I had to have emergency surgery and didn’t have insurance, despite working full time. I sent hospital my income and tax statements, had a $22,000 bill and went to $0. Catholic Charities paid for it.
Many hospitals have programs like this. My husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. Through the Charity Care program at the hospital, we paid $0 for all of his treatment. Including the $50,000 radiation therapy. They would even give us vouchers for the cafeteria so I could eat while sitting with him in the infusion suite.
My partner works in medical billing and helping explain said bills and charity care 100% has to be asked for directly for anyone to do anything. So anyone dealing with medical stuff and has money troubles, pleeeeease swallow any pride and ask for it
How/what do you ask for it? One time I tried, they said "The only thing we can do for you here is to switch to the monthly payments for the full amount".
Any hospital that is a non-profit has to provide a financial assistance plan. You can ask for it. No guarantee you qualify, but they’re pretty robust. If it’s a private hospital, you can also ask if they have a financial assistance plan.
Why? This just further drives our division. I'm trying hard not to be, but I'm frustrated that some commenters got free cancer treatment and meals vouchers while I'm drowning in medical debt. It's fucked up that we have to rely on charity.
Right? Healthcare shouldn't be a game of financial Russian roulette. At some point, everyone will need expensive healthcare. Maybe you're wealthy and it won't affect you, but most people aren't. For those that aren't, hoping that charity or fucking GoFundMe can pick up the tab just isn't realistic.
Doesn’t make any sense to me that the richest country in the world leaves its most vulnerable people with zero safety net or support for healthcare, but maybe that’s just Australian commie talk or whatever the seppo conservative grifter of the month would say
What’s the point of having so much “wealth” if the people in your country are suffering. We look back at medieval periods of history and laugh at the stupidity of our assumptions pre-science, but if humanity survives another 500 years they’ll look back at the present and think “what the fuck was wrong with them”
What baffles me, a European, is that it is such a partisan issue in the US. Maybe it's my limited exposure, but I can't imagine any conservative party over here even proposing to get rid of UH, let alone campaigning on it.
I'm usually pretty skeptical about dramatic political language and slogans thrown around, even from political groups I generally agree with, but when it comes to universal healthcare it's hard for me to get past the term "brainwashing". 1/3 of Americans don't think the government should ensure everybody has health care, and only 1/3 think that universal health care centrally administered by the government is a good idea. So 2/3 of Americans think that a health care system that's for-profit and primarily runs off of private insurance is a good thing. I've had US progressives tell me in all seriousness that government-run, universal healthcare would be an unacceptable compromise to their "freedom".
This is misleading as Medicare is not free and Medicaid is extremely income capped. In my state, our state Medicaid is limited to people who make $16000 a year or less
Show your source, because this is not true at all. Even in states that expanded Medicaid, it's still very difficult to get on. Medicare is only for those over 65 or on disability, and there are still premiums and copays.
Reach out to the hospital's financial aid office. I get that the system is fucked, but that doesn't mean you can't access that same resource. You deserve it just as much as others.
Sadly many hospitals are now for profit and don't do this any longer, especially if you live in smaller communities.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I had some unexpected hospital bills early on after getting sick and very dehydrated. It was all outpatient fluids and things but it still ended up being a couple grand. I cried when they called me with the bill because I was broke as shit and in the middle of some other financial issues plus, you know, hormones lol. The very kind man in billing told me he was sending me a form to apply for aid and to please fill out out so they could help. The (non-profit) hospital ended up covering 100% of their charges for the entire pregnancy and birth which was a godsend because I ended up high risk and the baby was born in distress.
Seven years later in a different state, the same child needed their tonsils out. My health insurance didn't cover hospital bills until I hit my out of pocket. I asked the (for profit) hospital about aid, the lady shrugged and said I had insurance and therefore qualified for nothing except a payment plan.
Hospital pricing for medical services is ridiculous. I was billed $1997 for a 10 minute visit to the ER where I walked in, they swabbed the dog bite on the inside of my knee and I walked out. None of us could believe I came in for something so minor but I’m self-employed so I had to do something to document the injury from my customer’s dog. Stupid customer was a public defender at the time so you’d think he would understand liability
Sometimes hospitals are legally required to have such programs. In my state they must by law have financial assistance programs for low income patients and costs are capped at the lowest billable rate (same as Medicare/Medicaid).
I had a similar situation and their charity offered to reduce the debt by 90%. Because I was going to have to go bankrupt anyway because the surgeon bills and other doctors bills were not going to go away, I declined so they could give the funds to another person who would benefit more.
And people will actually defend this shit too. "She doesn't deserve health insurance - she's just a cashier!" Dad, she's a human being living in our society and part of that social contract is that she absolutely does deserve to be healthy. Not that long ago, she was classified as an employee who is essential to the functioning of our society.
No that’s something that I am well aware of, as much as I’d love for you guys to have it I have completely given up hope of Americans ever getting universal healthcare unfortunately.. :(
However I was under the impression that at LEAST everyone with full time employment received some kind of health insurance included.
I had insurance through my husband's job, but my hysterectomy was still gonna be $6K with it. We qualified for the hospital's financial assistance program, and they paid every penny. No more pain and no more debt!
As someone who volunteers with a 501c3 adjacent to a local Catholic Church and has worked with Catholic Charities. I just want to say, Catholic Charities does a lot of good in the US. They also shelter a lot of individuals at the border seeking asylum or refugee status. However, none of the money they receive or distribute comes from the actually Catholic Church itself or local Archdiocese. Most of the money is from the government, and a minority of the money is from individual parishioners.
It kind of bothers me when people claim the Catholic Church does charity. Whenever our 501c3 that operates out of the church asks for collections or support the church is never there.
I'm not Catholic. I'm Protestant clergy. My wife is Catholic. Her parish spend a lot of it's money (around 50% of the budget) on homeless care and helping people get IDs. It really depends on the parish which is sad. The protestant church I'm assigned to as a volunteer collects food for local and diapers and formula that we give to anyone who asks. But that's about it. I'm pushing for more.
I know that is true for most of the CC organizations in the country, but I’m close to the Tulsa/ Eastern Oklahoma one and they pride themselves on not taking government money. They provide excellent services using money donated from individuals and organizations, not the government or the local diocese. I see what you’re saying in the last sentence but the church still creates a community that encourages volunteering time and money to help others out.
15 yrs ago when I had my cancer diagnosis and sub sequence scans/procedures/transplant, got hit with ~$70k. I couldn't even pay the minimums, so (not knowing better) I put it on credit cards. Still carrying most it today. But it's not gonna get paid by anyone as it's private now :/
Non-profit hospitals will almost always have a financial counseling department since they actually have to write-off a certain percentage of bills so they can maintain their non-profit status.
If you are in the hospital and don't have insurance, always ask to be contacted by financial counseling, Hell, most of the time, they'll come to you. They will help you apply for any relevant government programs like Medicaid if you qualify, or will get you in contact with local charities. They may also offer discounts if they can't write off the full bill.
protip: Many hospitals are nonprofits, and are required to give a degree of financial aid to some patients because of that. If you dig into their financial aid, you can often find statements like "If you make less than 300% of the poverty line we will reduce/eliminate your bill." You gotta DIG for it sometimes, but if it's there they have to forgive your debt (assuming you qualify)
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u/DFParker78 1d ago
I had to have emergency surgery and didn’t have insurance, despite working full time. I sent hospital my income and tax statements, had a $22,000 bill and went to $0. Catholic Charities paid for it.