my friend's sister got her first hospital bill today and i want to cram it down a teabagger's throat

[fizzgig]

she came home sunday after a month-long hospital stay. most of the stay was spent in icu, on a ventilator and dialysis and in a chemically induced coma. turns out that she got h1n1, which opened her up to the mrsa pneumonia, both of which she suffered through for five days before my friend drug her to the er.

the bill for the first ten days (which i don't think included more than a few days of dialysis) came out to $250,000. my friend is fully expecting the final bill to be near $1 million.

what kind of country do we live in where liberty and justice for all (something i heard the teabaggers say they support when i protested their rally last week) means that you either have to go bankrupt or die if you get sick?

[ThomCat]

1. I really think teabaggers either all failed highschool

or have serious problems with holding logic and compassion in their minds at the same time.

We know they only apply compassion to people they consider part of their in-group. They think everyone else can burn in hell for eternity, and suffer in life, and they couldn't care less about it. They would probably love health care it only it was restricted to them and people they approve of. It is only because they think "undeserving people" will get it that they object. Immigrants, minorities, people different from them, anyone poor who isn't them, and your sister's friend. :grr:

I am very sorry. I hope your sister's friend is recovering fully. But I have no idea what advice or hope to offer about the bill. :(

I hope there is something she can do. :hug:

[fizzgig]

2. i don't think they even know what logic, reason or compassion actually mean

my friend's sister is doing better. she's on oxygen at home, but she's getting her strength back.

the only thing that can really be done with the bill is to see how much they can get written off for financial hardship. i have no idea when she's going to be able to get back to work and i'm hoping they'll have a spot open for her when she's well enough to do so.

i haven't seen you for awhile, thom, how are you?

:hug:

[ThomCat]

10. I'm mostly okay.

:)

:hug:

My mother turns 60 this weekend, so I am traveling to see her. It is the first time in several years I have seen her. Traveling is going to be a big, painful challenge for me, and the visit is going to be... intersting. So we will see how this goes.

Right now I am preparing for the trip, trying to juggle a bunch of medicle hassles, and dealing with pain from all this rain.

So it's a very complete and busy week. :)

[fizzgig]

12. i hope the trip and visit go smoothly

how far do you have to travel?

[ThomCat]

32. About 500 miles.

:(

I will be very heavily medicated though, so hopefully I'll sleep through the actual traveling. :)

[joeybee12]

3. I'm glad she recuperating, but might I suggest instead of cramming it DOWN

somewhere, sticking it UP somewhere on a teabagger?

[fizzgig]

4. i guess it wouldn't make a difference

they all talk out of their ass anyway

[joeybee12]

5. +1

:7

[Bertha Venation]

18. DUZY nominee, please

:)

[Deep13]

6. I suggest Lieberman.

If she can't pay it, I suggest using the nation's unofficial health care finance system, the bankruptcy code.

[fizzgig]

8. i'd like to do a bit more to lieberman

[TZ]

7. The teabaggers are selfish.

As long as THEY have coverage they don't give a shit about anyone else. Most of them are probably fairly healthy that don't deal with insurance companies much. Also, they will claim that she somehow brought this on herself. I can't tell you how many times I read some idiot freeper type on FB or somewhere that thinks chronically ill people are all lazy pigs that ate themselves into illness...:grr:

[fizzgig]

9. selfish is too weak a word for what they are

i've dropped a few fb friends over this. i just couldn't stomach their self-righteous, sanctimonious greed anymore.

[TZ]

13. Oh and I can well understand.

Thank god most of FB friends are DU people. As you know this is a issue I care passionately about.....

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. Un.Fucking.Believable

You know what I would do if I got a hospital bill for $250,000, let alone a MILLION?

I would probably start laughing my ass off....seriously. I mean, they won't get blood from a stone.

This is the PERFECT example of why we need single payer.

Tell your friend to convert any assets that she may have into cash and put it under the mattress until she figures out what can be done. Have NOTHING in her name...because the fuckers will come after it.

If she can get some consultation from a lawyer...that would be a good thing.

