Example of ER bills for an uninsured

[Anonymous]

DC had regular check up appointment. I told them I would pay cash as I didn't think DC still had insurance. DF passed away and DC was on his insurance.
I walk out paying it all full, and get a bill 5 days later sent to our old address. I get the same bill from peds accounting firm 6 months later. I call them the next day and they tell me I owe nothing.
How can anybody say that all is well with any of it. Nobody has idea what they are doing and bills are sent out several times just in hopes someone pays them twice if not more.
We had the same happen with dental. We paid credit card and got a bill over a year later. We sent in the credit card receipt and then they left us alone.
At minute clinic I was told they don't take my insurance, but I also can't pay cash because they know my insurance exists. They sent me to another clinic with a "closed" sign on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was your “emergency?”

+10000

And OP was able to do a pregnancy test before? The ER is NOT a regular doctors office visit which a lot of people around here use it for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Learn Spanish. Have no ID and say you’re an undocumented immigrant

It’s free.

Crazy how that works right?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rest of us have to pay premiums through the nose because most people are like you and don't have insurance and most don't pay. So we subsidize everyone else. Cry me a river.

YUP!!! Look what obama care did to everyones insurance premiums!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you or your spouse get a corporate job so that you have group health insurance?

I know it sucks having to work for the man and not follow your dreams; I’ve been doing it for 20 years because I need health insurance. But sometimes we need to put our dreams aside and make responsible choices.

Sure, I'd get any corporate job that pays. What about preschool children? Where do I find 4,000 a month to pay for their daycare? Do you think the corporate job will even bring me 4,000 a month?

If you do not currently work, you get a job at Target on nights and weekends to qualify for their insurance. It’s unconscionable that you do not have health insurance for your children. Your spouse could prioritize getting a job with insurance.

He is trying and it takes him weeknights and weekends to get training and apply for a better job. Thank you for caring. He could probably get a much lower paying job with insurance faster, but what's the point?

Then you get the night/weekend job that offers insurance. You chose to have 2 kids and are not providing them with basic care even though you have the ability too. You really think it’s justifiable to not provide your kids with health insurance when you have the ability to?

Also, the ACA subsidiaries phase out at 120k for a family of 4. So you could choose to buy insurance, and not a bronze plan with a high deductible. But you’re not.

Maybe we should just get a basic job and make sure we earn no more than 70K? because at that level the hospital I went to would offer us services for free. (free services for those earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level). I wonder what we would eat and where we would live then. Oh, wait, should we apply for government assistance for food and housing? We have never received any public assistance and don't plan on doing it as long as we can work.

And buying insurance would cost how much? I mean, maybe I don't understand something. Where do I find an insurance that does not cost thousands of dollars in order to get a reasonable deductible? You just don't seem to understand that there is a painful middle ground between those qualifying for free healthcare and those with very high income or very good employer insurance.

I did not post in money and finance forum for a reason. My point was to update whoever might benefit from it that ER costs 20+ times more than urgent care. If anyone is in a situation like ours (and I hope it is temporary). I didn't expect such bills. And pregnancy test does not cost $224. Take the facts if you need, leave the thread if you don't.

The middle ground takes jobs with the government or corporations so they have health insurance for their families. Then they improve their skills to get a better job on the job (if possible) or at night/on weekends. You have a two parent family. One of you can get a job for benefits. The other can get a job for income. You will live where you are living now, and eat what you are eating now. There is no reason for you to not have insurance for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rest of us have to pay premiums through the nose because most people are like you and don't have insurance and most don't pay. So we subsidize everyone else. Cry me a river.

How are you subsidizing me? Illegal immigrants who don't pay anything, yes, but not me. Are you subsidizing my $224 pregnancy test? Is it for the test or for the collection cup?

Illegal immigrants are not paid for their work always. Go after that money. My employer didn't pay any of us for years his part. Someone is getting richer.

Are you undocumented?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s shocking that medical facilities don’t need to publish their schedule of fees in a public place. Then at least everyone could know what they are in for and shop around.

