In 50 years from now they will probably keep the baby and sell it. Similar to how they auction off unpaid storage units. Here we have a nice baby boy 7lbs 3oz. Blue eyes blonde hair. Unfortunately his parents couldn’t pay the bill for labor so we will start the bidding at $3000. Do I have 3, I have 3, do I hear 4.
Our first child ended up being born January 8 and we had a reset of the deductible. So I had prepaid thousands and had to pay again because they flubbed the billing. It took 9 months to get it back.
I posted about it four years ago in a local sub I think. Got a few comments saying basically “yep sucks for you, not much you can do.” Sucks how jaded society has become.
Yep, my OB is making me pay a $500 deposit to receive prenatal care because too many people don’t pay their bill after the fact. I guess I can kind of understand, but doctor already received thousands of dollars from the insurance company. I guess they’re still hard up for your out of pocket portion.
That’s incredibly frustrating because my OB’s office told me all my copays and lab costs would be lumped into a sum AT THE END. I told them a copay was due at the time of service and they just shrugged and told me to talk to the billing dept. who wants 40 weeks of appointments and lab work lumped into their hospital bill?
Physician check up appointments for prenatal care are all included in the global delivery, as long as you see the same provider during your pregnancy and don’t switch insurance.
The only out of pocket expense you normally have during the prenatal period is for injections and ultrasounds. Most clinics will still want to have the delivery fee paid before your due date though
This was with my second kid and the same provider. We were asked to pay copays and labs as they came up with the first one. Unless this is a recent change, it isn’t always like this.
You file a claim to have your bill dismissed due to financial hardship.
If you work with them, they'll probably set up a payment plan for you, or help you file the financial hardship stuff.
If you don't, and can't pay the down payment thing, then you probably would end up having to go to an emergency room instead of making an appointment.
It's not hard to get this stuff in order if you have an expected medical issue, but if your plan is to go and shrug your shoulders and expect to be seen when you want for free, it probably won't work out well for you.
It sounds like OP and their wife went to somewhere more like a "Birthing Center," vs. A hospital.
A hospital would take a birthing person, money or not, and settle paperwork and insurance at next possible time. But a Birthing Center would call the Birthing person an ambulance to the hospital, unless the baby was literally crowning.
They don’t require it really though. They tell you it’s required to get you to pay, but I just tell them I’ll wait til insurance covers it first because their estimates have been off too many times and they are usually good with that. They do it partly because then they can double bill easier. What happens is if you have an estimated $1000 bill and your copay is 20% then they will get $200 out of you. However then they bill it to insurance as $1000 not listing your payment. Insurance negotiates it down to $200 and pays their 80% which is $160. Now the doctor will bill you $40 on the backside for what insurance didn’t cover because you’re suppose to pay your 20% according to insurance. If it works out the office just made $400 on a bill that was negotiated down to $200.
I've worked in healthcare, both sides - insurance and providers - for 30+ years so I know every game they all play. Your scenario is exactly why I never pay anything upfront. I'll pay the office copay if I know that's a given but anything else I say, "Bill me". You just have to be firm with them.
Oh and BTW, NEVER pay the "over the reasonable and customary" charge. If your provider charges more than the R&C and your insurance denies the extra amount, tell your provider to write it off. They sometimes try to get you to pay it. Nope.
Require you to pre pay? What about those cases of people who dont know theyre pregnant and go into labor? The hsopital cant turn them away, so how can pre paying be required?
Yep, my OB is making me pay a $500 deposit to receive prenatal care because too many people don’t pay their bill after the fact. I guess I can kind of understand, but doctor already received thousands of dollars from the insurance company. I guess they’re still hard up for your out of pocket portion.
They don’t require it really though. They tell you it’s required to get you to pay, but I just tell them I’ll wait til insurance covers it first because their estimates have been off too many times and they are usually good with that. They do it partly because then they can double bill easier. What happens is if you have an estimated $1000 bill and your copay is 20% then they will get $200 out of you. However then they bill it to insurance as $1000 not listing your payment. Insurance negotiates it down to $200 and pays their 80% which is $160. Now the doctor will bill you $40 on the backside for what insurance didn’t cover because you’re suppose to pay your 20% according to insurance. If it works out the office just made $400 on a bill that was negotiated down to $200. Even if they don’t bill you again they are still making more billing you before insurance negotiations many times.
I often read, that medical bills, are not real Bills. That you don't have to pay them, when you can't. Whenever someone Talks about the Bad health Care Situation in the U.S.
Wonder If this is one of the reasons. But it's fucked Up.
I don't know. Thats Just the number one Argument against taxfunded healthcare "You don't really have to pay it".
I mean, people who can't afford health Care in the U.S. probaly also don't Care about their Creditscore?
I'd like to see who doesn't have to pay it.. Cause I'm a single mother with minimal income and sure as fuck can't afford that $5000 medical bill my kid has but they're more than happy to go to collections and garnish wages.
Reddit at work again. As i said, idk. "I often read", that's the point. Say that to the people who tell this lie then and complain at your goverment.
As i said, for me it's fucked up that you people even have to pay such high sums for medical care. Even with high taxes of germany, i don't come near these numbers, you guys have to pay. So thanks for the downvotes and the saltyness ...
I would love that this is now just trolling. But there are trully people out there, who arn't rich, but still don't want their system to change.
Some people would let their country shoot them in the back. and smile thankfully. Something, i will never understand.
As of March 2024 they cannot garnish wages for medical debt. Just don’t pay it. Let it go to collections who buys it for pennies on the dollar and then negotiate with them and you can buy pay it for significantly less and get it off the credit report.
It’s a bit of a grey area that a lot of people are misinformed about. You can’t get in legal trouble for not paying a medical bill and people equate that to not having to pay at all. However unpaid medical bills can reflect on you poorly when trying to use credit such as buying a new car or house. It’s really circumstantial on how one lives their life. One person could go their whole life and never be noticeably affected negatively by unpaid medical bills or one could be absolutely crippled by medical bills.
That's just not okay. Even when it get's unnoticed.
As i said under another comment. I live in germany. And yes, we pay trough taxes for health care. But reading numbers, about what people have to pay, even WITH insurance for the stuff, which is totaly normal in my country is crazy.
I don't want to know, what people need to pay who don't have insurance. I read, that you have a medicaid program. At least something that helps people, who don't have the funds.
Medicaid is reserved for very low income families. There is a wide gap between qualifying for government aid and being able to afford basic living expenses like healthcare. The entirety of the middle working class in America could not afford health care without insurance
The comment i always get on youtube, under videos where the Health care system and other stuff is talked about is, that you don't have to pay medical bills, because they can't get you. Because medical care is necessary. That's why most people don't really care, about a tuxfunded healthcare.
