J
Joe
Guest
Did you live ? It will get much better when the Government takes over ? ROTFLMAO ! Why didnt you just do it your self like you fix your own car because everyone in the world is a thief to you ? What do you do for a living that makes you better then a doctor or a auto mechanic ?I find the difference in the billed amount and what the insurance company agreement is for to be shocking. A hospital will bill someone $500 for a procedure, if you don't have insurance, and they will accept $89 from the insurance company for the same procedure. Now what did it cost?
Some years ago, I was in west Texas and I got a piece of steak stuck in my esophagus. Now this quickly became a major problem, since I couldn't swallow and I was camping out in 100 degree weather. I ended up in the hospital in Amarillo. This had happened before, I told them what the problem was. They insisted on a barium x ray. Now I can't swallow water or my own saliva but they wanted me to swallow barium---DUH what part of --I can't swallow did they not understand. There was only reason for that try at an x ray, it was to run the bill up. I spewed barium all over the x ray room, the equipment and the tech. Of course this arranging this took another 2+ hours and I was getting more and more dehydrated. Then they called a thoracic surgeon, instead of a gastroenterologist to remove it.
A little over a year before this, the same thing had happened in Penn, the bill from Amarillo was over twice what the earlier one had been. Not only that, but the delay, and not calling the correct doctor caused me to take longer to recover from it. I did not have insurance at the time. We were paying on the bill from Penn. and couldn't afford paying on both, unless we stopped eating. When the collection agency called, I told them that we could pay $25 a month, they refused that and were insisting on $200. When one of the callers told me that I should have not went to the hospital, if I couldn't pay the bill, and I pointed out that dehydration is fatal in 36-48 hrs, he told me that I still should have not went to the hospital. Then I was mad, and I decided to just take the hit on my credit rating.
Overcharged, mistreated and then insulted. Yep that is the 'great American Health care system' if you don't have insurance.