Friday
Moderator
I lived without insurance for over 6 years... PreObama care, the cheapest we could get was $800 per person. $2400 a month? Nope. Not gonna happen. Not on the $600 a month we had at the time!
To know:
- Average Clinic appointments w/out labs = $250
- With labs = + $250- +750 (STD testing is avg $750!!! No wonder pandemic)
^^^
That's not too bad... Would totally make living without $300 insurance fine.
- Avg non-admit ER visit = $5,000-$10,000
- BIBA (brought in by ambulance) = + $10,000
- Avg Easy Emergent Surgery (appy, or bone pin, for example) = + $50,000-$75,000
- Maternity = $10,000-$20,000 vaginally (sig more for c-sect).
As long as you can afford standard care at apx $300 a month? You'll be fine, if and only if, you don't get into a car accident / get sick after hours / break a bone / get pregnant / etc. anything that needs to be seen in an ER. Also, cancer & other forms of ongoing medical care hit 6 figures inside of a month or three, and often hit 7 figures inside of 6-12mo.
So if you're young, healthy, unlikely to become pregnant , suffer any accidents, or need any kind of long term or ongoing care? It's not a terrible idea.
Very important to know :
- Not all states require hospitals to attempt to save your life if you cannot guarantee payment (insurance) or pay up front. Mine is one of the many who doesn't. Only 1 hospital per county is required by law to accept everyone, regardless of their ability to pay (but even there, treatment is restricted to life saving, only, if unable to pay). All the rest well send you away, carrying your own leg (not exaggerating, seen that one happen a few times, farm machinery), and won't even tourniquet you because = being used. Other states, meanwhile, the ER is required by law to treat anyone & everyone who walks in. Know which your state is, before getting rid of your insurance.
- Medical Debt goes on your credit report (as of George W Bush). My son's ER visit turned 5 week stay totaled in the millions. Over 100k per day most days, in PICU, interventions, daily care. My credit report was in the negative numbers even before my divorce. No lie, millions in debt. Snort. At a certain point it just becomes Monopoly money. That just, quite frankly, is never going to be paid. ((Most of it has been covered by donations, yaaaaaay! But I've still got roughly 100k in debt. Drop in the bucket.)) Every cold & flu season? I would go another 50k into debt, because parents send their "it's just a cold" kids to school. Now, I clearly could care less about my credit score at this point, but if your credit score is important to you? Be very wary of medical debt.
- Car accidents = years long battles to get the other person's insurance to pay = substandard medical care until then if you don't have your own insurance to get you through the doors.
Weird to know
- No insurance is better than crap insurance (as long as you don't care about your credit score). Reason being are medical grants & forgiveness.
To know:
- Average Clinic appointments w/out labs = $250
- With labs = + $250- +750 (STD testing is avg $750!!! No wonder pandemic)
^^^
That's not too bad... Would totally make living without $300 insurance fine.
- Avg non-admit ER visit = $5,000-$10,000
- BIBA (brought in by ambulance) = + $10,000
- Avg Easy Emergent Surgery (appy, or bone pin, for example) = + $50,000-$75,000
- Maternity = $10,000-$20,000 vaginally (sig more for c-sect).
As long as you can afford standard care at apx $300 a month? You'll be fine, if and only if, you don't get into a car accident / get sick after hours / break a bone / get pregnant / etc. anything that needs to be seen in an ER. Also, cancer & other forms of ongoing medical care hit 6 figures inside of a month or three, and often hit 7 figures inside of 6-12mo.
So if you're young, healthy, unlikely to become pregnant , suffer any accidents, or need any kind of long term or ongoing care? It's not a terrible idea.
Very important to know :
- Not all states require hospitals to attempt to save your life if you cannot guarantee payment (insurance) or pay up front. Mine is one of the many who doesn't. Only 1 hospital per county is required by law to accept everyone, regardless of their ability to pay (but even there, treatment is restricted to life saving, only, if unable to pay). All the rest well send you away, carrying your own leg (not exaggerating, seen that one happen a few times, farm machinery), and won't even tourniquet you because = being used. Other states, meanwhile, the ER is required by law to treat anyone & everyone who walks in. Know which your state is, before getting rid of your insurance.
- Medical Debt goes on your credit report (as of George W Bush). My son's ER visit turned 5 week stay totaled in the millions. Over 100k per day most days, in PICU, interventions, daily care. My credit report was in the negative numbers even before my divorce. No lie, millions in debt. Snort. At a certain point it just becomes Monopoly money. That just, quite frankly, is never going to be paid. ((Most of it has been covered by donations, yaaaaaay! But I've still got roughly 100k in debt. Drop in the bucket.)) Every cold & flu season? I would go another 50k into debt, because parents send their "it's just a cold" kids to school. Now, I clearly could care less about my credit score at this point, but if your credit score is important to you? Be very wary of medical debt.
- Car accidents = years long battles to get the other person's insurance to pay = substandard medical care until then if you don't have your own insurance to get you through the doors.
Weird to know
- No insurance is better than crap insurance (as long as you don't care about your credit score). Reason being are medical grants & forgiveness.
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