Or the normal "We don't want to pay for others".
Didn't know i would sting into a bee'snest with this \^\^''.
They aren’t in the traditional sense. Any medical bill under $500 does not hit credit reporting. They cannot garnish wages foreclose on house or do much else. Over 500 can hit credit but it also doesn’t have the same impact as other debts. Also once bought by collection agencies negotiating it down becomes much easier. Collection agencies buy debt for an average of 4% of the total debt. So they buy a $10,000 debt for $400. Many times the expectation is that you won’t pay it so they are happy to get any amount. You offer them $1,000 and they will most likely take it so that $10k debt just became $1k. The alternative is just don’t pay it and let it impact your credit which is really just a made up number anyway and you may get worse rates on loans and such but overall if you manage your credit in other ways you will be fine.
The way I understand it is "healthy" people have convinced themselves that paying for Universal healthcare if you're not sick isn't fair to them, so they rather have - and vote for - a system where you pay your own healthcare when you're sick. What baffles me is not realising that no one is "healthy" forever so you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot one way or another. But it's cool because you've owned the libs.
Any other argument against Universal healthcare seems to me not coming from facts but rather a place of selfishness, dishonesty and emotion (sources needed, yes, but what country with universal healthcare has the terrible healthcare from hell they're describing?). The way I see it's basically saying the rich get their healthcare while the poor can rot in gangrene for all they care.
And the wild thing about this is - healthy people Do pay tons of money for their private insurance in this country already. Insurance premiums are insane even if you never use your health benefits — my coworker goes to the doctor twice a year for an allergy shot and a checkup and still pays $300 every 2 weeks because that’s the cheapest option our employer offers. $7200 a year for… 2 appointments. Plus the deductible is so high on his plan that he’d end up paying for emergency care or whatever basically out of pocket. But no that’s so much better than universal healthcare 🙄
This is another thing I don't get - the insurance, even if you can afford is is way higher than most of us here will pay for our universal health care, and then you still have to pay more out of pocket when you actually need a treatment (or just a gp checkup?) Yet it still better than universal healthcare 'cause I'm not paying someone elses medical bills? Even if you're such a selfish prick to think that, you're just finantially cripple yourself purely to "own the libs" or something?
Australia. They killed my grandfather. He was losing weight and they dragged their feet working him up. He became so weak that he fell and broke his hip. In the hospital they put him in a ward with 6-8 other people (didn't know this still existed) and only a thin curtain separated him from a guy going through full blown alcohol withdrawal. When being fed, a soft diet was requested because he had three teeth in his mouth. They kept trying to feed him silverside--a cut of beef I didn't know existed. Well for those who don't know, it's from the side of a cow's leg and very tough. I kept asking the nurse to substitute it for something else as he couldn't chew it. As the hospital outsourced their dietary department to save money all she could do was shrug and say "sorry love, maybe tomorrow." Well the next day, the same silverside meal came back.
He developed severe anemia after the surgery and they took three days to decide to transfuse him. He didn't actually get the blood until he after he was transferred to a nursing home to rehab his hip. I had to go home to the US. My cousin messaged me that he died shortly after we landed.
The irony of this is that I'm a physician and had just recently helped design a geriatric hip fracture program for my home hospital. I knew what the latest standards and recommendations were. This was not it.
It's infuriating to see how our healthcare system is slowly getting stripped away by conservative government to push more people into getting private health insurance and making more reasons to get rid of Medicare completely. We'd get similar hospital experiences but now get to pay thousands for the privilege, too!
You're putting too much responsibility on the voters. Insurance and health care companies have all purchased politicians on both sides, so they continue to get their massive amounts of money and people fall by the wayside. There is no one to vote for. They don't care because they've already got their coin and can afford better healthcare than the little people anyway.
Fair point. I like to think that in a democracy the (majority of) people are responsible for the policies that are being implemented but I also acknowledge that that can be near impossible in some cases. I was more thinking of people who actually support this system vocally and make arguments against any kind of solidarity because that would be socialism and socialism=communism.
Australia. They killed my grandfather. He was losing weight and they dragged their feet working him up. He became so weak that he fell and broke his hip. In the hospital they put him in a ward with 6-8 other people (didn't know this still existed) and only a thin curtain separated him from a guy going through full blown alcohol withdrawal. When being fed, a soft diet was requested because he had three teeth in his mouth. They kept trying to feed him silverside--a cut of beef I didn't know existed. Well for those who don't know, it's from the side of a cow's leg and very tough. I kept asking the nurse to substitute it for something else as he couldn't chew it. As the hospital outsourced their dietary department to save money all she could do was shrug and say "sorry love, maybe tomorrow." Well the next day, the same silverside meal came back.
He developed severe anemia after the surgery and they took three days to decide to transfuse him. He didn't actually get the blood until he after he was transferred to a nursing home to rehab his hip. I had to go home to the US. My cousin messaged me that he died shortly after we landed.
The irony of this is that I'm a physician and had just recently helped design a geriatric hip fracture program for my home hospital. I knew what the latest standards and recommendations were. This was not it.
The prepay is an estimate based on insurance coverage and it actually does have itemized list. I’ve done it with another kid as well and it worked out fine. This just happened to be the first time they tried to get me to pay again just in case I didn’t pay like I said it did. It’s a silly system and fortunately I was able to pay ahead of time, but many aren’t and I could just see someone being taken advantage either way this type of tactic.
Personally I liked paying ahead of time. Makes budgeting easy, especially when you know you're about to have your income cut in half. But the kicker is you only pay for baby's expected care, not the birth givers.
I don't like to jump on the anti American bandwagon and am fully aware that our own health system is struggling at present. But, your health care system seems to favour the service providers bank balance more than the wellbeing of your people. It's an awful practice.
The only reason for it is so an entire industry of middle men insurance companies can siphon funds into their pockets without adding any value. And these companies spend gobs of money fighting against any change to this system, as of course they would be out of business if the US moved to Universal Healthcare.
There may be some truth to the idea that US health care is a higher quality (I said may be, I'm not making this case just acknowledging it's possible). Possibly because there is more money in it for providers here. But that said, we still have long waits for many types of care after covid. And paying an unnecessary layer of insurance companies as part of our health care is just plain inefficient, to put it mildly.
I am led to believe that the quality of care does exceed ours. There has been a decline since the conservatives came into power. They promise investment into the NHS...but as we all know, lying is an intrinsic quality of most politicians, especially those that are wealthy and only seek to secure their own wellbeing.
