One unexpected pregnancy and C-section later, her medical bills came to $7,000

My husband and I pay about $7500 a year for insurance, co-pays and drugs, and we're on medicare! I haven't figured out how much more it would be without medicare covering most of the oxygen he needs for COPD and my glucose test strips. Maybe I'll take the time to figure that out at tax time next year.

Unfortunately a lot of people work jobs where a halfway decent health insurance plan just isn't an option.

There are alot of resources out there to help those who cant afford healthcare. Many doctors will give professional courtesy to nurses. You can ask their office staff when you call for an appointment. Hospitals are prohibited by law from giving professional courtesy to anyone (or so they claim), but they will often discount services for employess.
There are also internet resources to help people save on healthcare. They can be hard to find on search engines because the scam sites far outnumber the genuine ones. If anyone is aware of a website which compiles all of the assistance programs, please let me know. The best one that I am aware of is The Partnership For Prescription Access. This is a free website that is a public service which searches through 475 public and private plans to see which ones people are eligible for. The link is https://www.pparx.org/Intro.php
For example if someone needs an expensive prescription med, this site tells them whether they are eligible for the manufacturers patient access program, state assistance programs, and federal assistance programs.

Interesting article, and like others have said I agree that insurance companies have insulated people from the real cost of healthcare. I just received my first job offer as a new grad and was stunned at the pay difference, $19.25 w/benefits, $25.00 without. What I'm struggling with is the pay difference on the shift diff percentages. I still come out ahead if I don't take company benefits.

But this couple did have the option, took the gamble and lost. It's like the teenager mentality of "It can't happen to me." There's a reason dh and I both pay for a PPO at our respective jobs. We don't have $5000 lying around. Yes, were both in our thirties and are pretty healthy, but we could be in a car accident or wind-up with a bad dx of some sort at any time, (I work with a lot of sick people that have no other health history, were running marathons, eating right, the whole nine yards and then surprise!) so we don't take the chance.

Please cite your source on this...thanks

DH and I have gone through this. The BEST plan my former employer offered was 1200 deductible per person, and that was working at one of the LARGEST health insurers in the country-go figure LOL. At least the premium cost wasnt ungodly. DH's CURRENT employer (Im a student so unemployed) has the same plan-out of pocket cost a month for that coverage is $600. We've both neglected prescriptions because our respective doctors won't give a refill without a return visit, and on a single income, we just can't afford to go. Its insane. My former employer had all this hype about how HSA's were the "wave of the future" and promoted better consumerism in regards to healthcare. They even showed stats that people WERENT forgoing genuinely needed care. A GIANT steaming load if you ask me.

I do know that there are antikickback provsions in Medicare rules, and a requirement to do balance billing on medicare patients. I don't have a published reference. I was told by a hospital senior VP ( a nurse by training) at an employee meeting that hospitals were forbidden by law from giving professional courtesy when I asked about giving employees, nursing staff, and medical staff courtesy. She said it violated some anti kickback law. At that time a local competing hospital offered professional courtesy so I was never clear why the law only applied to us. A few years later the hospital started giving out professional courtesy to employees and members of the medical staff. They put a $2000 dollar limit on professional courtesy. I was told the law had changed. I think the hospital administration makes up its interpretation of the laws as it goes along.