None of these metrics will change the political stance our one majority party took. They have shut their eyes and ears and are hell bent on preserving the interests of the lobbying companies and fetishizing “free market competition”. I can bet a sizeable amount of money that nothing will change in the next 50yrs even. Today there is still a rule that a hospital cannot say no to a patient, I strongly believe that is one rule that will fall down next. It makes too much profit for the health care providers to not attack that. In fact after Roe fell I can see that as the next one.
Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
161–170 of 381 posts
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#162By the way, if you'd actually like to do something about this that benefits real people right now, RIP Medical Debt (mentioned in the article and has good ratings) buys debt at 1% of its face value and immediately forgives it. https://ripmedicaldebt.org
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Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#163not that it honestly matters. the whole cabal of private healthcare has become such a teetering house of cards post covid that credit reporting agencies no longer count medical debt in your score. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/medical-debt...
But they still have the debt, right? It's great if it's not counted against them, but to say "it doesn't matter" seems unfair - won't they still be hounded by collections agencies and potentially sued?
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#164By the way, if you'd actually like to do something about this that benefits real people right now, RIP Medical Debt (mentioned in the article and has good ratings) buys debt at 1% of its face value and immediately forgives it. https://ripmedicaldebt.org
Thanks, this is awesome I'll keep it in mind!
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Average nurse practitioner salary 115k. Why are they putting medical debt on credit cards? Are you asking why they couldn't afford 70% of an average salary (which, there is a 50% chance this person made less than the average) in one shot? Your entire post seems to be victim blaming based on a few sentences of context. You don't know what other debts and obligations these people had, nor what other avenues they trie…
Maybe what they are asking is how someone making an average of 115k, who is also in healthcare doesn’t have better health coverage and still decides to have a kid.
The American Dream. Must make 115k+ (what is that, 2x or 3x the average American?) and pay out the ass for coverage just so you can have the privilege of having a kid without being judged by random people on the internet.
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#166I see any suggestion to the contrary of Socialized medicine being downvoted. Honest question. How do you propose to expand healthcare with 130% Debt to GDP and 8.9% inflation? It seems we are broke and there is a demand from the HN community to spend more? Feels like hitting the accelerator as one drives off a cliff and invokes memories of Thelma & Louise
We pay nearly double for our privatized monstrosity, compared to the most expensive socialized systems. Such savings! So cheap! Very efficient! Can the treasury possibly bear the expense of spending less than double?
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Yeah, a transition is going to be an expensive shitshow and now is not a good time, but just about any other time in the last decade was a good time and in a year or two it will be a decent time again. We'd better rip this bandaid before it soaks all our blood out.
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#167The American healthcare system is barbaric.
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also intentionally go in to debt for any of my expenses subject to deductible, because my hospital offers zero-interest payment plans. I then pay their payment plan with a credit card, get 2% back, and pay it off at the end of the month.
I'm very surprised they do not charge the credit card processing fee here. But I guess since you are actually paying they are making such high margin they don't even care.
Hospitals are incredibly forgiving if you will eventually pay. Collections will give them pennies on the dollar at best.
If you call them up, they'll usually just say "what can you pay?" and agree to just about anything you propose.
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
The alternative isn't denying care. It is providing the same care without having people get into debt, which every other developed country (and a lot of undeveloped countries) in the world manages to do.
So just redistributing the cost across the population? I think then you just end up with more people in debt, as their incomes fall to pay the tax.
I think you just end up with less people in debt and incomes rise to pay the tax. I guess we'll just have to try it out and see.
Re: Sick and struggling to pay, 100M people in the U.S. live with medical debt
#170What depresses me the most about this situation is the callous, unempathetic disregard a significant portion of the population has for everyone not like them. "Just get a good paying job with health insurance" is not and should not be the basis for a health care policy.
Americans are profoundly selfish and that's getting harder and harder to ignore.
Many will defend such practices in the name of "freedom". "Freedom" will often be an integral part of their identity. The sad truth is that these people seem so desperate for someone telling them what to do.
Supporters of universal access to health care simply want people not to be denied life-saving or life-changing medical care and not to be bankrupted by that. That's literally it. Yet such people are so often demonized as "socialists" or "communists".
The Bezoses and Buffetts of the world has so successfully propagandized and manipulated these people, choosing billionaires having a little bit more money over people literally dying in the streets.
I really do worry this country will be lost to white Christian fascism in the not too distant future.