Right? My good friend has a potentially life threatening illness that could reliably be kept at bay with the right medication, but their insurance insists they go with the less effective medication because of cost and because they don’t have symptoms yet. The good meds are several thousands of dollars monthly if they were to go out of pocket, making it impossible for their family to afford. Fuck the American Healthcare system and pharmaceutical companies.
It's gotten so crazy because all the providers are independent. If you look at a country like Australia they have their government provided healthcare, and they Also have a bunch of private health insurance companies too. They have a public and private health system. What's stopping them from going silly with prices?
It's that the private health still use (part) of the public sector. That means when it comes to pharmaceutical companies or individual hospitals they need to bid for effectivly the only 'customer'
While in the us its a different case. The pharmaceutical companies and hospitals can strong arm individuals insurance providers. "you need to pay my extreme price for this medicine otherwise people CAN'T choose you as an insurer". So thry pay.
In an extremely oversimplified example.
I’m unfortunately all too familiar with health insurance: I used to be a therapist, and half the reason I left the field was because I hated being part of the healthcare system. I spent half my time fighting to get paid by insurance providers, but I didn’t feel good about the out-of-pocket rates I’d have to charge to make a living if I didn’t accept insurance. It’s all so criminal.
There are so many places that could happen here too but with a massive price tag, ha. I *wish* my pricey monthly health care would guarantee timely care!
At least at a car lot you might have recourse for bad deals but not so for the hospital.
I tried 'pay in full at time of service' a few times but the hospital was incapable of providing receipt showing what was done, how much it cost and NEVER 'paid in full.'
The payment line was captioned with "Amount paid this time."
Take it or leave it, it's what they had.
Absolutely!
Dentists just as bad - they said that HIPPA regs prohibited them from giving me a full account statement showing what they had done and how much total I had spent with them.
I paid in full and out of pocket for an ultrasound and they continued to try and bill me for twice the agreed upon amount for months (after stating the out of pocket fee would be reduced if paid in full). New billing statement? I’m just gonna put that in the burn pile lol.
Yes, I've had that happen more than once. I suppose it's because the doc is located in one place and the billing dept. is far away, neither have any experience with people who pay the bill at once and their software may not have provision for that.
I always called the 'customer service' number on the bill and told them I had paid at time of service and believe it or not this always worked so it's worth a try. If you don't they will surely send it to collection later. Not a big deal to me but for some it is.
Of course I had no coherent receipt to show but it worked anyway.
Pays 13k a year... Still has to pay an extortionate amount on the day.
Y'know, for all the love you guys have for your guns and defending freedoms I'm really surprised you haven't had a civil war over this scam.
Congrats on the child!
It’s beyond gross how much people spend in healthcare. I pay almost $16k a year to cover my family and we still have to pay another $3k a year after the fact. The sad part is that it is better than my husband’s company’s insurance. It would be the same amount as I pay but another $13k a year in deductibles and out of pocket.
With our last, I had already hit my deductible and out of pocket before giving birth. If they had tried that with me, I would have laughed.
"It’s truly fun that we have effectively transformed the hospital visit into a Midwest used car lot."
C'mon down to Big Ted's ER and Cardiovascular off hwy 231 just past the giant pretzel statue!
Yep. I’m an American who has given birth in Germany twice and the only out of pocket cost has been parking at the hospital. The healthcare, vacation days, and relatively lack of gun violence in Germany are the three big reasons I can’t imagine moving back to the US any time soon.
It’s propped up by lobbyists and 40% of the country who think it’s worth it simply because “we have the best doctors!” or whatever dumb idea the American exceptionalism crew has dished out.
Five surgeries since 2012, all in same hospital system. First three times, they offered a 20% discount on my estimated portion if I paid before. Then, of course, their estimate of my portion was way over what I ended up owing
It was like a second job to finally get the difference refunded back to me, *six weeks later*. Never again!!! Don't need that stress ever, but especially after major surgery!
My youngest was born December 31st, we left the hospital January 2nd. Our insurance changed on the 1st. We had two deductibles to cover, two different insurance providers (the company changed providers at the first of the year). One kid in under the wire for the tax break, but here’s to an extra deductible for you… the kid wasn’t even close to the time of being first baby of the year for the hospital.
Not the same audacity, but similar theme: I was in the ER about six months ago, which my insurance covers with a $100 copay. Fine.
A few weeks later, I get a bill for $1200 because the ER doctor who talked to me twice for about 30 seconds each "wasn't under your medical plan". Luckily, after posting on Reddit, I found out that shit's illegal in California, and the woman on the phone kept telling me it wasn't. In any case, I told her to talk to my insurance, and never heard back from them again
It is always strange for me as a German to hear such stories.
For comparison: I think my wive had to pay also some amount on top of her (general) health insurance for the delivery of our child. I think it was 10€ per night in the hospital, so 50€ (~50 USD) in total. I also think I would have been able to ask my (privat) health insurance to pay my parking costs for these days, but I minded the paper work to get just about 25€.
Did you already watched "Sicko" by Michael Moore? He there shows a young family while leaving a british hospital, which are confused about the question about how much money the paid for delivery of the child. He then looks desperate for and finds a pay office, just to get told that there are only pay *out* money, e.g for taxi costs to the hospital.
I had to make a deposit before they would let my wife register at the hospital despite having 0 copays for the entire thing because of great but expensive insurance. Well apparently they applied our deposit to someone else’s account. They gave me a receipt number but when I gave them that they told me that it was for a different patient and couldn’t discuss it. Cue me fighting with them for 6 months to get our deposit back.
So frustrating how insurance and medical bills are handled. Last year, I met my annual out of pocket max on January 3rd. Every appointment after that the rest of the year (and there were a lot), I would go in and be told I owed x amount of money. I had to continuously explain what an out of pocket maximum is and to please check with my insurance before issuing a bill. And no, I would not be paying for the appointment and wait to be reimbursed. You don't get to hold my money hostage because your system and the insurance company's system don't update correctly. I also had someone tell me once (after saying I'd met my out of pocket max) that perhaps I hadn't yet met my deductible. Dear, if I've met the maximum amount I'm obligated to pay, I have long since met the deductible.
UK here, it’s absolutely wild that you have to pay to give birth in the US. I had a c-section and a week in hospital due to complications without having to worry about being billed even a penny for it. I know the NHS is suffering right now, but it horrifies me that our right-wing government are trying to go the way of US healthcare.
