terminal
LE
Here's a source a quick Google turned up:Really? Your earlier posts were interesting and I actually learnt something. Given how you were chopsing off about Brits criticising the US system without knowing the details, filling in the rest of them seems sensible.
People are entitled to emergency care. Is it free or do they get billed for it later? If you turn up without insurance, after emergency treatment are they thrown out of the door or do they get following treatment that the state pays for?
What Happens If I Don't Have Health Insurance?
Think twice about going without insurance to save money. Although you may not have to pay a financial penalty by law, being uninsured can still be expensive.
www.thebalance.com
How to Pay Your Medical Bills With No Health Insurance
When you don't have health insurance, medical expenses can add up. You need to take a proactive approach to dealing with your medical bills.
www.thebalance.com
Where Can You Find Medical Debt Relief?
Healthcare costs can be a financial burden. See how to manage medical debt, explore loan consolidation, find relief, and ensure you’re paying only what you owe.
www.thebalance.com
Long story short, under US law you must buy medical insurance. If you don't, you get fined. Given that so many people apparently still don't have insurance, I gather that isn't effective.
If you choose not to have health insurance, you will face the fines imposed under the Affordable Care Act. These fines will be due when you file your taxes.
The fine for the 2017 tax year is 2.5% of your total household gross income. So, if you make $100,000 you'd pay a $2,500 fine. While the fine has not yet been announced for 2018, it's expected to increase.
Also, having insurance doesn't mean much on its own, as there are deductibles. At the lower end of the scale, you might have to pay $10,000 in deductibles out of your pocket before the insurance kicks in.
Once you get the bill, you need to pay it right away, as otherwise the hospital will send your case to a debt collection agency.
Once you receive a hospital bill, you should immediately call and set up a payment plan. Often the hospital will offer a lower payment amount if you can pay that amount in full immediately. If you have the money available, you should do this, otherwise you should set up a payment plan right away. Do not wait to call and talk about payment plans, because the hospital or doctor’s office may send you to a collection agency in as little as 90 days. It is more difficult to negotiate terms with a collection agency.
And once that happens, you are screwed.
Burying your head in the sand won’t make the bills go away. In fact, it could make the situation worse. Doctors and other medical providers will only collect on your account for a few months before they send the account to a collection agency.
At that point, the medical bill goes on your credit report and hurts your future chances of borrowing money, e.g. for a house. You can also be sued for the debt, which could result in a judgment, bank levy, or wage garnishment.
From other news that I have read, the people who end up in the worst situations aren't the rich (of course) or the poor. The rich have the money to pay whatever it costs. The poor don't have any assets which can be seized for debt, so they can walk away from bills.
The people with the biggest problems are the ones in the middle, who were doing alright, then medical tragedy strikes and they see everything they've worked for over a lifetime of effort being drained away to pay medical bills.
The thing that really strikes me about the American system is that patients are expected to know so much about the financial aspects of health care, including planning, negotiating, shopping for the best price, bankruptcy laws, how to deal with medical debt collectors, etc. None of these are anything someone is going to be in a position do once they find themselves in a hospital bed.
After many years of avoiding hospitals here (in Canada), I ended up in one very unexpectedly in the middle of the night. While I had things to worry about while there, none of those worries were about who was paying for it or whether I could afford it. It gave me a very, very, different perspective on things than I had before.