patrick.net

The article makes no sense: the guy is 70 hence he's on Medicare. Why would his heart almost fail when he saw the bill?

I've seen some hefty bills afrer my kid's surgery, but once the total crossed out-of-pocket maximum the rest was free for the whole family for the rest of the year. We were even getting checks in the mail for co-pays collected at doctor's offices.

And I'm on a high-deductible plan, mind you.

The reforms needed are simple and obvious:

1. all non-livesaving medical bills must be presented and signed in advance of treatement or they are not valid bills
2. all livesaving care prices need to be fixed prices by law, because obviously there can be no free market when it's "pay or die"

Patrick says

The reforms needed are simple and obvious

Single payer, or some kind of nationalized system. Within such a system, that single payer aren't going to accept ridiculous prices, and so much of the convolution of charging different entities different amounts depending on their coverage largely disappears.

FuckCCP89 says

The article makes no sense: the guy is 70 hence he's on Medicare. Why would his heart almost fail when he saw the bill?

I've seen some hefty bills afrer my kid's surgery, but once the total crossed out-of-pocket maximum the rest was free for the whole family for the rest of the year. We were even getting checks in the mail for co-pays collected at doctor's offices.

And I'm on a high-deductible plan, mind you.

Under Medicare, as I understand it, the patient is still liable for 20% of the cost of the procedure. If he has no medicare supplement, yep he's broke. However, Congress set aside money that pays for the entirety of COVID (I think) so his $1.1 million dollar bill is paid for by you the taxpayer. --- Such is single payer.