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DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

theregister.com

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Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#11

Post by docdeek »

glimshe wrote: post #9
pluc wrote: post #4

That's a feature of living in the US, not a bug. It's a matter of time before it happens, it's not an "if".

This is not true. I'm getting tired of reading this kind of stuff on HN, maybe I should just ignore it but a few friends from other parts of the world, also HN readers, are starting to believe it... So I'll try doing my part. Yes, the worst-case scenario for health expenses is indeed bad in the US, this is true. However, this is not the average healthcare experience. It's not a matter of time until you're slapped wit…

The American Journal of Public Health reported in 2019 that there were more than 500,000 medical bankruptices every year, and more than 250,000 medical expense related GoFundMe’s. In a country of nearly 400 million people this experience is not ‘average’ but it is well outside what would be considered normal in other developed countries. Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6366487/

Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#13

Post by michaelt »

glimshe wrote: post #9
pluc wrote: post #4

That's a feature of living in the US, not a bug. It's a matter of time before it happens, it's not an "if".

This is not true. I'm getting tired of reading this kind of stuff on HN, maybe I should just ignore it but a few friends from other parts of the world, also HN readers, are starting to believe it... So I'll try doing my part. Yes, the worst-case scenario for health expenses is indeed bad in the US, this is true. However, this is not the average healthcare experience. It's not a matter of time until you're slapped wit…

> Medical bankruptcies and financially crushing bills are a sad possibility in the US

Absolutely wild to me that in the US you can have insurance - something that's supposed to completely cover the costs of very-expensive-but-very-low-probability events, like house fires - and yet you can still be bankrupted by the thing you've insured against.

Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#14

Post by Arnt »

neilv wrote: post #10

The Register was hinting at how ridiculous the health insurance situation is, so, TL;DR of that aspect: > [...] and nothing out of the ordinary showed up on a routine X-ray and an MRI wasn't possible due to insurance delays. [...] A week later, Rogers started losing some sensation in his hands and tried to have the MRI rescheduled, but the approval from his insurance company never came. [...] "Overnight I lost all se…

Another poster here wrote that the profit margins at those companies are about 6%, and the overall costs on the order of 30%. Meaning that if the profit drops to zero, the health insurer could only pay for eight days instead of seven without raising premiums, and if the profit and total salaries drop to zero, only for about 11 days instead of seven. 11 is far from the needed 21.

If you want to blame someone, consider blaming the avaricious premium payers. And consider going easy on the blame. Blaming is easy but it makes you see people as avaricious when that's not reasonable.

Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#15

Post by blitzar »

pluc wrote: post #4

That's a feature of living in the US, not a bug. It's a matter of time before it happens, it's not an "if".

Americans routinely voice their preferences for a system along the lines of "The Affordable Care Act" and their gross dissatisfaction at the abomination that is "Obama Care". Reforms are clearly needed.

Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#17

Post by chatmasta »

Marc Rogers appears to be a British national who was vacationing in the US, so it’s no surprise he didn’t have good healthcare insurance coverage.

I wonder if he has travel insurance or if he has a global healthcare plan. The article is vague about it. But it’s possible that his insurer isn’t even a US insurance company.

Best wishes to him in his recovery.

Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#18

Post by justinclift »

Arnt wrote: post #14
neilv wrote: post #10

The Register was hinting at how ridiculous the health insurance situation is, so, TL;DR of that aspect: > [...] and nothing out of the ordinary showed up on a routine X-ray and an MRI wasn't possible due to insurance delays. [...] A week later, Rogers started losing some sensation in his hands and tried to have the MRI rescheduled, but the approval from his insurance company never came. [...] "Overnight I lost all se…

Another poster here wrote that the profit margins at those companies are about 6%, and the overall costs on the order of 30%. Meaning that if the profit drops to zero, the health insurer could only pay for eight days instead of seven without raising premiums, and if the profit and total salaries drop to zero, only for about 11 days instead of seven. 11 is far from the needed 21. If you want to blame someone, consider…

You might want to check the salary figures for those insurance company executives. ;)

Re: DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills

#20

Post by Arnt »

justinclift wrote: post #18
Arnt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another poster here wrote that the profit margins at those companies are about 6%, and the overall costs on the order of 30%. Meaning that if the profit drops to zero, the health insurer could only pay for eight days instead of seven without raising premiums, and if the profit and total salaries drop to zero, only for about 11 days instead of seven. 11 is far from the needed 21. If you want to blame someone, consider…

You might want to check the salary figures for those insurance company executives. ;)

I think you're implying that a firing a few people with those nice million-dollar salaries and spending those millions on hospital care would make a significant difference. But the US is a country where a single hospital stay can cost a million dollars.

Fire the highest-paid executive and pay for ten hospital treatments. Fire the next-highest, nine more. At some point you've fired all employees at all insurers, can't pay for lack of employees to do the chores, and even at that point the savings cover only a few of the rejected applications.

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