She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
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Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#2I really can not understand how fucked up us health care is.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#3To the hospital systems and insurance companies, the confusion is a feature, not a bug. They assume most patients and their families will just knuckle under and pay what they're told they owe.
Since the health care sector is one of the largest political donors, elected officials have little incentive to fix anything, so they nibble at the edges and call it reform.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#4I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#5I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?
The healthcare system in the US is much better for a small group of people who make a lot of money from it, and they have bought the entirety of one, and much of another political party to ensure that it stays that way.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#6Exactly the same happened to me & my family, and we've also appeared on NPR for a similar situation:
> https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/09/22/1121612...
My daughter died. Our story aired a year later. Another year later, so around 2 years after my daughter's death, I received a hospital bill for a little over $3,000, for her initial few weeks of ICU care. I never acknowledged it. I couldn't bring myself to call the hospital to setup a payment plan, say my daughters name in the same sentence as a dollar amount again. We haven't heard a peep since.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#7Every interaction I have involves checking out, standing before a sign that says, "all fees must be paid at time of service." I pay then, then months later get more bills to be paid well after the time of service.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#8I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?
I’ve lived in quite a few different countries (including a couple that are frequently praised for their public healthcare systems), and the quality of the healthcare I’ve received in the US is far better than anything I’ve had anywhere else.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#9Imo one part of the confusion and complexity is pricing. There is no standardized pricing. Many countries with government run healthcare systems solve this by not showing patients the prices and standardizing the price they pay to doctors etc. in the US you have the hospitals / health care providers, insurance companies, and patients all negotiating with each other. Some state governments tried to mandate a defined list of services and costs, but I don’t think it worked. Each provider categorizes things slightly differently. Also it seems the insurance companies and providers are fighting it out around what to pay, leaving the patient in the middle also trying to negotiate. It’s all very exhausting.
Re: She paid husband's hospital bill. A year after his death, they wanted more money
#10I really don't understand why the US doesn't have a grown up healthcare system. Do you just not see how much better healthcare is in the rest of the developed world?
I’ve lived in quite a few different countries (including a couple that are frequently praised for their public healthcare systems), and the quality of the healthcare I’ve received in the US is far better than anything I’ve had anywhere else.
The quality of care you did receive in those countries may have been lesser, but what could you have gotten if you paid as much there as you pay in the US?