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47% Of Americans Can't Even Come Up With $400 To Cover An Emergency Room Visit
zero hedge ^ | 4/21/16 | tyler durden

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; 47percent; emergencyroom; obamacare; zerocare
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To: Yaelle
Twice I counter the triage vs total in the lobby. 5-1 and 4-1
21 posted on 04/21/2016 6:49:05 PM PDT by Domangart
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To: Nachum

There is that pesky 47% number again. Romney was wrong about a lot of things but he nailed that 47% number. It even pissed off the liberal, state controlled “media” so bad they all had to go hide in their “safe zones” until they could be rescued by their shrinks. Forty seven percent of the people in this country are riding on the backs of the other 53%.


22 posted on 04/21/2016 6:49:08 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (The "college" snowflakes need to check their American privilege. Everything isn't a right.)
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To: Catmom

This is Serfdom by any name.


23 posted on 04/21/2016 6:49:42 PM PDT by x_plus_one (Lose with Cruz.)
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To: Yaelle
Twice I counted the triage vs total in the lobby. 5-1 and 4-1
24 posted on 04/21/2016 6:49:44 PM PDT by Domangart
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To: Fai Mao

Quite a few, I am sure.


25 posted on 04/21/2016 6:49:47 PM PDT by bigredkitty1 (March 5,2010. Rest in peace, sweet boy. I will miss you, Big Red.)
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To: dforest; Gamecock; Larry Lucido; KC_Lion; FredZarguna; PROCON

[Tell me where you can find an ER and a 400 buck visit. LOL]

Elaine knows.

Not shot. Dog bite! ‘Woof! Woof!’. Not ‘Bang! Bang!’.


26 posted on 04/21/2016 6:50:17 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: Nachum

Neal Gabler tried to live an upper-middle-class life while working as a writer. He was somewhat successful for a while, but eventual an irregular income catches up with you.


27 posted on 04/21/2016 6:50:21 PM PDT by proxy_user
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To: minnesota_bound
Prince was in a hospital but after waiting 2 hours he left.

Because he asked for a private room, and they wouldn't let him have one.

28 posted on 04/21/2016 6:51:49 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Nachum

Thirty five years ago I took my daughter to the emergency room. There was a couple ahead of us with a child and no money.
They got good treatment and it didn’t cost them anything out of pocket.

When our turn came, we had INSURANCE and still had to come up with $100 deductable for service.


29 posted on 04/21/2016 6:52:42 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Nachum

My better half went to the hospital(I was right all along with the strained knee...cartiledge/tendon strecthed)...after an X-ray and ulta-sound...it was an initial bill of 1600$....they deducted an amount of 400 some odd dollars (adjustment) that the bambi care she has never paid....because she will never meet the yearly deductible of 5,700 a year....so anyway it came to a magical amount of 1,079 and change....the insurance would only pay 822 $ of the initial billing so I called and offered 600$ now or they will get 10 dollars a month for ever....they refused my offer I told them F ya then....(I have no bambi insurance I consider it illegal/illegitimate)...I have a co-op of doctors that take NO insurance of any kind from the government...cash or credit period ...prices known before service...I am self-employed....never make above poverty level (whatever that is)....claim way over on fed tax and basically tell the fed F U....go give money to some sand monkey here illegally. Bullshit rates and they would not take a 600$ payment ....but will opt to send billing forever...Fk em...my last words to the idiot on the phone from Maine general hospital.


30 posted on 04/21/2016 6:53:16 PM PDT by mythenjoseph (Separation of powers)
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To: Nachum

Poor are poor — for the most part — because they are lazy, stupid, or both. This is why pandering to poor people with free obamaphones, foodstamps, or “jobs from Mexico”, will result in a poor and a demoralized nation.


31 posted on 04/21/2016 6:53:47 PM PDT by sagar
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To: Nachum

47% of Americans are bums? How many are RAT voters? All?


32 posted on 04/21/2016 6:57:07 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Nachum

Here is the link to the actual source. Allows you to look at it a bit more in scope.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/47-percent-of-americans-cannot-even-come-up-with-400-to-cover-an-emergency-room-visit


33 posted on 04/21/2016 6:57:19 PM PDT by Fhios (Going Donald Trump is as close to going John Galt as we'll get.)
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To: Nachum

Might just mean that people aren’t very good at budgeting.

You could make a million dollars a month and spend a million dollars a month and never save any money.


34 posted on 04/21/2016 6:57:26 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Nachum

35 posted on 04/21/2016 6:58:31 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (HTTP 500 - Internal Server Error)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

There should be an urgency room for people who can pay.


36 posted on 04/21/2016 6:59:56 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Michael.SF.

Yup.

The same 47% that pay nothing in taxes and get others money back.


37 posted on 04/21/2016 7:00:30 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Nachum; All
"47% Of Americans
Can't Even Come Up With $400
To Cover An Emergency Room Visit...."




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38 posted on 04/21/2016 7:03:23 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: Berlin_Freeper

http://youtu.be/JA6id4—BDg


39 posted on 04/21/2016 7:03:39 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Nachum

Why don’t they just..... charge it?

Isn’t that what everyone does these days?


40 posted on 04/21/2016 7:03:56 PM PDT by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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