I overheard a conversation about how a millionaire wouldn’t need to buy health insurance because he could pay cash for his needs
So it got me to thinking, what would it cost if you had a simple heart attack and went to the ER and such.
I Googled around and couldn’t find much. I also realize the cost would vary from place to place, depending on locale, the type of hospital you were taken to etc, etc.
Is there any site that would list the cost of a heart attack or a stroke or other things?
My mom had a heart attack 4 years ago, requiring two angioplasties/stents and a couple days in the hospital. IIRC, the total hospital bill was around $50,000. Insurance picked up almost the entire tab – of course, the insurance company negotiated a somewhat lower rate.
As an example of this negotiation, when I had my angioplasty & stent in March, my insurance was billed about $34,000. They paid only $13,000, which the hospital & doctors accepted as payment in full. My only expense was a $10 co-pay.
Just for an ER admit, an EKG, chest x-ray and whatever the blood test is they do looking for some enzyme that signals heart muscle damage, we rang up a $13,000 bill to rule out a heart attack. (The problem was ultimately found to be a dislocated rib - very painful, but at least not life-threatening.)
On a related note, a six-mile ambulance ride around here will set you back about $1400.
What I find interesting is that our insurance company disallowed nearly half of the bill outright as being too expensive, which makes it sound like a “cash” patient would pay twice as much as they really should. Our ultimate co-pay for the ER visit was $100, and because the ambulance company can’t bill its way out of a paper bag, the insurance company disallowed their billing entirely as they took too long to submit the claim.
The way I understand it, there’s full cash pricing that almost nobody ever pays. Insurance companies negotiate their own rate – people who pay cash will most likely negotiate an better rate as well.
I’m thinking if you’re having a heart attack, you’re not in a strong negotiating position.
As someone “at risk” for cardiovascular problems, and also having no health insurance . . . I’m definitely gonna remember this.
Yes, but you don’t actually have to pay until you’re patched up. What are they going to do, go in and take back the pacemaker?
IF they know to negotiate!
I recently had to pay cash for a medical test and I knew to negotiate, so I got a 50% reduction in rate (bringing it down from “retail” to more in line with what insured people pay) but it was clear that if I hadn’t negotiated I would have been charged full price! They won’t tell you that you can haggle, you have to know that going in.
I saw a thing on 60 minutes or somesuch…they said the exact opposite. They interviewed a family that was ruined because the hospital wouldn’t negotiate the bill as they do with the insurance companies.
No, the hospital’s billing department will take you to court and sue you for payment just like any other business would.
Unlikely. We’re much more likely to either sell the debt to a collector or write it off. Then again, you’re unlikely to get a pacemaker if you don’t have some form of insurance or way to pay.
Hospitals are only required to stabilize patients, not provide a long term cure.
Depends on the hospital. Many hospitals do offer discounts to their bills for prompt payment, or keeping on schedule with bill payments. Nothing nearly as good as the discounts private insurers (or, especially, Medicaid and Medicare) get
Not necessarily. I once broke my leg 2 days before the insurance on my new job kicked in. I told the hospital flat-out that I was going to have to pay out of pocket, and they immediately set up a very reasonable payment plan and knocked 50% off the bill.
It depends on the hospital, Advocate Hospital chain is well known for being VERY aggressive for collecting, on the other end Cook County Hospital, is known for not trying very hard, even to find government funded programs to get their bills paid.
I was self-pay for several years before I got a full time job. I had no idea you could haggle.
Well YMMV, but it was my understanding is that a lot of cases of people ruining themselves financially due to medical bills are due to the fact that they overextend high-interest debt like lines or credit and credits cards to pay hospitals (often without negotiation) and then sink, rather than negotiate a reduction and a payment plan with a hospital. Of course, if the hospital is not cooperating, you might be SOL, so I’m not saying it doesn’t happen.
If you ave to ask, you can’t afford it.
Sailboat
If something really bad happens, you’d better be a reasonably-unencumbered multi-millionaire. My infant nephew needed a liver transplant and spent about 4.5 months in NICU and ICU, and the running total is over $6 million… :eek: :eek: :eek:
He’s doing great, BTW- 10 months old (transplant was at 3 months) and progressing very well, especially catching up to all the developmental milestones he missed being kept in a hospital bed for months on end on a feeding tube… Thank all gods for killer health insurance…
My SIL was uninsured and very poor. She nearly died from alcoholism. The hospital got her set up on Medicaid and between that and the hospital, she ended up paying next to nothing.
7 years later the booze got her anyway, but it did buy her some time.
My son got assaulted and required an ambulance ride, emergency room care, surgery on his eye socket and all the accompanying drugs and office visits, no insurance coverage at all, and a slight reduction in the charge from the eye surgeon…$40,000.