What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by vkou on Thursday December 20, 2018 @01:31AM (#18722916)

Most? Like, over 50%?

If this is true, the system is completely broken.

If it's not true, then the system is completely broken, but in a different way.

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Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by null000 on Thursday December 20, 2018 @01:55AM (#18722998)

But yeah, I assume it's a combination of: * Most people pay through their insurance, so they don't have to pay the sticker price or anything resembling it * Some people going on payment plans and getting stuck in debt basically forever * Some people bargaining their bill down, paying pennies on the dollar * Some people going into collection, paying pennies on the dollar

Of course, it's absurd that all 3 out of 4 paths require you to take extra, often really painful steps (collection + bankruptcy, maintaining insurance, or long drawn-out negotiation) just to pay a reasonable price for something that is 100% non-optional and most countries provide for much-closer-to-free. But that's kinda what happens when the system is broken

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Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by eli on Thursday December 20, 2018 @09:29AM (#18725113)

Depends how you measure, but I feel pretty confident saying that most US hospital bills have never been fully paid off.

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