While it is true that Congresscritters are forced to BUY a plan on the ACA, they aren’t the ones paying for it and they probably aren’t even using it.
72% of that plan is paid for by our tax dollars. And Congressfolks are eligible for free health care at any military facility in the area, so… why would they go to a Privatized Hospital where they have to, you know, pay for things?
From Snopes:
The second option is also only available to current Members of Congress. In the Capital region only, they may receive free medical outpatient care at military facilities.
…
Finally, upon separation from political life, Members of Congress may purchase FEHBP insurance if they are otherwise eligible for retirement and if they have had five years of continuous healthcare coverage under their DC SHOP plans.
So when they retire, they go back on that single-payer goodness.
Adding to the fun is that out-of-network doctors will sometimes poke their heads into one’s in-network hospital or ER treatment area, adding hundreds if not thousands of dollars to the bill.
Yep, and even in cases where the treatment is planned out ahead of time, and where the patients makes sure everyone involved is in-network - e.g. a surgery - even then one can find that an out-of-network doc unexpectedly appeared in the process (where it gets really expensive). In between this and someone pointing out that mass-shooting survivors now have preexisting conditions (because if you didn’t get injured, you’ll probably have PTSD), which Republicans dismiss as being due to poor lifestyle choices, it’s hard to imagine anyone buying into the Republican health care narrative, it’s so obviously monstrous and broken.
If a good or service is priced outside of what is considered reasonable, then I think the provider is responsible for informing before services are rendered.
I would argue that the hospital violated basic contract law and Uniform Commercial Code, and probably should not receive payment beyond what the insurance company has already paid.
I think there are two options worth considering:
encourage the insurance company to fight the issue;
because the amount is under $10k, take the hospital to small claims court. I think the key is to get the ruling to be the exact amount already paid and walk away with nothing other than spending an afternoon waiting for your hearing.
Obviously it’s hugely inconvenient and stressful to have to fight for every little thing in this world. It’s not fair at all and I consider it a sign that the system is broken. I think these businesses (a hospital is a business) thrive on having a huge advantage when it comes to time and resources to fight a legal battle. Your average person doesn’t have the legal stamina to wage a courtroom siege, but I think we can start taking little jabs and punches when we can and retrain the system in our favor.
Also it is rather unfortunate that small claims court works differently in every state. In some states there is a significant advantage for an individual versus a business. Other states required arbitration or ADR (alternative dispute resolution), which is frequently more costly than free small claims court and often not biased towards consumers.
Something like this happened to someone i knew years ago. She had been in a nasty car accident and fractured her leg, she was taken to a hospital and all they did was take an xray and then told she’d have to go elsewhere to take care of the leg. For the Xray they tried charging her some crazy amount, she wrote them a letter telling them to go stuff it and enclosed was a check for $100. They tried to go after her over the bill but eventually gave up.
Mmhm; I had to have semi-emergency eye surgery yesterday (Wednesday); referred from my GP on Monday, at no cost to me. I’m in Canada. But, but, “months of waiting” and DEATH PANELS! DEATH PANELS!
A local ER tried to charge me a $1200 “room charge” when I took my daughter there for a dislocated finger. They had her lay down on a gurney in the hall and in under 2 minutes had the finger popped back into it’s joint and recommended but did not provide an icepack and ibuprofin. (There were other charges but the room charge was the most outlandish.)
After some back and forth they magnanimously decided to just waive the room charge because it wasn’t a big deal. I was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied since they made it seem like they were doing me a favor to waive the fee.
I’ve always lived in countries with socialised medical care. The attitude towards it in the US is perhaps inexplicable/incomprehensible, but may be borne from ignorance. No thinking, informed person could believe that what they have is better. It is more expensive, unfair and with worse outcomes. No upside.
I recently cut the top of my left hand, right at the first knuckle of my pointer finger.
The cut was about 3/4 of an inch long and deep enough to see bone.
I bought a 12-pack of butterfly bandages, a 10 pack of knuckle band-aids, a box of cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, and a tube of neosporin. Total = 20 dollars.
After careful cleaning and bandaging for 2 days, the wound was knitted together nicely.
I know that I was rolling the dice with infection, but 1000+ dollars for a few stitches is something I would like to avoid.
Related note to self, wear gloves when working with sharp objects.
Add to that I believe socialized medicine above all other government programs give the citizenry a sense that they’re all in this together. Otherwise is appears like an “eff you, I got mine” system. Little wonder people don’t care for society at large. Why should they when it couldn’t give a rat’s ass about you?
