Posted on 04/21/2016 6:32:03 PM PDT by Nachum
If you had to make a sudden visit to the emergency room, would you have enough money to pay for it without selling something or borrowing the funds from somewhere?
Most Americans may not realize this, but this is something that the Federal Reserve has actually been tracking for several years now. And according to the Fed, an astounding 47 percent of all Americans could not come up with $400 to pay for an emergency room visit without borrowing it or selling something.
Various surveys that I have talked about in the past have found that more than 60 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck, but I didn’t realize that things were quite this bad for about half the country. If you can’t even come up with $400 for an unexpected emergency room visit, then you are just surviving from month to month by the skin of your teeth. Unfortunately, about half of us are currently in that situation.
Earlier today someone pointed me toward an excellent article in The Atlantic that discussed this, and I have to admit that The Atlantic is one of the last remaining bastions of old school excellence in journalism that you will find in the mainstream media. Of course I don’t see eye to eye with them on a lot of things philosophically, but there are some really hard working journalists over there.
The article where I found the 47 percent figure comes from The Atlantic, and it is entitled “The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans“. It was authored by Neal Gabler, and he says that he can identify with the 47 percent of Americans that don’t have $400 for an unexpected emergency room visit because he is one of them…
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
The list, Ping
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That’s why the other 53% are allowed to exist.
Would that be the same 47% who believe the other 53% are not doing enough to make their lives better?
and the other 53% are on the government dole
How many of that 47% have $1200 smart phones?
[Various surveys that I have talked about in the past have found that more than 60 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck, but I didn’t realize that things were quite this bad for about half the country. If you can’t even come up with $400 for an unexpected emergency room visit, then you are just surviving from month to month by the skin of your teeth. Unfortunately, about half of us are currently in that situation.]
I think it’s far more than half, IMHO.
Fortunately most ERs will let you make installment payments... at least until they send the account to a bill collector.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha etc!!!!!!
DOES THAT WRITER THINK ALL THOSE PEOPLE WAITING IN THE ER WAITING ROOM ACTUALLY PAID ANYTHING???????
People used to survive paycheck to paycheck , now it’s direct deposit to direct deposit.
well, approximately 47% (some 100 million) of adult working age Americans are without regular employment (Obama Depression continues....).... so maybe this makes sense, statistically speaking
it is still shocking, though
it is fascinating (and awful, imho) that the more Obama and the new CommieDemocrats destroy the American economy (and reduce employment opportunities), the more suffering they create, enable, foster, or encourage..... the more support they create for “more activist, progressive/communist/socialist” new programs (and higher taxes) ... which, of course, continue to destroy the economy and jobs even further
a downwards spiral for America (but super-duper for the new CommieDemocrat party bosses!!!)
I would, until my $1900 Health Insurance Premium comes out of the Checking Account on the first of the Month.
I try to plan my Emergency Room Visits for the middle of the Month.
So far, so good.
Tell me where you can find an ER and a 400 buck visit. LOL
ZeroCare at its finest
Illegals can go the the ER for free.
Prince was in a hospital but after waiting 2 hours he left. I guess he could not convince the hospital that he could pay $400.......
So much for “hope and change”.
I wonder if they might be able to attribute this to the fact the average taxpayer pays 62% of their income out in Federal, State and local taxes.
That’s why it is called an emergency.
If one has insurance, make the facility run the billing through the insurance carrier FIRST. This will ensure the amount paid is the true patient responsible amount. Medical providers are horrible about returning amounts paid by patients not owed after insurance pays. Just a little tip.
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