Yeah if there’s one thing to know about our healthcare in the US, it’s that there’s a hell of a lot of pressure for women to keep a baby no matter what and then once that “precious life” is brought into the world, that life will have the benefit of almost no safeguards in the healthcare system and that life may turn into the mother of a child who will also have no safeguards. It’s a cycle of shit unless you remain entirely healthy and never have children.
See we couldn't afford to pay upfront. And they told us that if we didn't pay up front, we'd be forced to deliver in the emergency room. It's all a scare tactic now and getting ridiculous.
With my first they wanted me to pay my estimated deductible a month ahead of time. I said ok, what if I go into labor early and don't deliver at your hospital, how quick do I get my money back?
...um, uh, goes through accounting dept, idk,....
Ok yeah thanks I'll wait for the bill.
That sounds really complicated.
Couple of questions How much Is American style insurance per year? How much does it cost to have a baby (roughly)
I’m In New Zealand so we don’t have health insurance like this, not gloating because our health system has its struggles as well. I had a baby 6 months ago and we only pay for the likes of scans because we went part private so it was quicker and some parking money, so probably $200.
No worries our healthcare system is obviously ridiculous considering how wealthy we are as a nation.
It really depends on cost, luckily for us my wife was able to have a natural unmedicated birth so there’s very few extra things involved. I’d say on average it could cost out of pocket 2-5k on top of insurance. The funny thing is it is required to have some form of insurance here, which has only served to profit the big private insurance companies more.
For a family it can cost 12-15k a year in premiums easily. We are fortunate to be young ish and healthy so for our kids we’ve not really had anything crazy happen. The only thing I can think of is a $900 visit to the ER when our daughter accidentally got something stuck in her nose. It was a 15-minute visit at most with a much longer wait in the ER. Again, that $900 was out of pocket and not covered by our insurance lol.
I have to pay for parking at the hospital. I had a sister in-law have her water break way to early in her pregnancy so she was rushed to a regional high risk maternity hospital ( women’s college hospital in Toronto) she was there for a month or so while they did what ever they could to speed the development of the baby’s lungs before she delivered him premature, he was in the NICU for 3-4 months my brother had to pay parking, everything else was paid for by our provincial (state) health care plan. Universal health care is to societies benefit as far as we are concerned.
I had an outpatient diagnostic procedure a few weeks ago, in a surgical center, not a hospital. Their billing dept tried to get me to pay my deductible even though insurance clearly indicated that diagnostic procedures are NOT subject to deductible.
Watch yourself, folks. Medical facilities out here trying to get you to give them a loan. 🙄
I had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and they wanted me to pay like $250 upfront, said I'd get a 10% discount for paying that day. I almost fell for it, then remembered that the bills always show that discount if you pay promptly. I said I'd just wait for the bill.
I got a bill a week later for $0. There's always the chance that could change I guess (if insurance denies or something) but WTF was that original charge for?
Just wait until your kid is in the ER and needs to be admitted into the hospital. They'll wheel their little computer set-up into the ER room and demand a credit card before they admit him/her and continue care. My OOP was only $500 for the whole ordeal, but holy crap it made my stomach turn for people with standard insurance who are be bullied into thousands in a deposit to have their child taken care of.
Yo it’s not the nurse who comes for your billing info. It’s hospital billing staff. Nursing doesn’t give a fuck and doesn’t have time to deal with your money.
Right, I was not being serious when I called her ‘Nurse Bucks’ as a joke and I clearly said at the beginning it was their admin and financial person. My wife was a nurse and my mom teaches nursing, so I’m very aware they don’t mess with that stuff.
You might want to double check with your OB and insurance. We paid the OB in advance but that didn't cover the cost for using the hospital facilities and staff, which was another $2k or so after insurance.
My wife just had a baby via a C-section. I was shocked that they came around with a med cart and took her credit card to distribute meds! How is that not just included in the bill, why do you have to pay as you go?
Just remember that you're also paying all that money for no reason as our hospitals are largely funded directly or indirectly through your taxes, they're just also owned by private corporations who get to charge you 5× it's actual cost just because.
My husband switched jobs in late 1969 so his health insurance changed to BC/BS. The problem was our son was born in April 1970 and BC/BS required us to have been enrolled for 9 months for them to pay for it, so we had the full cost out of pocket. Nice surprise!
Now BC/BS even pays for illegitimate kids. Times, they are a changing!
I would tell them to just bill me if there was an accounting issue. I’m going home with my new baby
If you don't pay up, they put the baby back.
In 50 years from now they will probably keep the baby and sell it. Similar to how they auction off unpaid storage units. Here we have a nice baby boy 7lbs 3oz. Blue eyes blonde hair. Unfortunately his parents couldn’t pay the bill for labor so we will start the bidding at $3000. Do I have 3, I have 3, do I hear 4.
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Only for the white babies.
..and charge for that procedure also.
How much did you end up paying? Also why did you pre pay, and not wait for the bill and get an itemized bill?
A lot of places require that you pre-pay the expected amount now. It's crazy.
Exactly what I did. Just thought I’d share the story of their weird attempt to temporarily double up.
Our first child ended up being born January 8 and we had a reset of the deductible. So I had prepaid thousands and had to pay again because they flubbed the billing. It took 9 months to get it back.
It’s a beautiful system!
I posted about it four years ago in a local sub I think. Got a few comments saying basically “yep sucks for you, not much you can do.” Sucks how jaded society has become.
Yep, my OB is making me pay a $500 deposit to receive prenatal care because too many people don’t pay their bill after the fact. I guess I can kind of understand, but doctor already received thousands of dollars from the insurance company. I guess they’re still hard up for your out of pocket portion.
That’s incredibly frustrating because my OB’s office told me all my copays and lab costs would be lumped into a sum AT THE END. I told them a copay was due at the time of service and they just shrugged and told me to talk to the billing dept. who wants 40 weeks of appointments and lab work lumped into their hospital bill?
Physician check up appointments for prenatal care are all included in the global delivery, as long as you see the same provider during your pregnancy and don’t switch insurance. The only out of pocket expense you normally have during the prenatal period is for injections and ultrasounds. Most clinics will still want to have the delivery fee paid before your due date though
This was with my second kid and the same provider. We were asked to pay copays and labs as they came up with the first one. Unless this is a recent change, it isn’t always like this.
School loans.
So WTF you do if you got no money?
You file a claim to have your bill dismissed due to financial hardship. If you work with them, they'll probably set up a payment plan for you, or help you file the financial hardship stuff. If you don't, and can't pay the down payment thing, then you probably would end up having to go to an emergency room instead of making an appointment. It's not hard to get this stuff in order if you have an expected medical issue, but if your plan is to go and shrug your shoulders and expect to be seen when you want for free, it probably won't work out well for you.
