A couple were told they faced a $200,000 (£146,500) medical bill when their baby was born prematurely in the US, despite them having travel insurance which covered her pregnancy.
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The US: why is our birth rate so low? Also the US: …
“I don’t think we’ve ever sort of lost the feeling that there isn’t a wolf at the door”.
This captures the current American experience perfectly.
The shitty American medical system being what it is I gotta blame the travel insurance. If their insurance was supposed to cover it and didn’t, that’s an insurance problem.
And the insurance did end up paying, but nine months later after what is referred to as a legal battle. So presumably these folks had to go into their own pockets for it. Typical bullshit.
That sucks. I mean, I’m glad it eventually worked out, but that’s a lot of BS for them to put up with because insurance didn’t want to pay.
My son was born at 24 weeks. Modern NICUs are an absolute marvel. They took this tiny little guy at the cusp of viability to a healthy, happy, normal baby boy over the next three months.
The pricetag for this treatment was half a million dollars. But, fortunately, we were eligible for Medicaid. A sum that would have bankrupted us was neatly covered by the state.
Except tax payers now get to send their hard earned money directly to the leeches that work at insurance companies.
No matter if the system works out for individuals with insurance Americans get screwed with the way it is at the moment.
You all need to fight for universal health care so that shit isn’t marked up 5000% so that insurances companies make billions for doing nothing but complicate everything
I was born at 28 weeks 5 decades ago.
$0 .
Very fortunate
There’s so, so, so, so, so much I could say about this topic.
Number 1: Why are any of you cunts even coming to the USA anymore? Sincerest apologies for victim blaming, and obviously my stupid ass has not read the article (gonna do that later).
Number 2: US healthcare costs are a scam.
Number 3: Healthcare insurance is a gamified scam.
The dates are not clear on the article, but it’s possible that the birth was even pre Trump… the couple was touring, they’re musicians.
Do not travel to the US
I don’t see how this is the US’ fault. Their insurance, who initially denied them, is with a Zurich company. Do they expect any country they visit to cover them medically?
Maybe I’ll pop over to Berlin if I ever get cancer. Surely they’ll pay for all my treatments even though I’m just a tourist. They aren’t barbarians like the US.
why would you go there??? this couple was asking for it
Did you see how they were dressed my god
If i take a boat and sail to a known cannibal island, where people like me have gone and been eaten before, and I then get eaten, there’s no one to blame but me. The US is simply not a good place to travel to at this time. It would have been even more hell for them if they had to over stay their visa.
The problem in this story wasn’t actually the US this time, it was the Swiss insurance company.
I would say the problem also was a very high medical bill of $ 200k.
NICUs are capital and professional labor intensive. I got to meet the team of doctors and nurses who kept my son alive and thriving for the three months between birth and due date. Idk what the magic number to care for him should have been, but I don’t think six figures is an unfair estimate in any socio-economic system.
The question after that is “Who paid for it?” And, in my case, it was Medicaid, which was a huge relief. These poor bastards clearly didn’t have the option.
Why it’s so capital intensive is another issue, but the matter of six figures being reasonable is to compare that to costs of similar treatments in other countries (usually it’s an order of magnitude more expensive).
Healthcare just can’t be free market bcs the demand side cannot be free by definition.
Yes. You’re right. Our healthcare system is absolutely bonkers bananas insane, and that’s before you calculate in the cruelty. And as US citizen, I strongly advise everyone who isn’t to avoid this country like the plague.
However, if I travel to Switzerland or Canada or Italy or wherever, as a tourist, I am not covered if I go in the hospital. I still need to carry travel insurance, and if I don’t, or if it doesn’t cover something, then those countries with their modern, sensible healthcare systems will charge me out of pocket, just like an American hospital. The difference is that in America, even the citizens aren’t covered by default, and the amounts are astronomical compared to other countries.
It’s a shitty system all around, and frankly, I genuinely believe that if it weren’t for America’s weird fetish for as much money as you can possibly choke on, we would probably have started building an actual universal healthcare system for the global community, so that you’re covered by default even when traveling. But like with most things, the right wing nonsense has held us so far back that that is so unlikely as to seem utterly impossible
Yes if you come here to Danmark from the US you will not be covered. But if you are from a country in the EU you will in most cases be covered and don’t have to pay anything for being hospitalized.
