I know the feeling, when my kid was born we had to spend 5 days in hospital and it cost me £10 per day in parking. Daylight robbery.
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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And you should see the price of a pack of biscuits in the hospital shop!
I live in Australia and suffered an A.V. malformation in my brain that burst one day in 2021. I was flown to a major hospital in the city for emergency brain surgery. I woke up again 1 week later with a bunch of tubes coming out of me and no idea where I was or how I got there. After they took the tubes out of me a few weeks later I found out I had to learn to walk again. I was released for out-patient care 3 months later, the whole thing cost me exactly $0.
America really screwed over it's own people.
My next door neighbour and close family friend (when I used to live in the states) had a freak accident and required a heart transplant.
The cost of the transplant surgery and all related medical expenses would have put his family into astronomical medical debt for the foreseeable future. He opted to just die and donate the rest of his organs instead of putting his entire family in debt forever.
He left behind a wife, a daughter, and a special needs grandchild who him and his wife were raising because their daughter had some drug problems.
I remember reading a news story from the states once about a construction worker that got into an accident that took three of his fingers. When he was in hospital they talked about his treatment and discussed with him how much each finger would cost to reattach. In the end he was only able to afford two out of three fingers.
And if you think these stories are made up or untrue, most Americans are so normalized to all this that it would shock anyone else in the world. There are so many stories like this in the US .....
https://www.buzzfeed.com/morgansloss1/18-stories-health-insurance-claims-being-denied
In the end he was only able to afford two out of three fingers.
I hope one of those was the middle finger.
It's crazy to me that needing a heart transplant doesn't make you eligible to enroll in Medicare but needing a kidney does.
The point is moot! Since the GOP is gutting medicare/medicaid anyway.
Your continued existence is a burden! Fucking die! Work or die, meat!
-America
Remember when the Right used to say that if we had socialized medicine it would lead to "death boards". Well, guess what we have now ...
Already did then!
Every accusation a fascist makes is a confession.
The debt would go with the person. A kid is not responsible for a parent's medical bill.
(At least that's my understanding)
They will still try to collect and hope you fall for it.
Yes, the good Ole corporate greed and ignorant humans not knowing thier rights.
It was a state with filial responsibility so he was concerned that his daughter would be held liable for the unpaid dues. This was in 2002.
TIL that's crazy. I wasn't aware of this term.
In America it costs about $20,000 to have a baby.
https://www.babylist.com/hello-baby/childbirth-without-insurance
Thats a rough average of with, without insurance, need a c section or not, etc.
Thats also about 1/3 of a median US yearly salary/wage.
Meanwhile, politicians seem to mostly have no idea why childbirth rates are going down, but they are also mostly sure that they hate immigrants.
Our country is a dumpster fire, please do not come here, you will regret it.
One of the terrible things is that they will bill you much more if you don't have insurance, or if you have insurance but they are not in your insurance "network" (which is basically your insurer acting like a union to negotiate prices down for it's members).
Yep, its convoluted and confusing as fuck.
But like, think how rich 10 guys get off that. They're so cool.
It's really fucked. Unless I am actively dying I will not go to the hospital. I barely cover rent. Weird new pain? Well hopefully it goes away and isn't a symptom of something worse...
Technically, if you ignore everything it does go away.
America is the disturbing confluence of Virginia colony's desire to make some money no matter the spiritual cost and the Massechussets colony's desire to control the spiritual life, no matter the cost in money.
My routine colonoscopy was over $1000 and insurance covered alllll but $300.
I went to a Dr for the first time in 3 years to have my shoulder looked at. Spent about an hour at the place, and saw the Dr for maybe 5 minutes. I ended up getting prescribed maximum daily dose of acetaminophen, and some steroids (cheap garden variety). All in it cost me 167 dollars, which was within my deductible, so after a month, I finally got a bill for the full amount. The 200 bucks a month for my insurance and it didn't cover shit (my employer pays most of it, but my contribution is still like 240 dollars a year).
Health insurance in the US is a racket.