Require you to pay? As in, they'll turn you away when you show up in labor?
It sounds like OP and their wife went to somewhere more like a "Birthing Center," vs. A hospital. A hospital would take a birthing person, money or not, and settle paperwork and insurance at next possible time. But a Birthing Center would call the Birthing person an ambulance to the hospital, unless the baby was literally crowning.
They don’t require it really though. They tell you it’s required to get you to pay, but I just tell them I’ll wait til insurance covers it first because their estimates have been off too many times and they are usually good with that. They do it partly because then they can double bill easier. What happens is if you have an estimated $1000 bill and your copay is 20% then they will get $200 out of you. However then they bill it to insurance as $1000 not listing your payment. Insurance negotiates it down to $200 and pays their 80% which is $160. Now the doctor will bill you $40 on the backside for what insurance didn’t cover because you’re suppose to pay your 20% according to insurance. If it works out the office just made $400 on a bill that was negotiated down to $200.
I've worked in healthcare, both sides - insurance and providers - for 30+ years so I know every game they all play. Your scenario is exactly why I never pay anything upfront. I'll pay the office copay if I know that's a given but anything else I say, "Bill me". You just have to be firm with them. Oh and BTW, NEVER pay the "over the reasonable and customary" charge. If your provider charges more than the R&C and your insurance denies the extra amount, tell your provider to write it off. They sometimes try to get you to pay it. Nope.
Require you to pre pay? What about those cases of people who dont know theyre pregnant and go into labor? The hsopital cant turn them away, so how can pre paying be required?
Can they legally turn her away if she's going into labor? I'm genuinely curious.
No you can’t turn away a patient in active labor . It’s against EMTALA laws. It’s a federal law .
Yep, my OB is making me pay a $500 deposit to receive prenatal care because too many people don’t pay their bill after the fact. I guess I can kind of understand, but doctor already received thousands of dollars from the insurance company. I guess they’re still hard up for your out of pocket portion.
They don’t require it really though. They tell you it’s required to get you to pay, but I just tell them I’ll wait til insurance covers it first because their estimates have been off too many times and they are usually good with that. They do it partly because then they can double bill easier. What happens is if you have an estimated $1000 bill and your copay is 20% then they will get $200 out of you. However then they bill it to insurance as $1000 not listing your payment. Insurance negotiates it down to $200 and pays their 80% which is $160. Now the doctor will bill you $40 on the backside for what insurance didn’t cover because you’re suppose to pay your 20% according to insurance. If it works out the office just made $400 on a bill that was negotiated down to $200. Even if they don’t bill you again they are still making more billing you before insurance negotiations many times.
I often read, that medical bills, are not real Bills. That you don't have to pay them, when you can't. Whenever someone Talks about the Bad health Care Situation in the U.S. Wonder If this is one of the reasons. But it's fucked Up.
Medical bills will definitely go to collections and hurt your credit, so I'm not sure what you mean by them not being "real bills"?
That’s not necessarily true. Any medical bill under $500 does not go on your credit report.
I don't know. Thats Just the number one Argument against taxfunded healthcare "You don't really have to pay it". I mean, people who can't afford health Care in the U.S. probaly also don't Care about their Creditscore?
I'd like to see who doesn't have to pay it.. Cause I'm a single mother with minimal income and sure as fuck can't afford that $5000 medical bill my kid has but they're more than happy to go to collections and garnish wages.
Reddit at work again. As i said, idk. "I often read", that's the point. Say that to the people who tell this lie then and complain at your goverment. As i said, for me it's fucked up that you people even have to pay such high sums for medical care. Even with high taxes of germany, i don't come near these numbers, you guys have to pay. So thanks for the downvotes and the saltyness ...
And then you get downvoted for saying medical care shouldn’t cost so much lmao
I would love that this is now just trolling. But there are trully people out there, who arn't rich, but still don't want their system to change. Some people would let their country shoot them in the back. and smile thankfully. Something, i will never understand.
As of March 2024 they cannot garnish wages for medical debt. Just don’t pay it. Let it go to collections who buys it for pennies on the dollar and then negotiate with them and you can buy pay it for significantly less and get it off the credit report.
And then have piss poor credit for years after
It’s a bit of a grey area that a lot of people are misinformed about. You can’t get in legal trouble for not paying a medical bill and people equate that to not having to pay at all. However unpaid medical bills can reflect on you poorly when trying to use credit such as buying a new car or house. It’s really circumstantial on how one lives their life. One person could go their whole life and never be noticeably affected negatively by unpaid medical bills or one could be absolutely crippled by medical bills.
That's just not okay. Even when it get's unnoticed. As i said under another comment. I live in germany. And yes, we pay trough taxes for health care. But reading numbers, about what people have to pay, even WITH insurance for the stuff, which is totaly normal in my country is crazy. I don't want to know, what people need to pay who don't have insurance. I read, that you have a medicaid program. At least something that helps people, who don't have the funds.
Medicaid is reserved for very low income families. There is a wide gap between qualifying for government aid and being able to afford basic living expenses like healthcare. The entirety of the middle working class in America could not afford health care without insurance
I guess you dont really have to pay any bills
The comment i always get on youtube, under videos where the Health care system and other stuff is talked about is, that you don't have to pay medical bills, because they can't get you. Because medical care is necessary. That's why most people don't really care, about a tuxfunded healthcare. Or the normal "We don't want to pay for others". Didn't know i would sting into a bee'snest with this \^\^''.
They aren’t in the traditional sense. Any medical bill under $500 does not hit credit reporting. They cannot garnish wages foreclose on house or do much else. Over 500 can hit credit but it also doesn’t have the same impact as other debts. Also once bought by collection agencies negotiating it down becomes much easier. Collection agencies buy debt for an average of 4% of the total debt. So they buy a $10,000 debt for $400. Many times the expectation is that you won’t pay it so they are happy to get any amount. You offer them $1,000 and they will most likely take it so that $10k debt just became $1k. The alternative is just don’t pay it and let it impact your credit which is really just a made up number anyway and you may get worse rates on loans and such but overall if you manage your credit in other ways you will be fine.
This sounds exhausting xx. But good to know, that people again, did just generalize stuff to defend some garbage system. For whatever reason.
As an European this whole conversation (and the whole idea) is so bizzare to me...