This should be a law.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t read the whole thread so this might have been suggested. Some hospitals offer financial aid for those with low incomes. I also was able to get a bill at one hospital written off for my son. He’s in that donut hole where he earns too much for Medicaid but not enough to pay deductibles and copays - I have a policy for him.

[Anonymous]

Health care should never be tied to employment or what job you are able to get or what you can afford. It's a basic right. We should never have to figure out where to go for timely care by what we can theoretically afford. It's so gross that there's care for the haves and then there's "care" for the have nots. It's just such a horrible way to approach health care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s shocking that medical facilities don’t need to publish their schedule of fees in a public place. Then at least everyone could know what they are in for and shop around.

They are required to do so. Compliance is not great, but it is already required.

https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this sustainable? Is this reasonable? I had to go to the ER for a minor accident and got a few x-rays. I guess I am almost writing this post to dissuade people from going to the ER, especially if you are uninsured. I am, unfortunately. So I got two bills, which was a surprise. 1,500 for the ER visit (with a $224 charge for a pregnancy test! even though I had told them I did a pregnancy test myself just prior to the visit) and a $850 bill (kindly discounted from almost 1000), which totals 2,350 for an ER visit. Next time I just won't go. That's American healthcare. Disgrace. I don't know what to do and I am writing this through tears. Is this for real?

I am being penalized for having a medical need in the evening. Had the urgent care places been available I would have paid way less. I had an experience of going to an urgent care place and they have a very deep discount for self-pay patients. In fact, that visit was similar in scope and I was seen much sooner. It cost me just above $100, including x-rays.

NEVER go to a hospital ER. Thank you, America.

ER's are for life and death situations. That's it.

This isn't super helpful, it's not really true, and the average lay person can't be expected to discern "life and death." First, it's easy to identify a non-life and death situation where an ER is appropriate - a facial laceration. That needs to be seen in an ER so that it can be closed by plastics. Second, lay persons (and really anyone without imaging studies) can't truly distinguish life and death situations. Stomach pain in a 52 year old woman? Could be an MI, but no way to tell without an ECG. Right sided abdominal pain? Could be appendicitis, but can't tell without imaging. Loss of hearing? Could be ear wax impaction or could be an ENT emergency, but can't tell without at least an otoscope.

[Anonymous]

American health care system is corrupt.

Nearly 20 percent of the 389 E.R. doctors surveyed said they had been threatened for raising quality-of-care concerns, and pressured to make decisions based on financial considerations that could be detrimental to the people in their care, like being pushed to discharge Medicare and Medicaid patients or being encouraged to order more testing than necessary. In another study, more than 70 percent of emergency physicians agreed that the corporatization of their field has had a negative or strongly negative impact on the quality of care and on their own job satisfaction.
Link https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/magazine/doctors-moral-crises.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you or your spouse get a corporate job so that you have group health insurance?

I know it sucks having to work for the man and not follow your dreams; I’ve been doing it for 20 years because I need health insurance. But sometimes we need to put our dreams aside and make responsible choices.

Sure, I'd get any corporate job that pays. What about preschool children? Where do I find 4,000 a month to pay for their daycare? Do you think the corporate job will even bring me 4,000 a month?

If you do not currently work, you get a job at Target on nights and weekends to qualify for their insurance. It’s unconscionable that you do not have health insurance for your children. Your spouse could prioritize getting a job with insurance.

He is trying and it takes him weeknights and weekends to get training and apply for a better job. Thank you for caring. He could probably get a much lower paying job with insurance faster, but what's the point?

Then you get the night/weekend job that offers insurance. You chose to have 2 kids and are not providing them with basic care even though you have the ability too. You really think it’s justifiable to not provide your kids with health insurance when you have the ability to?

Also, the ACA subsidiaries phase out at 120k for a family of 4. So you could choose to buy insurance, and not a bronze plan with a high deductible. But you’re not.

Maybe we should just get a basic job and make sure we earn no more than 70K? because at that level the hospital I went to would offer us services for free. (free services for those earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level). I wonder what we would eat and where we would live then. Oh, wait, should we apply for government assistance for food and housing? We have never received any public assistance and don't plan on doing it as long as we can work.

