after the fact I realized I misspelled "buy." I can use arthritic fingers, old age or failure to adjust, but I don't like any of these excuses/reasons.
This is true. Wife is a couple years away from medicare and we are basically using her SS payment to pay the $5000 deductible obama care.
Over $1000 per month.
Every month I keep getting flashbacks of obummer lying to the American public saying
you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan, and the average American family will save $2500 a year.
We are paying over $13,000 a year for catastrophic obamacare insurance with a $5000 deductible, so all medical other than a big event is out of our back pocket.
I havent seen all the bills from 2017 till today but with 3 different events, i'm pretty sure the medical bills are adding up to somewhere close to 7 figures. My ins. saved my bacon and I do not recommend anyone go without insurance unless you have a net worth of 2 million. with half of it liquid to be able to pay cash for medical stuff. And heaven forbid, do not tell the hospital you have money, ask for a reduced cash payment plan, and once you get the bill in writing, write a check and walk LOL
Insurance companies often have contracts with hospitals and other health care providers that drastically reduces the amount they actually pay. Even if you have resources to pay cash, I don't know that you can get the discounts that insurance companies do. By discounts, I mean we accidentally were billed once for my wife's procedure, and when we checked with the insurance company, they had already paid it but the amount they paid was like 10% of what we were billed, because they were contracted with the hospital they said.
They all do this.
HSA eligible plan? If not it's a triple tax vehicle. Dunno how often she goes to the doc but if she doesn't go often, worth a look.
Several years ago my dad had a heart attack, he did not have any insurance.
He had a ambulance ride, 2 hospital bills, the bill at the heart hospital that he was finally taken to, the room for 4 days, & etc.
When he told the hospital that he didn't have any insurance & was self pay, & would need to set up a payment plan, they wrote off about 91% of his bill.
His total payments were less than $8000, & he had that paid off in less than a year.
That is not going to make someone homeless. The hospitals grossly overcharge for everything cause they know the insurance companies are involved.
By the way, my dad has an insurance now, thru my moms policy where she works, but by adding him, she doesn't get to bring much home. She is basically working full time just for insurance coverage. & to me that is grossly overcharging too.
He had a ambulance ride, 2 hospital bills, the bill at the heart hospital that he was finally taken to, the room for 4 days, & etc.
When he told the hospital that he didn't have any insurance & was self pay, & would need to set up a payment plan, they wrote off about 91% of his bill.
His total payments were less than $8000, & he had that paid off in less than a year.
That is not going to make someone homeless. The hospitals grossly overcharge for everything cause they know the insurance companies are involved.
By the way, my dad has an insurance now, thru my moms policy where she works, but by adding him, she doesn't get to bring much home. She is basically working full time just for insurance coverage. & to me that is grossly overcharging too.
That's really good for him but...
THAT hospital did that and THAT is not a written policy across all hospitals.
Heres a different case that I know happened to a lady I am acquainted with. Husband had cancer and no insurance, all his treatment came to .5 mil over a year or 2. He died and the bill to her (as a self payer) was somewhere around $250k. That would bankrupt many people but luckily she had money. It probably wiped out most of her retirement because she kept working till SS kicked in. So they discounted 50% of the bill, not 91%.
Now tell me again it never happens.
It happens, but so does the hospital reducing things.
Youngest son had to have a stent put in when he was in his 30's. He didn't have insurance, so the wife and I were going to help him pay it off. All we asked him to do was ask the hospital for an itemized list of charges so we wouldn't be paying for something that he never got. They found out from him that he didn't have insurance.
They called him back and told him he owed nothing. The hospitals get donations that can be used to help uninsured people's bills be paid. That is what helped him.
When the wife went 3 years after retirement and before Medicare, she always told them she was self pay. For the most part, they generally discounted her bill by 50%, and labs discounted by 40%.
Youngest son had to have a stent put in when he was in his 30's. He didn't have insurance, so the wife and I were going to help him pay it off. All we asked him to do was ask the hospital for an itemized list of charges so we wouldn't be paying for something that he never got. They found out from him that he didn't have insurance.
They called him back and told him he owed nothing. The hospitals get donations that can be used to help uninsured people's bills be paid. That is what helped him.
When the wife went 3 years after retirement and before Medicare, she always told them she was self pay. For the most part, they generally discounted her bill by 50%, and labs discounted by 40%.
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