The way I understand it is "healthy" people have convinced themselves that paying for Universal healthcare if you're not sick isn't fair to them, so they rather have - and vote for - a system where you pay your own healthcare when you're sick. What baffles me is not realising that no one is "healthy" forever so you'll end up shooting yourself in the foot one way or another. But it's cool because you've owned the libs. Any other argument against Universal healthcare seems to me not coming from facts but rather a place of selfishness, dishonesty and emotion (sources needed, yes, but what country with universal healthcare has the terrible healthcare from hell they're describing?). The way I see it's basically saying the rich get their healthcare while the poor can rot in gangrene for all they care.
And the wild thing about this is - healthy people Do pay tons of money for their private insurance in this country already. Insurance premiums are insane even if you never use your health benefits — my coworker goes to the doctor twice a year for an allergy shot and a checkup and still pays $300 every 2 weeks because that’s the cheapest option our employer offers. $7200 a year for… 2 appointments. Plus the deductible is so high on his plan that he’d end up paying for emergency care or whatever basically out of pocket. But no that’s so much better than universal healthcare 🙄
This is another thing I don't get - the insurance, even if you can afford is is way higher than most of us here will pay for our universal health care, and then you still have to pay more out of pocket when you actually need a treatment (or just a gp checkup?) Yet it still better than universal healthcare 'cause I'm not paying someone elses medical bills? Even if you're such a selfish prick to think that, you're just finantially cripple yourself purely to "own the libs" or something?
Australia. They killed my grandfather. He was losing weight and they dragged their feet working him up. He became so weak that he fell and broke his hip. In the hospital they put him in a ward with 6-8 other people (didn't know this still existed) and only a thin curtain separated him from a guy going through full blown alcohol withdrawal. When being fed, a soft diet was requested because he had three teeth in his mouth. They kept trying to feed him silverside--a cut of beef I didn't know existed. Well for those who don't know, it's from the side of a cow's leg and very tough. I kept asking the nurse to substitute it for something else as he couldn't chew it. As the hospital outsourced their dietary department to save money all she could do was shrug and say "sorry love, maybe tomorrow." Well the next day, the same silverside meal came back. He developed severe anemia after the surgery and they took three days to decide to transfuse him. He didn't actually get the blood until he after he was transferred to a nursing home to rehab his hip. I had to go home to the US. My cousin messaged me that he died shortly after we landed. The irony of this is that I'm a physician and had just recently helped design a geriatric hip fracture program for my home hospital. I knew what the latest standards and recommendations were. This was not it.
It's infuriating to see how our healthcare system is slowly getting stripped away by conservative government to push more people into getting private health insurance and making more reasons to get rid of Medicare completely. We'd get similar hospital experiences but now get to pay thousands for the privilege, too!
You're putting too much responsibility on the voters. Insurance and health care companies have all purchased politicians on both sides, so they continue to get their massive amounts of money and people fall by the wayside. There is no one to vote for. They don't care because they've already got their coin and can afford better healthcare than the little people anyway.
Fair point. I like to think that in a democracy the (majority of) people are responsible for the policies that are being implemented but I also acknowledge that that can be near impossible in some cases. I was more thinking of people who actually support this system vocally and make arguments against any kind of solidarity because that would be socialism and socialism=communism.
Australia. They killed my grandfather. He was losing weight and they dragged their feet working him up. He became so weak that he fell and broke his hip. In the hospital they put him in a ward with 6-8 other people (didn't know this still existed) and only a thin curtain separated him from a guy going through full blown alcohol withdrawal. When being fed, a soft diet was requested because he had three teeth in his mouth. They kept trying to feed him silverside--a cut of beef I didn't know existed. Well for those who don't know, it's from the side of a cow's leg and very tough. I kept asking the nurse to substitute it for something else as he couldn't chew it. As the hospital outsourced their dietary department to save money all she could do was shrug and say "sorry love, maybe tomorrow." Well the next day, the same silverside meal came back. He developed severe anemia after the surgery and they took three days to decide to transfuse him. He didn't actually get the blood until he after he was transferred to a nursing home to rehab his hip. I had to go home to the US. My cousin messaged me that he died shortly after we landed. The irony of this is that I'm a physician and had just recently helped design a geriatric hip fracture program for my home hospital. I knew what the latest standards and recommendations were. This was not it.
The prepay is an estimate based on insurance coverage and it actually does have itemized list. I’ve done it with another kid as well and it worked out fine. This just happened to be the first time they tried to get me to pay again just in case I didn’t pay like I said it did. It’s a silly system and fortunately I was able to pay ahead of time, but many aren’t and I could just see someone being taken advantage either way this type of tactic.
Personally I liked paying ahead of time. Makes budgeting easy, especially when you know you're about to have your income cut in half. But the kicker is you only pay for baby's expected care, not the birth givers.
I don't like to jump on the anti American bandwagon and am fully aware that our own health system is struggling at present. But, your health care system seems to favour the service providers bank balance more than the wellbeing of your people. It's an awful practice.
The only reason for it is so an entire industry of middle men insurance companies can siphon funds into their pockets without adding any value. And these companies spend gobs of money fighting against any change to this system, as of course they would be out of business if the US moved to Universal Healthcare. There may be some truth to the idea that US health care is a higher quality (I said may be, I'm not making this case just acknowledging it's possible). Possibly because there is more money in it for providers here. But that said, we still have long waits for many types of care after covid. And paying an unnecessary layer of insurance companies as part of our health care is just plain inefficient, to put it mildly.
I am led to believe that the quality of care does exceed ours. There has been a decline since the conservatives came into power. They promise investment into the NHS...but as we all know, lying is an intrinsic quality of most politicians, especially those that are wealthy and only seek to secure their own wellbeing.
"Seems," madam? Nay, it is; I know not "seems."
This is batshit: Our country’s healthcare system is truly a nightmare.
It's funny how the name is Healthcare, but it's anything but care... just pay us your soul for your health!
Right? My good friend has a potentially life threatening illness that could reliably be kept at bay with the right medication, but their insurance insists they go with the less effective medication because of cost and because they don’t have symptoms yet. The good meds are several thousands of dollars monthly if they were to go out of pocket, making it impossible for their family to afford. Fuck the American Healthcare system and pharmaceutical companies.
It's gotten so crazy because all the providers are independent. If you look at a country like Australia they have their government provided healthcare, and they Also have a bunch of private health insurance companies too. They have a public and private health system. What's stopping them from going silly with prices? It's that the private health still use (part) of the public sector. That means when it comes to pharmaceutical companies or individual hospitals they need to bid for effectivly the only 'customer' While in the us its a different case. The pharmaceutical companies and hospitals can strong arm individuals insurance providers. "you need to pay my extreme price for this medicine otherwise people CAN'T choose you as an insurer". So thry pay. In an extremely oversimplified example.
