if only that was true. go to a DR. and ask him what a simple proceedure will cost like wart removal... then offer to pay 10% less cash on the spot. medical billing is a hugh expense for private practices, and if they can aviod it they will.
BTW your statement is fundimentally flawed, since people that cannot pay "charity cases" pay $0 and paying customers or persons with insurance pay the Bill $0 + X
Yes, I must have missed that.
No smugness here.
Plus any one that goes to the doctor often to treat ongoing diseases will tell you that the insurance company and the hospital/doctors will go back in forth over the price of procedures. The insurance company will try to tell the doctors, sucessfully I might add, what they can charge. And sometimes the doctors will employ a collection company to come after you for the difference even though this is an illegal practice. And I bet a ton of people end up paying this money thinking they have to, afraid that not paying will effect thier credit score.
Three days after starting a long section hike I decided to go home because I was not feeling well. (Just coming on 2 years ago) A few days later I was in the ER which resulted in a 2 week stay. Seems I had an infected liver abcess which could have killed me - painfully - if it had burst while I was still on the trail. I was later told I got to the ER "just in time".
Bottom line is I had no insurance. The hospital cut me a deal. $23,000 cash and that would cover any additional treatment until the end of the year. It was May when this happend. Not a bad deal, considering I also got a colonospicy out of it (usually $6K) and quite a few CAT scans at $1K each.
Seeing that a lot of people spend a grand a month on health insurance, I figure I'm well ahead of the game, even with that big of an out of pocket cash payment. However, I could never afford to get sick like that again, now that they took most of my money...
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http://www.goldenrule.com/health/sho...m-health.shtml
Ours was a few hundred bucks for 6 months while my insurance with my employer was lapsed in 2005 on my leave of absence and in 2001 when we had just graduated.
Highly recommend it!
Actually no unless you own something the vampires can legally steal from you. Granted this means most people do need to pay protection money i.e. "health insurance".
If you have insurance right now, go to your doctor and request travel medications. My doctor gave me a month prescription of one type of antibiotics for infections, another month's worth of another antibiotic for intestinal infections and a month's supply of Vicodin for pain. That way I could self treat for most infectious things and if I broke or sprained something I could kill the pain long enough to get to a hospital. I never actually used any of it. As for insurance, I think I paid for Cobra. A waste of money that was. I agree with Blue Jay but I still seem to always have health insurance.
Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane.
I hiked the PCT: Mexico to Mt. Shasta, 2008. Santa Barbara to Canada, 2009.
Every health insurance company has used its monopoly power to require physicians, hostpitals, etc. to write off a very substantial portion of each and every charge----check out a Statement of Benefits on a claim. I see no reason why every individual shouldn't get the same discount.
Handlebar
GA-ME 06; PCT 08; CDT 10,11,12; ALT 11; MSPA 12; CT 13; Sheltowee 14; AZT 14, 15; LT 15;FT 16;NCT-NY&PA 16; GET 17-18
As to doctor/hospital trips during a hike: On the AT, I saw a physician for hip tendonitis (prescribed rest, stretching, icing, and heavy duty ibuprofen for 2 weeks that solved the problem) and for Lyme (which I had already diagnosed, but the doc had to write the script for doxycycline). On the PCT, no health care issues. On the CDT, I went to a walk in clinic to get a script for flagyl (to treat a nasty case of giardiasis I picked up from being lazy and drinking from a, as it turned out, not so pristine mountain stream). I'm a slow learner and went to doc on each of my CDT chunks so far. Hopefully, I'll be a little more cautious for the remaining 500 miles.
As to insurance, if you have assets (house, car, bank account) then it makes sense to have at least catastrophic coverage (say with $2500 deductible) so an accident such as a broken leg won't wind up depleting those assets.
Handlebar
GA-ME 06; PCT 08; CDT 10,11,12; ALT 11; MSPA 12; CT 13; Sheltowee 14; AZT 14, 15; LT 15;FT 16;NCT-NY&PA 16; GET 17-18
Personal poor care of our bodies is what is making our health costs so high not people with no insurance. I didn't see 50 percent of overweight people 30 yrs ago . when I went to school there was one overweight person in 300
A "write off" or "charge off" is an internal accounting procedure to balance their books. It is NOT a negotiation as to the amount owed, it does NOT relieve a person of their obligation to pay for services, nor does it prevent the creditor from attempting to collect on that debt in the future. And if a the creditor were to "cancel" the debt you may receive a 1099-C for the amount canceled, which would be considered taxable income in the year it is canceled.
In reality, having insurance is a no-brainer. Gap insurance is easy and relatively cheap and is for 6 mo or so is one option. Having a high deductible health plan is another way to go, prices are reflected by your state of residence and www.ehealthinsurance.com is a good place to check for your states rates. For the price of a hotel room once a month, it is a good idea to have because that one fall and you break your leg could be thousands of dollars, possible legal problems, and possible bankruptcy and credit problems for some. Not worth that hotel room price you could of paid now...huh.
Just keep in mind Turtle, that some reading this think you can just get a free ride when you hurt yourself. That the hospitals or doctors will just kindly help you with potentially serious issues and just 'write it off'.
NOT being insured AND being active is NOT responsible at all UNLESS you intend on paying for your mistakes completely and not putting the burden of bad decisions on the rest of us.