Even if you do have to pay something, the cost Ive seen people post in europe are in the hundreds/thousands, not hundreds of thousands like the US.
Maybe this couple woukd have gotten a $200/2000 bill in the EU for a birth? $200,000 is a purely US problem.
Their baby was born in an American hospital seven weeks early, but the couple said Zurich Insurance Group refused to uphold the policy and cover their costs because the baby was not named in the document.
After a nine month legal battle, Zurich has reversed its decision and told the BBC it was sorry for the stress caused.
The unborn child that isn’t allowed to have a name yet needs to be named in the document.
You can just imagine whoever made that decision letting out an evil laugh.
The legal proceedings had more time to mature than the baby lol
A friend living in Mexico fell off a horse and slashed a wrist on a fence. They wouldn’t even treat her until checking her credit card. She moved back to us.
Sylvester said the couple “made 100% sure Issy was insured to be pregnant, and any complications involving pregnancy whilst we were abroad were covered”.
Sylvester explained: “Essentially what they said is that we would have been covered had the baby not survived. But the fact was that the baby survived.”
“We weren’t going to be covered for that, because we didn’t put his name on the insurance policy.”
As someone that wouldn’t choose to travel into or through the United States, I can’t say I would be surprised if I got back home after this ordeal and the medical bills started showing up. US healthcare will charge for anything under the sun. I half expect visitors will be sent invoices for travelling in the vicinity of a hospital in the near future.
The insurance on question is not American, but from their home country. The ridiculous price is American though
I realise that, my connecting thought was that the hospital looking at their insurance policy should have been able to understand the pregnancy was covered. Even with it being unclear due to the contract’s wording, it should have triggered the billing department contacting the insurer for clarification.
That’s not how America works though, they operate on a ‘invoice first, ask questions later’ approach. If one in a thousand bills get paid without question, the superfluousness is considered justified. Oh well, I would add this to my list of reasons to avoid the country if it weren’t so long already.
You seem confused.
As someone who has worked directly with medical (dental) insurance, the billing hospital/doctor almost definitely sent the bill to the insurance company first, were denied the claim, and then sent it to the couple afterwards.
You seem to think the hospital told them they weren’t covered, but that isn’t what happened. At least not in this article. They thought it was covered and dealt with until returning to the UK, where the insurer told them they weren’t covered.
For most US medical bills the number you see and what the insurance company will actually pay (even to completely settle the bill) are entirely different numbers. Although this isn’t medical insurance per se. I bet they negotiated it down though.
used to be anchor babies, now is trapped in debt babies
Just don’t pay, what are they going to do?
Convict you in absentia then use the judgement as an excuse to freeze your bank account and ban you from all forms of banking (something that the US has the power to impose on foreigner because they hold every western bank by the balls due to their reliance on the fed)?
I don’t know if they would do it, but it certainly wouldn’t be unconstitutional; the US have long made it clear that foreigners on foreign land don’t have any legal rights whatsoever. I would be having a long conversation with lawyers to get some hard assurances before going down that path.
I mean given all I hear it would not entirely surprise me that they would hold the baby hostage, at best
Hospital: we gonna steal ur baby lol
Parents: oh no, you are going to feed it, bathe it, care for it, educate it, all on your own dime? Oh the humanity
Hospital: wait no not like that-
E: hospital: that’s filthy socialism!
Hospital stealing your baby? Just call ICE and they’ll depot you!
Repossess the child.
Exactly. You’re already outside of the country. Let them send you bills. They aren’t going to send the FBI to kick in your door because of unpaid bills…
ICE, on the other hand, we send them to do all manner of things outside the US.
As artists that go on tour, the US leg likely provides a significant chunk of their income. If they were just on vacation, that’s a different story.
Worth figuring out for them, as it boiled down to an administrative issue with unclear wording in the insurance contract.
Priority goes to UK citizenship.
Sounds like skipping the bill and never returning to the US is a great option here, tbh
So is reading the article.
And they wonder why our population is free falling. Between trump and it’s too expensive, why would the wise ones do that?
insurance in general in the us is increasingly security theater. Not just medical.