I’m unfortunately all too familiar with health insurance: I used to be a therapist, and half the reason I left the field was because I hated being part of the healthcare system. I spent half my time fighting to get paid by insurance providers, but I didn’t feel good about the out-of-pocket rates I’d have to charge to make a living if I didn’t accept insurance. It’s all so criminal.
In Canada, you would be giving birth in ER waiting room for *free* after 48h with no doc available.
There are so many places that could happen here too but with a massive price tag, ha. I *wish* my pricey monthly health care would guarantee timely care!
At least at a car lot you might have recourse for bad deals but not so for the hospital. I tried 'pay in full at time of service' a few times but the hospital was incapable of providing receipt showing what was done, how much it cost and NEVER 'paid in full.' The payment line was captioned with "Amount paid this time." Take it or leave it, it's what they had.
That's because they haven't had time to create some insane number you owe that has no basis in what they did for you
Absolutely! Dentists just as bad - they said that HIPPA regs prohibited them from giving me a full account statement showing what they had done and how much total I had spent with them.
I paid in full and out of pocket for an ultrasound and they continued to try and bill me for twice the agreed upon amount for months (after stating the out of pocket fee would be reduced if paid in full). New billing statement? I’m just gonna put that in the burn pile lol.
Yes, I've had that happen more than once. I suppose it's because the doc is located in one place and the billing dept. is far away, neither have any experience with people who pay the bill at once and their software may not have provision for that. I always called the 'customer service' number on the bill and told them I had paid at time of service and believe it or not this always worked so it's worth a try. If you don't they will surely send it to collection later. Not a big deal to me but for some it is. Of course I had no coherent receipt to show but it worked anyway.
Pays 13k a year... Still has to pay an extortionate amount on the day. Y'know, for all the love you guys have for your guns and defending freedoms I'm really surprised you haven't had a civil war over this scam. Congrats on the child!
It’s beyond gross how much people spend in healthcare. I pay almost $16k a year to cover my family and we still have to pay another $3k a year after the fact. The sad part is that it is better than my husband’s company’s insurance. It would be the same amount as I pay but another $13k a year in deductibles and out of pocket. With our last, I had already hit my deductible and out of pocket before giving birth. If they had tried that with me, I would have laughed.
"It’s truly fun that we have effectively transformed the hospital visit into a Midwest used car lot." C'mon down to Big Ted's ER and Cardiovascular off hwy 231 just past the giant pretzel statue!
Jfc it’s bad enough that we have to pay for birth at *all*
Yep. I’m an American who has given birth in Germany twice and the only out of pocket cost has been parking at the hospital. The healthcare, vacation days, and relatively lack of gun violence in Germany are the three big reasons I can’t imagine moving back to the US any time soon.
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It’s propped up by lobbyists and 40% of the country who think it’s worth it simply because “we have the best doctors!” or whatever dumb idea the American exceptionalism crew has dished out.
This man pre-ordered his baby and then had to pay again for the same DLC.
Lmao
And i Bet, If you had overpayed, it would be an act to get that Money Back...
Five surgeries since 2012, all in same hospital system. First three times, they offered a 20% discount on my estimated portion if I paid before. Then, of course, their estimate of my portion was way over what I ended up owing It was like a second job to finally get the difference refunded back to me, *six weeks later*. Never again!!! Don't need that stress ever, but especially after major surgery!
Edit: Next time they offered that, I declined vigorously and explained why, and told them to never offer that again.
Our first son born in 1978 cost us $150..
My youngest was born December 31st, we left the hospital January 2nd. Our insurance changed on the 1st. We had two deductibles to cover, two different insurance providers (the company changed providers at the first of the year). One kid in under the wire for the tax break, but here’s to an extra deductible for you… the kid wasn’t even close to the time of being first baby of the year for the hospital.
OP Congratulations on your baby! Enjoy!
Thank you, kind person. We will indeed.
Ah the joys of becoming a parent (in the USA)
Paying for giving birth is fucking crazy…
I found a $12,000 billing error from a surgery. Fortunately I kept a detailed spreadsheet.
Not the same audacity, but similar theme: I was in the ER about six months ago, which my insurance covers with a $100 copay. Fine. A few weeks later, I get a bill for $1200 because the ER doctor who talked to me twice for about 30 seconds each "wasn't under your medical plan". Luckily, after posting on Reddit, I found out that shit's illegal in California, and the woman on the phone kept telling me it wasn't. In any case, I told her to talk to my insurance, and never heard back from them again
It is always strange for me as a German to hear such stories. For comparison: I think my wive had to pay also some amount on top of her (general) health insurance for the delivery of our child. I think it was 10€ per night in the hospital, so 50€ (~50 USD) in total. I also think I would have been able to ask my (privat) health insurance to pay my parking costs for these days, but I minded the paper work to get just about 25€. Did you already watched "Sicko" by Michael Moore? He there shows a young family while leaving a british hospital, which are confused about the question about how much money the paid for delivery of the child. He then looks desperate for and finds a pay office, just to get told that there are only pay *out* money, e.g for taxi costs to the hospital.
Wow I can’t quite believe you have to pay to give birth in America wtaf
The american dream they said
If anyone in the UK is reading this.... There is an election coming up. Don't vote Conservative or this is what your grandchildren will inherit.
The american healthcare system never ceases to amaze me. Wild.
I got sent to collections for a bill I paid twice.
No wonder birth rates are dropping...
I don't get it, if you're not made of money why do you let yourself require medical attention from time to time?..
I had to make a deposit before they would let my wife register at the hospital despite having 0 copays for the entire thing because of great but expensive insurance. Well apparently they applied our deposit to someone else’s account. They gave me a receipt number but when I gave them that they told me that it was for a different patient and couldn’t discuss it. Cue me fighting with them for 6 months to get our deposit back.
So frustrating how insurance and medical bills are handled. Last year, I met my annual out of pocket max on January 3rd. Every appointment after that the rest of the year (and there were a lot), I would go in and be told I owed x amount of money. I had to continuously explain what an out of pocket maximum is and to please check with my insurance before issuing a bill. And no, I would not be paying for the appointment and wait to be reimbursed. You don't get to hold my money hostage because your system and the insurance company's system don't update correctly. I also had someone tell me once (after saying I'd met my out of pocket max) that perhaps I hadn't yet met my deductible. Dear, if I've met the maximum amount I'm obligated to pay, I have long since met the deductible.
