To all "medical coverage is a privilege" folks:

Nurses Activism

Published

You're presented with a five year-old who probably has appendicitis. The family is poor, does not have medical insurance, and they only have a small amount of money to cover diagnostics and treatment of their child. (Any veterinarians on this forum?)

Because of the OMG free market stuff, you can remove the child's appendix for a minimum of...$5,000. However, this child's family cannot afford that and are not eligible for that much credit.

...what do you do? What if you're presented with ten such cases over the course of a month?

Specializes in Geriatrics, Telemetry, Med-Surg.
Most of the people who declare bankruptcy due to medical bills have health insurance (78% according to one study), so it's not a matter of people not being responsible and not paying for insurance. Insurance companies are for-profit, which means all care they cover comes out of their profit, and as a result they've gotten very good at not paying the bills they're supposed to pay, and when you've already been paying $500 a month for a plan, an unpaid service can easily push a family into bankruptcy.

And for those without insurance, the cost these days of a hospital stay is usually well over $10,000. My Hospital bills $10,000 for a diagnostic heart cath all by itself. And even non-ICU hospitals stays these days can add up to $100,000 or more.

Unfortunately, I just experienced this myself. I had a high-risk pregnancy. I had to be on Lovenox injections daily, and receive weekly ultrasounds towards the end of my pregnancy. I had health insurance all throughout my pregnancy. I paid my premiums. After I gave birth to my daughter, my insurance company decided they weren't going to pay their share, so now I'm left with over $11,000 in medical bills.

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Most of the people who declare bankruptcy due to medical bills have health insurance (78% according to one study), so it's not a matter of people not being responsible and not paying for insurance. Insurance companies are for-profit, which means all care they cover comes out of their profit, and as a result they've gotten very good at not paying the bills they're supposed to pay, and when you've already been paying $500 a month for a plan, an unpaid service can easily push a family into bankruptcy.

And for those without insurance, the cost these days of a hospital stay is usually well over $10,000. My Hospital bills $10,000 for a diagnostic heart cath all by itself. And even non-ICU hospitals stays these days can add up to $100,000 or more.

I agree somewhat. We had to declare bankruptcy even though out medical insurance covered everything. Unfortunately when one of the breadwinners can't work due to a medical issue, insurance doesn't cover income loss. So that's another angle to consider.
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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.
I agree somewhat. We had to declare bankruptcy even though out medical insurance covered everything. Unfortunately when one of the breadwinners can't work due to a medical issue, insurance doesn't cover income loss. So that's another angle to consider.

To be clear, you didn't face bankruptcy because you couldnt pay medical bills. They were paid by your insurance. You faced bankruptcy because lost earnings left you unable to pay other living expenses.

I don't understand how health insurance could or even should address that. It's an entirely separate issue.

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