We're sure most of you regular readers knew that we had a pretty rough time the past couple months with allergies and it included a pair of ER visits, two blood tests and a bunch of office visits. Though we're not 100% sure what the hell we had, the most important thing is we fell a lot better.. Unfortunately now, we have the real pain - all the bills!
Yeah, $3000 is medical expenses when you're unemployed is a hard pill to take. This past week, we had to sell the Harley that we saved up and dreamed of for years, but gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, our savings got pretty much wiped out, but when COBRA says you have to pay $490 a month just to keep your health insurance, you take your chances. That is one thing about Obamacare that scares the shit out of us - I take home $1400 a month on unemployment, and I don't qualify for Medicaid. I'm a prime candidate for getting fined by the mandate. But that's an argument for another post...
Nope, yesterday was a day for resolving stuff. The first ER visit was pretty fair - $326 for the visit, 214.00 for the doctor (maybe not SO fair). The second one was nuts - $1739, and another $214 for the doctor. Breaking it down, it's easy to see where hospitals go apeshit with the charges. $500 for a two minute EKG, which I had my doctor do 2 days earlier for $54. Guess they misunderstood by 'breathing constriction', I meant the allergic reaction was slightly hampering my breathing - not that I was having a heart attack. The best was the ER room charge - $1025 for sitting in a bed for two hours, mostly unattended with no machines or IV's hooked up to me. The cortisone shot was $175, but since I don't know what they cost, I didn't fight them. However, I know for $1025, I can get a pretty classy hotel room for more than two hours, including someone pretty hot to watch me!
So, we have $2065 in bills. I could go through the charity route, and hope to get someone else to pay the bill. However, we weren't thrilled about going that route. Yeah, maybe we woudl have qualified technically, but I wasn't askign for someone to save me from myself. There's only so much available for charities to help needy people, and I'd be using someone else's money... I was willing to pay this off - but not to get ripped off. So, I did what makes America great - I negotiated.
I made my points, and the first answer I got was Carolinas can't change the price of the services. Their first offer was 10%, but I told them I was already offered 20%... She figured numbers for about a minute, then countered with $1100 ( I already paid $300). My counteroffer, as Cousin Vinny Gambini would say, was 'Make it $1000, and I'll cut a check right now'.. Deal! then she sent me to the Doc's billing office, where they gave me another 30% off their charges, and I paid them too. My over $2500 in bills was cut down to under $1500, without using charity or spending $2500 in premiums since December, plus whatever deductibles I'd have...
Don't get us wrong... We'd be glad to have insurance, and look forward to finishing training, getting a job, and having all the perks again. But make no mistake - right now, I CHOOSE to not have Health Insurance, because there is no feasible plan that fits in my budget. I'm pretty healthy for now, and hopefully, I won't need to worry about what the bill is. But, for the second time in four months, we have solid proof that health care costs border on outrageous at times, and they are more than willing to avoid the Insurance companies and government - and work with you - if you can.
If Medicare, Medicaid and the possibly upcoming Affordable Care Act were doing the same, I'd feel more confident, but I'm sure they aren't. I saw a review statement from an office visit last year where Aetna paid $175 for it - in cash, my Doctor here charges $67... Negotiating is what makes America great. Neither of us got ugly, and it was done in five minutes. Congress and DC could learn a lot from us..
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