Comments
mrfoof82 t1_iy643yv wrote
From the article...
>That includes 11 million who owe more than $2,000 and 3 million people who owe more than $10,000.
So assuming that the ones that owe more than $10,000 also owe more than $2,000...
- (3,000,000 * 10,000) = 30,000,000,000 ... + (8,000,000 * 2,000) = 16,000,000,000, or $46 billion owed
Yet if those two groups however are exclusive, that means over $52 billion owed.
Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in Oct. 2022 there were ~264,535,000 Americans aged 16 and older, not in prison, that could theoretically work. So equally divided amongst them, that's $196.57 in medical debt per person.
However, in October 2022 there were ~164,667,000 active participants aged 16 and older in the US workforce. Equally divided amongst them, that's $315.79 in medical debt per active US worker aged 16 and older.
Keep in mind that active participant number includes ~17,107,000 men and women of at least age 16, but younger than 20 years old. So if we excluded them, that's $352.40 per active worker aged 20 and older.
That's just the debt. That's an outstanding balance due, not expenses already incurred with balances settled, nor outstanding balances that are yet to be put into debt collection.
[deleted] t1_iy65iec wrote
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casadecarol t1_iy67q1d wrote
They did the math.
Chippopotanuse t1_iy698ed wrote
And that’s just if the owe the dead-ass minimum to qualify for the $2k and $10k thresholds.
My guess is there’s a lot of $100k+ folks out there.
There’s a reason bankruptcy is incredibly likely for folks who have a bad medical event like a car crash, cancer, surgery, or a heart attack.
No other civilized country operates this way.
You can thank the GOP and conservative voters for why we can’t have nice things.
GTAIVisbest t1_iy6lr4v wrote
Wait so the average plan has like a $7,000 max yearly out-of-pocket or something. Max YOOPM is like $9k IIRC. If you have to go to the hospital and get a 100k bill, provided you chose to go to an in-network facility (or you were incapacitated), you just need to pay whatever balance was remaining on that ~$7,000 worst case scenario. Are these people illegally uninsured or something?
[deleted] t1_iy6n7nc wrote
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DearMrsLeading t1_iy6nil7 wrote
I had a surgery and it turned out my anesthesiologist wasn’t covered by my insurance, I was responsible for the entire cost of his services despite never having a choice of who I got. Another one of my tests was deemed not medically necessary (it was) and I had to pay for that too. There are a lot of weird loopholes that result in bills.
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UrbanGhost114 t1_iy6sirs wrote
That's just for what the insurance company deems worthy enough to be covered.
GTAIVisbest t1_iy6yiv3 wrote
No Surprises Act :) they can't balance-bill you for anesthesiologists anymore
DearMrsLeading t1_iy6yl4r wrote
Oh, awesome! My surgery was years ago so my info is a bit old.
GTAIVisbest t1_iy6yvk0 wrote
It's no secret that you have to take up a full-time job as your own advocate to coordinate between the provider and your insurance company. You have to untangle coding mistakes and do a bunch of stuff that usually requires about 3-4 full days of full time phone work, following up with people, escalating, etc. It always follows the path of least resistance and when the customer doesn't speak up the system crushes them. There are a lot of weird loopholes that result in bills, but a couple dozen hours of phone and coordination work will result in those bills getting dropped, or paid for, due to the No Surprises Act (as long as you went to an in-network facility)
GTAIVisbest t1_iy6z4pj wrote
Yeah, the No Surprises Act was monumental and basically the pinnacle of the Biden administration imho. Before, like you said, an anesthesiologist would just walk in to your room and look at your chart, and you couldn't say anything at all or speak up in time, and BOOM- balance-billed. Nowadays, you'll still get balance-billed, but after spending a dozen hours on the phone or so it gets dropped. Still crappy unpaid work but at least you're not on the hook anymore
littlebitsofspider t1_iy6z7ji wrote
This entire wall of text doesn't exist for 32 of 33 developed economies in the world. Not a shred. You might pay for parking; that's it.
Eizah t1_iy7brwt wrote
Yup. Gave birth a couple of years ago. 3-day hospital stay, everything included. Only had to pay parking, about $20. Sweden.
[deleted] t1_iy7buye wrote
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ApplesBananasRhinoc t1_iy7c95q wrote
Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular?
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ludicrous50 t1_iy7e1tc wrote
You should start Drinking or do some drugs.
They are fun!
the_eluder t1_iy7exso wrote
And don't forget the amount you spend on premiums. So for most you're actually spending more than 10k before you hit your deductible.
Chippopotanuse t1_iy7uobl wrote
Go look into whether helicopters are covered by insurance when you are airlifted somewhere. It’s like $35k. Or ambulance rides. Easily $1k per ride.
Or an insane amount of other “non-covered” expenses.
Chippopotanuse t1_iy7w7oz wrote
Awww, you assume I’m a fatass? Good for you.
I’m amazingly healthy and well off. As is my spouse and 4 kids. It’s just that I care about people, even if I’ve never met them. I want folks who suffer from diseases and poor health to have good health insurance because it’s the right thing to do. And I believe it costs us less as a society if we have access to proper medical care. (Just look at how shitty the life expectancies and economies are in the deep red states. You can’t have a thriving economy when everyone is sick.)
