The face values on medical bills in the US are like a bizarre joke - to a first approximation, no one ever pays them. Everyone with insurance gets insurer-negotiated "discounts" to around ~10% of the listed cost.<p>It's tougher for people without insurance - my understanding is that you can negotiate with the entity that sent you the bill to get significant reductions, but I don't have first-hand experience doing this. Even so, it sounds exhausting, since a single doctors visit will often result in bills from 2-3 separate entities (doctor, lab, radiologist, etc.), so you'd have to negotiate with each of them individually.
You could buy 0.018 Tomahawk missiles for that or treat 54 people for every Tomahawk missile fired.<p>All of the Tomahawk missiles fired since 2001 would have provided 119.000 people with free Corona treatment.<p>I am thinking that countries with free healthcare care more about keeping their own people healthy than dropping missiles and misery on other countries people.
After this is over, the saddest possible outcome is if America returns to the same systems, having learned nothing. I don't expect it at all, but I've been more surprised in the past.
I can't wait until my $5,000 a year insurance with a $7,000 deductible here in the US comes up with a reason why it shouldn't be covered.<p>Fun Related Fact: I donated a kidney to my Dad in 2000. The Affordable Care Act is what finally made it so it was no longer a "pre-existing condition" that insurance companies could use to deny me coverage for anything semi-related to kidneys.
IMO, this current crisis exposes a very strange dichotomy: government is essentially shutting down parts of the economy over shelter-in-place orders, but when people lose their jobs and (for some) employer health care, the government doesn’t deal with the repercussions.<p>Look, I think shelter in place is a great idea for humans. But this is a case of doing the right thing for the masses hurts the individual. Sad times.
It’s a shame that the only candidate that wants to tear down this ridiculous health system is getting the boot by the party he is aligned with.<p>The health system in the US is only accessible to those with money. It doesn’t have to be this way. I am not saying socialized healthcare will cure all ailments, but it would definitely be better than the current privatized system.
The bill is crazy, but this person won’t have to pay a 10th if it if they call the billing department.<p>Being uninsured is actually something of a blessing in the United States in this situation. If you have health insurance (often with bad coverage and high deductibles), you’ve agreed to waive your ability to negotiate and to pay whatever bill they’ve sent you.<p>Not so for the uninsured.<p>The whole billing system in the United States is beyond fucked up.