Not to mention the cost of the ride there! My mom had to go to the ER a few years ago. We called 911 and an ambulance came to our house and transported her to the local hospital. After she got out, she got a bill for the ride for $2800 (which is actually pretty cheap for an ambulance ride). Then, a few weeks later, she got another ambulance bill for $2800 from a different ambulance company. It turned out this second company was the one affiliated with the hospital, and this made them feel entitled to bill people for a ride even if a different company's ambulance showed up and actually provided the service.
My mom was all set to pay this second bill because she's from a generation where they just pay any bill that shows up no matter what. I was like no fucking way are you paying this, and I called up this ambulance company and allowed myself to get really angry on the phone. They threatened to send it to collections but they never did, maybe because I yelled "fucking do it!" to them over the phone. Just the shittiest pieces of corporate shit I've ever encountered, sending out completely illegitimate bills to old people because they know some fraction of people will just pay it.
glad I live in a country which has universal healthcare because when i learned abt how much an MRI scan costs in the USA I was gobsmacked. one of the richest countries in the world yet doesn't have universal healthcare
My wife and I had a baby last week via elective caesarian in the Australian public system. It was a fantastic experience. The doctors and surgeons were amazing. The midwives were amazing and super helpful. We were there for three nights and nothing was ever a problem when we needed something. The only charge was the cost of a new birth control implant (the actual implantation was free).
They have also been doing follow up home visits to check how my wife and our baby are going since she was discharged, all still free.
I had a loved-one have to be intubated and was on life-support for around 3-weeks. The total bill in the end was over 2 million USD.
Fortunately I was unemployed at the time and had state-subsidised low-income healthcare so I paid very little out-of-pocket. If it had happened when we were working it probably would have cost us over 50k in deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.
Do not ask me to make it make sense. I have lived in this "system" my entire life and I hate every moment of this dreamworld nonsense.
one of the richest countries in the world yet doesn’t have universal healthcare
We're working on that ... the "richest country in the world" part, not the universal healthcare part.
Hell yeah $22k in one night and that was 16 years ago.
You get the friends and family rate?
It only cost me a bankruptcy and a foreclosure. You can't put a price on health, unless you're an insurance provider.
Fun fact, the stay itself isn't entirely covered in my country. Being in the hospital costs like 20€/night (regardless of what procedures and tests they do, those are fully covered).
That's a pretty decent rent for a room, probably also including meals?
Yeah. I think it must be partially covered, otherwise Id expect a higher price. Wifi is extra though (unless you have eduroam hehe)
The ridiculous thing is that many TV shows make it look as if it is not that expensive and it's fully covered by insurance.
In Friends for example, Joey needed to only do one acting thing and get covered for anything and for a long time.
I mean, this is just a given.
Half a day in the ER in the Nordics might cost the same as a night at a cheap motel in the US. While the same time and treatement in a US ER could pay for a weekend in some of the more expensive hotels in the world.
I unfortunately had no insurance and needed to go to the er cause I had a staph infection on my leg. 1 visit, I was there 1.5 hours. The dr drained/cleaned the infection gave me antibiotics and now im in debt 6k
Make it make sense. I'm fighting it, trying to get a lower number
Many year ago I lost my job and just as I got a new job but before my insurance could kick in, my appendix ruptured. I had to get surgery and was in the hospital for 3 days, the bill came to something like $25,000.
I negotiated with the hospital, they reduced it to $11,000 and set me on a payment plan. After I paid off the $11,000 they sent me to collections for the other $14,000. Those fuckers.
I refused to pay it and it tanked my credit rating, which made it difficult to get a home loan five years after.
Gotta get shit in writing. Then you could've disputed it.
If you have the right membership card, stays that are normally $400k are brought down about $5k! There's also special perks hidden like the McDonald's secret menu that bring it down further if not eliminate it if you ask for the right thing. Best system in the world right?! (/s)
You have to watch the news constantly to make sure to time your hospital stay during times when your local state or employer isn't in the process of repealing your right to life-support.