Hospital bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy. Yet if you can't pay in full after so much time, they sell your debt to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar and write off the loss. What a sham. Maybe they should charge a fair price instead of gouge people.

Send them $5 a month, you're making an attempt to pay.

I agree that it is sad.

Hospitals are nasty on bills an payments, they well sue fast if no pay, I pay off what insurance didn't pay them years ago. If u have insurance, there is contracted rate, or agreement between insurance company an health provider, u dont got health insurance. They go full price, lot higher than agrement with insurance company, maxuim price, I no.longer have health insurance for 3 plus years. Go docter or hospital, u pay in cash up front in full or not seen, they don't care. Only place I know of is a crappy place for low income , I get whole whoppin 10 per cent off, sky high bill, u can make payments but got pay so much upfront , it is horrid, insurance to expensive for me, not offered a group plan from employer, pos job, should begin gone long ago an need go by next year if last

Words more true, never were spoken.

They charge such a ridiculous rate because of the stupid insurance companies. Insurance never pays what was billed, even if full coverage. They pay a percent. Docs and hospitals know this so they increase the prices 10 fold to get the money, whatever it was, actually cost to do. If you are paying cash you can call the hospital and usually get a 40-60% cash discount. They also settle bills for pennies on the dollar. My wife does this everyday (financial advisor at the local hospital). The system is screwed and in the end it can all be laid at the feet of insurance companies. If insurance was eradicated you could afford to just pay cash to see a doc and get things done.

...or understood.

Actually the uninsured people arent a problem they usually pay cash because they know they are uninsured. I really think the whole "its the uninsured people causing all the problems" is a myth. What is really a problem is all the people on medicare that get an ambulance ride to the hospital for a headache and only want pain pills for a cure. Its a pretty big sign when someone is in a room for a migraine and someone walks in the room and they are playing on facebook on their iphone 10.

Now as far as the uninsured part you gotta take my location into consideration. In rural south alabama. Maybe in south cali that might be a different thing.

If it isnt an emergency care thing then you usually have to pay something up front before any procedure is done. Docs are also real bad about marking something emergency to just get their patient a test done, lots arent always emergency things. Everyone is playing the system as it exists and it causes alot of unintended consequences. From insurance companies, to docs, to patients. It has snowballed into things like hospitals charging 6K for a 30 min MRI. You can also shop around to get things done. One hospital may charge one thing but another may charge another. It depends on what tier hospital it is. Higher tier hospitals are more subsidized or whatever and can charge less because they are getting govt money to cover the rest.

As always big brother needs to get its fingers out of the pie and things might straighten out on their own.

How can there be a problem? The Affordable Care Act passed.

Now that's funny right there. And Yeah, you can keep your Dr. Too. anyone who voted for that guy should feel ashamed and anti american.

LOL

In his defense, the healthcare system was on its last legs anyway -- but he didn't have to put the last nails in the coffin. As with everything else the ins companies and the lawyers won.

But they can't/won't because they have - for brains.

any time there is a third party paying the bills, you're going to have crazy inflation of prices...no downward pressure on pricing.

same thing happens in higher education.

Thats one of the reasons why these concierge/membership-based provider systems are starting to explode across the nation.

The attorneys have a lot to do with the high bills and are those who make the laws and who and how to bill, including the affordable care act. Doctors are getting sued non-stop and so our hospitals and just about every other business. Americans are hobbled by lawsuits.

This. Defensive medicine is expensive.

So is the "free" medical care we are giving people. I used to be on the local volunteer fire dept. until I got tired of getting up at about bar closing time every friday and saturday nights so that i could watch life-flight take another uninsured illegal to a portland hospital at my expense. I quit doing that before obamacare -- probably a good thing since I no longer have health insurance myself (or family).

When you get on Medicare you will see the bill the care provider charged for their services and you will also see what Medicare paid and yes the difference can be staggering but if you are a for profit provider you will rarely if ever pay any taxes if all those unpaid charges are never paid for. In one way Medicare does help hold down medical costs. In most cases you don't see Medicare families filing bankruptcy due to medical bills, it is younger families that choose to go that route which is faster and almost cleaner than paying a $100 month on a 75k medical bill which they won't pay off in a lifetime.
I have never checked the billing statements from a not for profit care giver compared to a for profit caregiver to see if the billing statements were similar for similar services in similar regions.
Bryce