link
HERE IS IT:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/jon-stewart-fox-news-romney-47-percent-video_n_1899787.html
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
EDIT: double post
Hospital Greeter: $999.97. ROLLBACK WAS $999.99
I totally agree that the USA needs universal health care but I guess I never realized that so many people had such shit insurance. I mean I went to the ER for a head injury and got a CT scan and it was $100 out of pocket, insurance covered the rest. I guess I've just lived under the bubble of good insurance from my parents and now my job.
I'm so sick and tired of these posts. We get it. You have it better than us. Stop rubbing it in, show offs!
Hale-XF11
Member
I used to be just like you...then I lost my job and with it, my health insurance. Now I'm self-employed, but I can't afford insurance on my own. I just don't make enough money and finding a job with coverage is like finding a needle in a haystack around here.
Sucks, because I'd really like to get some tests done, but I can't afford anything beyond a single doctor visit maybe once every 5-6 months, assuming nothing goes wrong with any other aspect of my life and the money is there. I save what I can for emergencies and only get video games with gift cards I get from doing online surveys or by selling my old games on ebay.
So yeah, enjoy living under the bubble while you can, because it can pop at any moment. Sucks, but that's America for ya, I guess.
800$ for an ambulance? it's <500$ in germany or switzerland, well below that in austria (for 800$ you'll get an on-scene emergency physician in most regions of central europe). and 20 500mg paracetamol tablets cost little more than 2$.
these american health-care threads shock me every time.
Really effective propaganda.
Since you are poor collections can do exactly nothing. If you are below the poverty line they cannot do anything to you, not even in court. They can never make you pay any money until you are above the poverty line. If it's anything like CC debt, the debt will get sold for pennies on the dollar, and you should be able to settle it for like 10-20% of what you actually owe.
Open Source
Banned
Could be worse. You could be dying from an antibiotic-resistant infection in a country dying from a terminal case of socialism.
If you have no money, collections can't collect. Your credit will likely suffer, but since you're hardly creditworthy anyway and likely won't be for years, it doesn't matter.
Next time, figure out your health care insurance situation like a responsible adult instead of relying on your mom to take care of you like you're an infant.
If you have no money, collections can't collect. Your credit will likely suffer, but since you're hardly creditworthy anyway and likely won't be for years, it doesn't matter.
Next time, figure out your health care insurance situation like a responsible adult instead of relying on your mom to take care of you like you're an infant.
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
It's amazing how backwards a country like America can be.
If I was American I'd hop over the border to Canada.
If I was American I'd hop over the border to Canada.
ClassyPenguin
Banned
It's hard to differentiate serious posts with joke ones.
Best course of action is the slow, tedious process of becoming enrolled in medicaid.
Open Source
Banned
Or working and saving up for your insurance deductible like any sane person would do. Even in this economy, it's not hard to get a job flipping burgers or scrubbing toilets. Unless you're somehow too good to get your hands dirty, because you're a special snowflake and shouldn't have to make any kind of effort.
Or you could just sit on your useless ass all day, playing your shiny new Wii U, posting on NeoGAF, and moaning about how other people's time, effort, and resources aren't handed to you gratis just because you exist. And guess why ambulances are so expensive? Because so many of the people who need them don't pay - well over 50%.
- Status