Re:Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
by tptacek on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @04:33PM
(#45738745)
American student loan debt skews sharply towards the top income quartile.
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Re:Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
by gedy on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @04:39PM
(#45738835)
Yes, granted it was over 20 years ago, but I came from a pretty broke household in the United States, and I went to a cheap state school instead of a nicer university or private school because I couldn’t imagine borrowing for school. The folks I know who were much more well off, seem to have had no problem borrowing what I considered to be exorbitant sums to both pay for school and live off of.
Re:Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
by tptacek on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @04:40PM
(#45738850)
In a redistributive sense it is very much like American homeowners complaining about their mortgage debt.
Re:Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
by throwforfeds on Wednesday October 29, 2025 @11:48AM
(#45748464)
Yes, but I also know plenty of people that can't afford the loans that they have. I have friends and family that after a decade or more of repayment still owe the same amount they did when they got out of school. Some aren't paying theirs at all. It's going to be a problem, as only a third of borrowers are actually making payments [1], and debt forgiveness isn't going to solve the root of the problem.
Of course we can blame them for taking $60k out for studying something that will never get them a good paying job, but these are 18 year olds. I was lucky in that my parents are immigrants and were like "absolutely not, this is crazy, go to the flagship state school and study science". I paid off my $24k in loans in a couple years. Many didn't take that path.
[1] Bloomberg archive link: https://archive.ph/IBuzw