I spent half that time in Critical Care (much of that on a ventilator, a small amount sedated), and most of the rest in a specialist neuro-rehab unit. I would have died otherwise.
Fortunately it cost me nothing - Thank Bevan for the NHS - but if I were in the US I imagine I would be financially crippled!
You would have lost your job and likely be on medicaid and disability and it would be very unclear if you have or lost your house and possessions but keeping hold of them moving forward would be almost impossible unless you could find a new job which is also highly unlikely.
Also, at some point you couldn’t afford care anymore. So you would have stopped treatment and died.
maybe. the us is odd in that if you literally cannot walk out on your own they usually keep you while the bills rack up.
This is too hard to answer because of the number of variables at play like, do you have insurance, does your condition/issue qualify you for Medicare, does your job offer disability leave, are you FMLA eligible, do you meet requirements for SSA disability etc.
Anecdotally, in 2017 I spent two non-consecutive months in the hospital. The first visit I came in through the ER, ended up in the ICU intubated and worked my way through each section as I got better.
My second stay I skipped the ICU but had a transplant halfway through. I also was on dialysis for the ~6 months in between.
Dialysis was billed at $7k a visit, roughly $500k in total. The transplant surgery alone was ~$750k. The hospital stays came to about $5k a day on average for roughly $300k in total.
So straight billed amount I was somewhere in the $1.5-$1.7 million range.
Jesus fuck. I hope you are doing better now. Did any of the bills go away or you just paying on in it forever?
I am doing better though it’s looking like I’ll need another transplant at some point.
Fortunately, I had good insurance through work and because I ended up in renal failure that makes you automatically eligible for Medicare (one good thing Nixon did). Also, the billed amount gets discounted based on whatever deal your particular insurance has with the provider, so billed amount ≠ paid amount. Unless you’re uninsured.
I did ended up going through bankruptcy anyway but that had more to do with my choices and lifestyle leading up to all of this. It did wipe out any portion of that bill that would have been my responsibility though
How were you living before to become bankrupt?
As an alcoholic whose life was barely under control.
The long story short version is that, over 10ish years I drank myself almost to death, ended up hospitalized with liver and kidney failure, got discharged and went through treatment and the ended back in the hospital in pretty serious need (so they told me) of a transplant.
Fortunately for me I got listed and was transplanted 5 days later. After that I realized I was given a second chance most people don’t get and worked to turn my life around.
I’m now 8 years sober, good credit, married with a house, 2 dogs, 2 cats and I wake up every day grateful to have this extra time.
you will also be on immunosuppresants long term, because organ transplants too. only some of those medicines are probably cheap.
Yes, and they are not cheap. I typically hit my insurance deductible by the end of February each year.
I’m the kind of person insurance companies hate because I’m expensive and they can’t deny most of my care.
the tacrolimus is tablet is cheap, you’re probably taking something like mycophenolate, or a biologic.
That depends.
Are you wealthy? If yes, you’re fine. If no, you’re fucked.
Are you a veteran? Same answers.
Are you poor? You probably died in the waiting room.
Are you a veteran? Same answers.
Ha. Hahaha. Yeah. No. Not necessarily.
Source: knew way too many vets with awful, untreated ailments from my time in US healthcare.
I have heard that VA hospitals are better in some places. I really have had better care from the VA than from public health care.
Your first stop would be a bankruptcy lawyer.
if you can afford one lol.
Honestly, it would depend on what kind of insurance you have in the US. Each employer has a different set of plans.
No insurance? Absolutely screwed. With insurance?
End of 2018 I had a heart attack and open heart surgery with really good insurance.
Emergency Room - $150
8 days in the hospital + open heart surgery from the head of the cardiac department - $100
Drugs and all the oxygen I could carry - $100Roll forward to January 2019… my company has been bought by a giant company. Health insurance changes. I lose my existing hospital and all my doctors and have to start over in a new system.
7 days in the hospital draining fluid from congestive heart failure - $6,500 - the annual out of pocket maximum for that insurance.
Good news though, hitting the out of pocket maximum on Jan 15 meant all my other medical care the rest of the year was covered at 100%.
alot of doctors are also being bought up by equity firms too, which adds another layer of cost.
