I'm and uninsured diabetic. There are some positives, like my doctor giving me free sample vials of insulin every time I go to see him. Other things are downright abusive, and I don't know what to do about them.
When my doctor became affiliated with a new hospital, he changed his office and started using the hospital lab to do tests, instead of an outside lab. The fee for blood tests went from around $250 to almost 500. Just the fact that the Hospital would charge so much is absurd, but the fact is that if I was insured, they would accept only a part of the $500 that the insurance company would allow. As an uninsured person, they demand all of it. Nice policy, huh?
Take the people with the least amount of money and demand that they pay more because you just dont have the resources to fight them. This is just another example of how health care screws the poorest in our society.
I was hospitalized a few years ago and spent one night in the ER. I told them I was uninsured and they said to go speak to finance about it. I explained that I would be happy to pay whatever an average insurance company would pay for the services I was given. They said that was fair, but they would actually charge me less. They told me all I had to pay was about $400 on a $2600 bill, and I was thrilled.
Two years later they sent me a bill for the entire amount. When I called the finance dept., they said they had no record of that and the person who negotiated the deal with me was no longer there. I'm still fighting it.
My question for fellow Kossaks:
Is there any way to fight these corporations to give the same benefits to an individual that they give to insurance companies? It seems so unfair that they charge based on who your insurance company is. I know that the insurance companies bargain for coverage, but do they have the right to have different prices based on this kind of thing? It seems like economic discrimination. Would love to hear from others on this topic.