Wednesday 21:10
I got a bill from my health insurance company the other day for a minor hernia repair that I had done on an outpatient basis in March. The hospital charge, that is, the charge for the operating room, prep room, and recovery room for the few hours that I used them was $8K. $6K was written off by contract between my insurance company and UCSF. So I paid $400, which equals 1/5 of $2K. Were I an individual who wasn't indigent but couldn't afford insurance, I would have paid the whole nut. I wrote an email to UCSF subsequently to find out if they accepted any "health care discount" plans. Insurance which pays nothing towards the charges but gets you the contract rate that traditional health insurance companies negotiate. The answer is "No".
It is abundantly clear that UCSF wants nothing to do with people whose bills aren't paid by a large organization, either an insurance company or the government. I would guess that it is impossible to collect hospital bills from delinquent patients who simply have no money because the very hospital procedure itself has pauperized them. However, Medicaid patients are discriminated against by being made to wait however long the hospital decrees for any procedures that could be considered "elective".
I wonder what would have happened were I uninsured. Would thev hospital have demanded payment in full upfront? Is there an unpublished process by which uninsured but solvent individuals are able to negotiate a fee other than the outrageously high figure published at the time of their surgery. Just how debilitating is a condition allowed to become and still be considered "elective"? That's a damned elastic word. A liver transplant is elective for 12 months if you have 12 months left to live if you don't get one. The last two months may be pretty gruesome and the last two weeks may be so awful that you are actually not longer eligible for a transplant but its still "elective". They probably would have sent me to "social welfare" ,whose hospital representative would change weekly in NY, who would have counseled me on becoming welfare eligible before the operation. I wonder if there is another procedure by which "occasional" welfare clients who only need their medical emergencies paid for can avoid mixing with the "career" welfare clients who need their life paid for. If we could cut the insurance industry entirely out of the picture, how much more would it cost the government to pay for everyone's health emergencies upfront instead of paying for those it can't avoid?
posted by highhatsize 8:57 PM[edit]
12:22 hrs. pdt.
Just read and article with photos of the American general who's supposed to train the Iraqi army. He's never seen combat. A very intelligent and apparently competant officer, but he's never seen combat. I wonder what made the Bushoisie think that he was a good choice.
posted by highhatsize 12:19 PM[edit]