And buying insurance would cost how much? I mean, maybe I don't understand something. Where do I find an insurance that does not cost thousands of dollars in order to get a reasonable deductible? You just don't seem to understand that there is a painful middle ground between those qualifying for free healthcare and those with very high income or very good employer insurance.

I did not post in money and finance forum for a reason. My point was to update whoever might benefit from it that ER costs 20+ times more than urgent care. If anyone is in a situation like ours (and I hope it is temporary). I didn't expect such bills. And pregnancy test does not cost $224. Take the facts if you need, leave the thread if you don't.

The middle ground takes jobs with the government or corporations so they have health insurance for their families. Then they improve their skills to get a better job on the job (if possible) or at night/on weekends. You have a two parent family. One of you can get a job for benefits. The other can get a job for income. You will live where you are living now, and eat what you are eating now. There is no reason for you to not have insurance for your family.

+1 OP just wants to bury her head in the sand and pretend they can’t afford it. To not get ACA subsidies their income is over 120k.

She just doesn’t want to make the choices to afford the insurance. Either by the spouse changing jobs, and lets not pretend he’s working a low wage job at that salary. Or she works nights/weekends at a job that provides benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am uninsured because ACA is not A for me, it's Unafforadble (UCA). I am not entirely low income but in the very uncomfortable middle for whom ACA costs are too expensive. Monthly premiums higher than 1,000 and a deductible of $18,000. What would the ACA coverage help me with in this case? Nada, for $1,000+ a month, I would have to pay this 2,350 bill out of pocket as part of deductible!

I'm not sure about your pricing, but I am in my late 50's and have an ACA plan in MD. It's the BCBS HMO Gold. $1000 deductible. $6500 max OOP. Without premium support it is about $650/month. I choose to take premium support as a tax refund at the end of the year (for financial reasons that are particular to me), so it probably winds up costing half that or less.

I had cancer & a double mastectomy this year. I used all in network docs and had great care (so far, knock wood). The negotiated rate is far below the charged rate, and my copays are reasonable - except for my MRIs for cancer ($250 copay), which, thanks to Gov. Wes Moore will free next year in MD! My surgery charges alone are $200K but I will pay a max OOP of $6500.

I went many years without healthcare. Because of a benign breast lump when I was young, I was uninsurable unless I had an employer who offered employer-based insurance (not all employers offered that). Had I gotten my breast cancer in my late 20's, I would have died without treatment or been bankrupt. So, thank you, President Obama and the ACA!

(That said, I still think the US should have free national healthcare like the rest of the developed world.)

The ACA is open until Jan. 15, so I respectfully suggest you look again more carefully at plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this sustainable? Is this reasonable? I had to go to the ER for a minor accident and got a few x-rays. I guess I am almost writing this post to dissuade people from going to the ER, especially if you are uninsured. I am, unfortunately. So I got two bills, which was a surprise. 1,500 for the ER visit (with a $224 charge for a pregnancy test! even though I had told them I did a pregnancy test myself just prior to the visit) and a $850 bill (kindly discounted from almost 1000), which totals 2,350 for an ER visit. Next time I just won't go. That's American healthcare. Disgrace. I don't know what to do and I am writing this through tears. Is this for real?

I am being penalized for having a medical need in the evening. Had the urgent care places been available I would have paid way less. I had an experience of going to an urgent care place and they have a very deep discount for self-pay patients. In fact, that visit was similar in scope and I was seen much sooner. It cost me just above $100, including x-rays.

NEVER go to a hospital ER. Thank you, America.

ER's are for life and death situations. That's it.

This isn't super helpful, it's not really true, and the average lay person can't be expected to discern "life and death." First, it's easy to identify a non-life and death situation where an ER is appropriate - a facial laceration. That needs to be seen in an ER so that it can be closed by plastics. Second, lay persons (and really anyone without imaging studies) can't truly distinguish life and death situations. Stomach pain in a 52 year old woman? Could be an MI, but no way to tell without an ECG. Right sided abdominal pain? Could be appendicitis, but can't tell without imaging. Loss of hearing? Could be ear wax impaction or could be an ENT emergency, but can't tell without at least an otoscope.

You can get a otoscope that takes pictures on amazon and do an online doctor pretty affordably.