So while your concern trolling about me being a fat slob is way off the mark, sure, let’s talk about each other’s lives. Except I won’t guess and be wildly wrong.
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You are “40-something”.
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You seem overly proud of perceiving yourself as some top physical specimen. (Newsflash, almost all of my 40-something peers from grad school have also never/rarely been in the ER, and don’t have drinking or drug problems.)
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You are still dating in your mid-40’s, and find yourself having to deceive potentials partners about your entire belief system and shitty political views in attempts to get laid.
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On top of that, in your pea brain, any woman who has slept with more than 5 guys by age 40 is a whore:
> Meh, I'm a man who votes Republican but when it comes to dating, if I think I'm in the presence of someone who leans left and I'm attracted to them, I'll just flat out lie and say I'm a Democrat if the topic comes up. No real way for them to find out the truth (I keep all my papers in a safe and I have a common name so a Google search wouldn't turn up anything), so that solves that issue.
> But more importantly, with all the lies women tell about themselves in relationships (that scene in Clerks about "37 dicks" is a dead-on representation of how some women will use "weasel words" to essentially lie), me lying about my political affiliations is small potatoes.
> I'd rather date a woman who was actually a Democrat and lied by saying she was Republican than a woman who told me she has 5 sexual partners but warped definitions in her head in order to conceal the fact that she'd actually had 40.
(this was your third most recent comment)
And you are not emotionally available to consider that not everyone lies all the time like you.
For instance, assuming someone you were on a date with, who claims they were raped, MUST be lying:
> I lost interest in an actual real-life hot girl I knew after she told me her ex-boyfriend had r*ped her when they were dating. It seemed like something you wouldn't share with a guy you barely knew if it had actually happened, so I assumed she was exaggerating and gradually cut off all contact with her.
You are a massively insecure person. You are so dishonest and lie for everything you want, you can’t understand why anyone would be honest with you.
You can’t comprehend that most folks are good people who don’t have to lie about who they are to get what they want.
And at some level you know that. Otherwise a woman who has dated more than 5 men wouldn’t be a threat to your low self-esteem.
Best of luck finding a “worthy” partner.
And please keep lying to folks since you know you are a shitty person who lies to romantic partners because you know damn well nobody would give you the time of day if you revealed your true self to them.
thevoidhearsyou t1_iy7zjxp wrote
That right there is why we'll never get cheap health care.
[deleted] t1_iy82ssx wrote
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Outrageous_Garlic306 t1_iy84oyo wrote
What a creepy and totally effective way of putting it. Sickening.
ryanknapper t1_iy852j7 wrote
That sounds almost like if the citizens of each state, or possibly the entire country, banded together and we each paid a relatively small amount, we could all get decent health care and not worry about being devastated by medical debt.
[deleted] t1_iy8d84w wrote
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Fabulous-Ad6844 t1_iy8g6js wrote
Bravo!! Bet Red states fight that, while at the same time they withhold Medicare expansion.
Fabulous-Ad6844 t1_iy8gu6k wrote
That shit needs to be legislated. If you have no choice then it should be automatically treated as in network. Only Doctors should decide what’s necessary, not insurers.
Well if we can’t have universal here then at least make the system a little fairer. Sigh.
officeDrone87 t1_iy8sthn wrote
You're aware that otherwise healthy people can get diseases, right? Yes being overweight makes many conditions more likely, but it is entirely possible to be thin and get cancer.
[deleted] t1_iy8uspz wrote
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Sir-Farts- t1_iya0pp4 wrote
Yes while the govt gives them research $.
2boredtocare t1_iya5rdw wrote
The older i get, the more frustrated I am with how we continue to do things. And my job is directly affected by medical debt. NO ONE should go into massive debt on account of needing medical care. NO ONE should have to pay hundreds of dollars a month for insurance premiums that are garbage.
EVERYONE should have access to the same, affordable care. Sigh.
[deleted] t1_iyaizgx wrote
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vainsandsmiling t1_iyajdtm wrote
In Texas I’ve never heard of that. I have a ton of medical debt and never worried about my wages. What are you talking about.
Fabulous-Ad6844 t1_iyaoo0t wrote
The Federal government provides money to states to provide Medicare to low income earners but some states refuse to take it & provide that to their residents.
“Expanding Medicaid is an option available to states since 2014 through the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, yet Wyoming and 11 other states have refused to take up the federal government’s offer. About 2.2 million people, who earn too much for Medicaid and too little for Obamacare subsidies, fall in that coverage gap nationwide”
https://news.yahoo.com/bidens-obamacare-funding-shifts-medicaid-100009719.html
Really cruel to deny your low income residents federally funded care. It’s really disgusting imo. Idk How people can vote for the GOP.
[deleted] t1_iyar7sp wrote
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[deleted] t1_iyd3xmv wrote
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sherm39 t1_iy5qwyt wrote
Good to see some resistence, feeble though it is, against Savage American Medicine, a system for harvesting the wealth of the dead and dying.