Woman injured in subway accident begs to not have ambulance out of fear of costs - Sensationalist Headlines

America is the most assbackwards, underdeveloped first world country. Or maybe it’s the most developed third world country.

It baffles me too. I wouldn't move to the US even if someone payed me to do it. I wouldn't even go there on vacation.

I went to the ER in 2016 for some severe stomach pain that just ended up being me being really really low on potassium so I went home that same night after getting a potassium pill and some painkillers. They're still hounding me two years later about the $2000+ that I owe lol. Not paying that shit, absolutely ridiculous.

Where on earth did you get "not even top 10" from?

I don't think that link properly shows it, it defaulted to just the GDP PPP. On the right you can select GDP PPP per capita, but I think this should work too: GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) | Data Anyway, I guess I misinterpreted the original comment. It doesn't change my arguments though. Richness of a country has nothing to do with the US's (lack of a) healthcare system. In fact, it seems like it's one of the only rich Western countries that doesn't have proper healthcare.

Yeah, I know you said that you misinterpreted the original comment but that was kind of the point. We're pretty rich (not super rich per capita in terms of PPP, but in other measures we are still rich, and 11th ain't poor anyway) and yet we can't get it together enough to provide for our citizenry's basic necessities the way other developed nations can. Worse are all the people claiming socialized healthcare can't work... despite many other nations getting along just fine (even better than we do) with it.

I had to take an ambulance in april and it was a flat 135$ fee that the hospital meekly had to remind me existed a month after and even then they had payment plans.

All non rich Americans hate the healthcare system. It's just that it hasn't hit the required level of life ruining to get people to admit they made a mistake and vote for different people.

nah, unless it comes to the level of hospitals spiriting away patients to sell on the organ black market, they'll still probably believe owning the libtards and getting butthurt over being told they picked the wrong horse to back has a higher priority.

I owe the hospital 2,500, I have for almost 4 years, and I haven't payed them shit, and I am not going too.

They might at least stop outwardly supporting the GOP if it personally affects them.

What happens if you don't pay them?

Yep - if something has a "true" cost to the hospital of x dollars, they will price it at crazy percentages, to make sure that they break even, even when being reimbursed 30% of their advertised price. Hence why they'll often negotiate much lower prices for self payers. It's fucked as hell. Glad I am in the NHS, where the only time I charge people is when doing private jobs.

Depends on how badly they want the money. Sometimes they'll send it to collections which will send you an infinite amount of e-mails, letters, or phone calls in order to collect before they try and sue you for it. Other times they just drop the matter altogether. So whooo knows. It's luck of the draw!

this genuinely enraged me what the everliving fuck

Destroy your credit. The only things effecting my credit is a S200 medical bill (which was 1 of 3 separate bills I received for a CAT-scan (the $200 one of which I never knew about until it became a collections agency issue)), and a credit card that my mom opened under my name to pay EZ-Pass (a form of convenient toll-road access). I checked my credit score/report to find out my mom never missed a payment for the past year she has been doing this, so the only thing that penalizes my credit score is the medical bill. My credit score was below 550 when I last checked it in January.

Either they gain authority to garnish your wages, or they just say fuck it and sell your debt to someone else.

i had a 10$ copay and they sent it to collections instead of billing me

OR you could injure yourself so much that the debt you owe them for your treatment is worth keeping you alive for as long as possible, because their financial wellbeing is directly tied to your continued existence. If you owe the hospital $10,000, that's your problem. If you owe the hospital $10,000,000, that's their problem.

Or you just end up filing for bankruptcy.

When I run EMS bills are usually 700-800 plus 25 per mile. ALS (medics) are usually thousands.

I actually did have a $15 copay sent to collections that I was unaware even existed because apparently updating your address with the University doesn't update it with the University med center. Collections never even called me either, I found out about it when I applied for a credit card and got declined which dings your credit even harder.

I told the wife that if I'm needing another hospital visit, to just let me die. I've been paying medical debt since 2014. Off and on, over $20k total. I'm tired of being a prisoner to trying to stay alive.

the shitty thing is my healthcare plan did cover the visit before but arbitrarily 6 months later they suddenly don't cover visits, and I asked the desk worker if there was a copay and she just said she'd bill it to the insurance company. Its so easy to screw up and get hit with medical insurance