The hospitals are refusing initial admission to Medicare patients right now.
They are considered out-patients even if they stay a couple of nights.
It’s game playing and book juggling at it’s worst.
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The ever changing laws and regulations will take care of that outpatient dodge soon enough. I have done a so far cursory glance at international insurance. Cygna has a single plan for $418 a month. That is too much considering the costs in the countries I would go to. But is lower than the last time I checked. Lots of other companies are getting into the field. I will look for foreign companies. For cash customers without insurance it is far cheaper to buy airfare to Thailand or now the Caribbean, pay for your required operation, recuperate a week in a hotel and fly home than it is to go to a hospital in America. When you go to Costa Rica or Thailand you are not paying the salaries of hordes of bureaucrats and for the treatment of myriad free patients.