Posted on 09/09/2019 11:30:49 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
Heather Waldron and John Hawley are losing their four-bedroom house in the hills above Blacksburg, Va. A teenage daughter, one of their five children, sold her clothes for spending money. They worried about paying the electric bill. Financial disaster, they say, contributed to their divorce, finalized in April.
Their money problems began when the University of Virginia Health System pursued the couple with a lawsuit and a lien on their home to recoup $164,000 in charges for Waldron’s emergency surgery in 2017.
The family has lots of company: Over six years ending in June 2018, the health system and its doctors sued former patients more than 36,000 times for over $106 million, seizing wages and bank accounts, putting liens on property and homes and forcing families into bankruptcy, a Kaiser Health News analysis has found.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Democrats have been in the governorship in Virginia for years (Kaine the Dim; Warner the Dull; Northam the abortionist;) Can only recall one Republican in recent years.
The Democrats mantra is “Rule and ruin”.
I have many friends and acquaintances that have had remarkably different experiences. 50% to 90% savings. But you have to ask.
I had an emergency room visit about 8 months ago and when my wife went in to pay the bill, they cut it in half. She had to negotiate, though.
Fact is, medical work, without insurance, is like any other work that needs to be done to a car, house, etc. And when you are asking someone to do something that is going to take a grand total of 1 hour of their time, and one our of one or two other people, it may cost a few hundred or even a thousand. It shouldn’t cost tens of thousands. And when you get a quote up front, it doesn’t.
Medical care isn’t really all that expensive. What is expensive is insured medical care.
I’m glad you received the discount. I did ask my GP and he turned me down, although that was only for a visit and not surgery.
I had a friend that had a bill of $17,000. When he offered to write a check for $4,000, they accepted. As I’ve discussed this with various people both in person and on the internet, I’ve discovered lots and LOTS of stories about huge discounts from the original price. And most of them were negotiated after the fact.
Bottom line is that there is no reason something that takes anyone with a status less than God an hour or two to do something should not cost tens of thousands of dollars, regardless of what “magic” equipment they use. And one easy way to save tons of dollars is to always be an outpatient.
BTW, in my little emergency room visit, we negotiated everything down and my wife asked if that was everything. The lady said yes. Six months later we get a collection notice for not paying the doctor. They said they had sent multiple bills. We received none. It was for $700 and we paid it. What the doctor actually did was come in the room with his hands in his pocket and tell me I’m fine and he left.
That and his perusal of the cat-scan (or whatever kind of scan it was) cost $700.
The only way I’ll ever go to an emergency room again is if either I’m unconscious or I’m squirting blood from multiple wounds.
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