My best wishes to her. :hug:

[fizzgig]

14. i guess the only good thing is that she doesn't have any assets

the only thing she's got is an old, busted car.

i can't imagine opening a bill and seeing that many digits before the decimal point. they were expecting horrendous bills, but i still can't imagine the shock. and this doesn't include the follow up appointments i'm suspecting she needs.

but nope, we have the best health care system in the world and it doesn't need any reform x(

[LeftyFingerPop]

15. Considering her lack of assets, has she looked into Medicaid?

Also...I have a feeling that the hospital will write most of this off as an noncollectable debt.

[fizzgig]

16. they're looking into both, i think

and i suspect the hospital knows they're not going to see a whole lot of that money.

[LeftyFingerPop]

17. Maybe a lawyer can chime in here...

I'm assuming that she will have to declare bankruptcy in order to formally discharge the debt and have the potential of a decent credit rating after a number of years. However, it seems kind of moot in this case since she has no assets she needs to protect via bankruptcy.

Any lawyers feel like giving some general guidance?

[pitohui]

21. yeah she has no assets to protect so she should be OK if she just ignores the telephone

the main thing is that she needs to wait for all the bills to come in, so that she can bring them to the bankrupcty lawyer and get them discharged, if she can't pay, she shouldn't try to, she should scrape together what she needs for the bankruptcy lawyer since he/she will want cash

she won't be paying $1 million, she'll be paying more like I think $800 for the bankruptcy lawyer

they can't take a car that she needs to get to work so she'll come out a lot better than somebody who once had some small savings

health insurance does not insure health, nothing can do that -- health insurance is supposed to protect assets, if you have no assets, but they gave her treatment anyway, she really did as well as can be expected for a destitute person

i went 15 years w.out insurance myself -- i wasn't worried about them taking my rental apt or my worthless car, i was worried about being refused treatment -- actually had it happen on one occasion, turned out i had walking pneumonia

[dugaresa]

20. I wish your friend lots of luck. Make sure she really reviews all forms

related to Medicaid. One simple typo and you can get denied.

To be honest, the hospital should have assigned her a patient rep to start that process in the first place. She should have already been enrolled as she started receiving treatment.

Also, check out all charities including Catholic Charities, in some cases they will assist to discharge debts. (I know its a reach but it is worth it some of those aid societies have folks who are very good at routing the system)

[dugaresa]

19. First does she have insurance and if she does what will they cover and won't they cover?

I feel for your friend, I hate the fact that anyone goes bankrupt over healthcare.

[pitohui]

22. she can't possibly have insurance, no one's deductible is $250K!!! EOM

,

[dugaresa]

23. i get bills all the time because they send me them along with sending

them to the provider, that is why i asked.

[libodem]

24. Only in America

are profits so much more important than people. Money is God to Republicans. BTW, I finally had the courage to google teabagger. Now, there is your revenge.

[madrchsod]

25. bankruptcy court will be her next stop.

she`ll have to save up a thousand or so and file....that`s what i`m doing and i have insurance.

[begin_within]

26. I wonder how many teabaggers would change their stand if they faced a $250,000 hospital bill.

[Odin2005]

27. Social Darwinists suck!

:puke:

[TreasonousBastard]

28. And what insanity is it to have a million dollar hospital bill? I've...

heard of cancer treatments costing a million a year or so, but this is even more absurd.

Piss and moan about insurance companies, single payer, all that stuff all you want, but the simple fact remains that if this is the way it's going, there simply isn't enough money on earth to pay our healthcare bills.

[hunter]

29. You stop caring about your credit rating after you get a bill like that or you destroy yourself.

It got so I was joking around with people who were trying to collect. OMG can you imagine any job that sucks worse than trying to collect money from people with very serious illnesses?

Eventually they stop calling and write you off. I sorta miss them.

[Danger Mouse]

30. I don't even know what to say to this.

This country is fucked.

[Blue_Tires]

31. personally, i would send it to my local congresscritter

especially if they are blocking reform...

I'm not kidding: If I'm unlucky enough to have a big hospital stay in the near future, I will tell the collections department to send the bill to both senators and every rep...

[JCMach1]

33. Here in UAE, in one of the world's best hospitals, for 8 days and two procedures for my kidney stone

the bill was around $10,000

The only difference between USA and here is employer mandates to provide insurance (oh yeah and PRICE CONTROLS).

The hospital was a private for profit one.

I walked out with a bill of around $40 for a little bit of medicine not covered (i.e. slight co-pay).

So yeah, American health care is messed-up beyond belief.