Yeah, I can’t imagine that, $6500 would RUIN me, like I legitimately would not be able to pay it
Most of the time you can set up a payment plan but that’s still brutal
Fortunately (?) the reason for the insurance change was my company was acquired by a giant company. Bye bye signing bonus…
How marketable would you say your illness was?
Your options would be: begging strangers on the internet for money and going viral, being rich enough to pay out the ass for really good insurance when you were healthy, declaring bankruptcy, and playing Luigi’s Mansion.
Haven’t seen anyone mention maximums. Sometimes insurance plans will straight up stop covering you after a certain price. Like, for the rest of your life. Imagine running up a cancer treatment bill in your teenage years and being cut off until you either die or somehow live long enough to get a job with different insurance.
That is bankruptcy, pure and simple. There’s no way you’d financially recover from a four month stint in the hospital.
People have literally unalived themselves here over hospital bills like that.
Thank God you weren’t in a shit hole country, like the US.
Dont say unalived. Say “suicideded” or killed themselfs. Stop censoring yourself
I like “met their end credits”
This is not YouTube, don’t make it so. You can -and in my opinion, should- say suicide, kill, etc.
America needs to be thrown into a volcano
Unless you got a couple of million bucks in your bank account…. Super fucked
Hmmm. Probably like $500,000. It would be cheaper, but good affordable rates are only available to insurance companies. But with a GoFundMe plan you might save up to a $50,000. Best bet is to get on the evening news with you in total shambles. The good news is you can haggle hospitals here, no joke. Not acceptable anywhere else in the US unless you’re buying something hot.
Buying something hot
Your mum?
My brother smashed and broke his thumb.x ray, er visit, blah blah blah. They call him a month later to talk about payment. I cant remember how much, he had shit insurance though. He said, I’d love to pay, but I can only afford 20 a month. I’m willing to pay 20 a month for the rest of my life. Hospital told him dont worry about it. We got a fund for that.
Yeah, that’s good to hear
My hospital stay billed insurance like $300k for a 5 day stay. It was not critical care but it was specialized. Insurance covered all but like a thousand, I also have a $5k out of pocket max that goes into effect in some situations.
So if my hospital stay was 4 months and I didn’t get a bulk discount we’re looking at like $7mil USD but with insurance I’d instantly hit my out of pocket max and only be out $5k. Because there are lots of ways insurance can fine print you from actually hitting out of pocket though I don’t know
Unless anything was out-of-network and that bumps you up into a much larger out-of-pocket max.
You’d be fine, aside from the attorney’s fees for declaring bankruptcy.
…Oh, and probably losing your housing.
So basically, you declare bankruptcy and sell everything you own?
I mean, I guess I kind of knew that’d be how it would work, unless there’s some kind of protected assets, but it’s crazy people put up with that kind of life-ruining.
Bankruptcy doesn’t necessarily get you out of medical bills anymore.
So actual indentured servitude? Or is there some other kind of payment rules?
Depends on the state and other factors. Just a huge shitshow.
If anyone has a specific example, I am pretty curious now.
I spent six weeks in the hospital in the US, and my bill (before insurance) was over $400k.
But surely your out of pocket maximum was much less. The “before insurance” numbers are a fiction to make your insurance company look like they’re doing more for you. They don’t pay the hospital anything like that amount, and if you had no insurance, you could negotiate a lower amount from the hospital as well, since they’d rather get something over time than have you go bankrupt on them.
Oh I know they’re bullshit.
Still would’ve been left with a crippling amount of debt for something I had no control over if not for insurance, no matter what the actual number would’ve been.
I don’t have to tell you “that’s what the insurance companies want you to think so you’ll forget about the option of free healthcare for all” because here we both are.
certainly, but I live in the US, so that’s automatically socialism and you’re automatically commie scum for suggesting it.
sorry, thems the rules
There are a huge variety of factors but one I think people tend to forget: your state of residence
Massachusetts or Hawaii, you’d prob not be much worse off than your current situation. Most states, you’d likely owe whatever your insurance plan’s out of pocket maximum. In most of the Southeast and Texas, you’d probably be launched into the sun
I’m British just reading this thread and shaking my head. Can’t fathom these stories.
And hope that the tories don’t get into power again and kill the NHS.