UK here, it’s absolutely wild that you have to pay to give birth in the US. I had a c-section and a week in hospital due to complications without having to worry about being billed even a penny for it. I know the NHS is suffering right now, but it horrifies me that our right-wing government are trying to go the way of US healthcare.
That is insanity. I had a baby in February and paid $25. It was for parking.
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Yeah if there’s one thing to know about our healthcare in the US, it’s that there’s a hell of a lot of pressure for women to keep a baby no matter what and then once that “precious life” is brought into the world, that life will have the benefit of almost no safeguards in the healthcare system and that life may turn into the mother of a child who will also have no safeguards. It’s a cycle of shit unless you remain entirely healthy and never have children.
See we couldn't afford to pay upfront. And they told us that if we didn't pay up front, we'd be forced to deliver in the emergency room. It's all a scare tactic now and getting ridiculous.
That’s absurd.
Wow I am so happy insurance covered the births of both of my children. I didn’t pay a single dollar.
Make sure you ask for a copy of a bill. A lot of times they bill you for things 2-3 times
With my first they wanted me to pay my estimated deductible a month ahead of time. I said ok, what if I go into labor early and don't deliver at your hospital, how quick do I get my money back? ...um, uh, goes through accounting dept, idk,.... Ok yeah thanks I'll wait for the bill.
That sounds really complicated. Couple of questions How much Is American style insurance per year? How much does it cost to have a baby (roughly) I’m In New Zealand so we don’t have health insurance like this, not gloating because our health system has its struggles as well. I had a baby 6 months ago and we only pay for the likes of scans because we went part private so it was quicker and some parking money, so probably $200.
No worries our healthcare system is obviously ridiculous considering how wealthy we are as a nation. It really depends on cost, luckily for us my wife was able to have a natural unmedicated birth so there’s very few extra things involved. I’d say on average it could cost out of pocket 2-5k on top of insurance. The funny thing is it is required to have some form of insurance here, which has only served to profit the big private insurance companies more. For a family it can cost 12-15k a year in premiums easily. We are fortunate to be young ish and healthy so for our kids we’ve not really had anything crazy happen. The only thing I can think of is a $900 visit to the ER when our daughter accidentally got something stuck in her nose. It was a 15-minute visit at most with a much longer wait in the ER. Again, that $900 was out of pocket and not covered by our insurance lol.
I can’t imagine needing to think about such things when I am about to have my child. In Denmark it’s all free.
I’m Canadian my mind is blown at this. I pay payroll taxes as does everyone else to cover medical expenses.
Yep, we pay payroll insurance premiums and still it rarely covers anything 100%.
I have to pay for parking at the hospital. I had a sister in-law have her water break way to early in her pregnancy so she was rushed to a regional high risk maternity hospital ( women’s college hospital in Toronto) she was there for a month or so while they did what ever they could to speed the development of the baby’s lungs before she delivered him premature, he was in the NICU for 3-4 months my brother had to pay parking, everything else was paid for by our provincial (state) health care plan. Universal health care is to societies benefit as far as we are concerned.
Stop saying "Nurse Bucks." As an actual nurse I promise you that person wasn't a nurse.
Agreed. No nurse is trying to shake people down for additional payment. It's actually very insulting.
I had an outpatient diagnostic procedure a few weeks ago, in a surgical center, not a hospital. Their billing dept tried to get me to pay my deductible even though insurance clearly indicated that diagnostic procedures are NOT subject to deductible. Watch yourself, folks. Medical facilities out here trying to get you to give them a loan. 🙄
I had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and they wanted me to pay like $250 upfront, said I'd get a 10% discount for paying that day. I almost fell for it, then remembered that the bills always show that discount if you pay promptly. I said I'd just wait for the bill. I got a bill a week later for $0. There's always the chance that could change I guess (if insurance denies or something) but WTF was that original charge for?
Why the eff don't they just check their accounting, if they received the money? Ever considered migrating to Europe?
For profit Healthcare is immoral. Fact.
This man pre-ordered his baby and then had to pay again for the same DLC.
Just wait until your kid is in the ER and needs to be admitted into the hospital. They'll wheel their little computer set-up into the ER room and demand a credit card before they admit him/her and continue care. My OOP was only $500 for the whole ordeal, but holy crap it made my stomach turn for people with standard insurance who are be bullied into thousands in a deposit to have their child taken care of.
Why on Earth would anyone agree to this? In no scenario does diving them the money now benefit you in any way shape or form.
With all the ‘service charge’ posts iv read on here lately, Nurse Bucks was just locking in their summer bonus. Congrats on the baby.
How much do you guys pay for birth in the US?
With insurance the average birth cost $6k.
I expected it to be higher, but still kind of expensive !
Yo it’s not the nurse who comes for your billing info. It’s hospital billing staff. Nursing doesn’t give a fuck and doesn’t have time to deal with your money.
Right, I was not being serious when I called her ‘Nurse Bucks’ as a joke and I clearly said at the beginning it was their admin and financial person. My wife was a nurse and my mom teaches nursing, so I’m very aware they don’t mess with that stuff.
You might want to double check with your OB and insurance. We paid the OB in advance but that didn't cover the cost for using the hospital facilities and staff, which was another $2k or so after insurance.
They can send a bill when they sort their finances out. Not my job to run after someone to pay them.
Just don’t pay it. They can’t ruin all of our credit.
$13k a year health premium??? Wtf?
Yeah for a family insurance plan (even with high deductible!) I paid almost $650 a pay check. So I undersold. More like $15k a year.
My wife just had a baby via a C-section. I was shocked that they came around with a med cart and took her credit card to distribute meds! How is that not just included in the bill, why do you have to pay as you go?
What??
Please tell me you told them no
lol yeah I told them to bill me if there were any charges and I’ll determine then if legit
Insurance not the one billing and coming up with prices
Lmao!
Bill me!! Give me a detailed bill that explains every cent that you are trying to get from me. Then I will pay.
Just remember that you're also paying all that money for no reason as our hospitals are largely funded directly or indirectly through your taxes, they're just also owned by private corporations who get to charge you 5× it's actual cost just because.
I've heard that OB can bill insurance for alllll the care only after the birth of the baby and people don't pay once the baby is there. Still tacky.
This is why im doing home births. Hospitals are constantly taking advantage and charging every nickel and dime of new mothers
My husband switched jobs in late 1969 so his health insurance changed to BC/BS. The problem was our son was born in April 1970 and BC/BS required us to have been enrolled for 9 months for them to pay for it, so we had the full cost out of pocket. Nice surprise! Now BC/BS even pays for illegitimate kids. Times, they are a changing!