- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
re: Medical Debt Should Not Ever Be Used to Harm Credit Worthiness
Posted on 5/8/24 at 9:42 pm to Timeoday
Posted on 5/8/24 at 9:42 pm to Timeoday
quote:
If my vet quotes too high a price, I put the animal down.
Why wouldn't you reach out to rescue groups before doing such a thing? I have paid the vet bill and adopted several dogs from owners in such situations. You don't need pets.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 9:48 pm to Dex Morgan
The problem with medical bills is they have become simply unaffordable for a large percentage of the country.
The solution isn't cancelling debt, ignoring the debt, or federal healthcare.
The solution is reducing costs. You can get similar care in other countries for far less money.
I don't need a fricking atrium with a massive water feature in my hospital for starters. (Just an example of the excess in healthcare)
The solution isn't cancelling debt, ignoring the debt, or federal healthcare.
The solution is reducing costs. You can get similar care in other countries for far less money.
I don't need a fricking atrium with a massive water feature in my hospital for starters. (Just an example of the excess in healthcare)
Posted on 5/8/24 at 10:46 pm to Timeoday
It’s almost like there’s a solution to this problem that exists everywhere but the US.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 10:47 pm to Timeoday
Should've gotten better insurance.. or voted for Bernie
Posted on 5/8/24 at 10:52 pm to Riverside
quote:
Medical debt doesn’t hurt your credit score. Not paying your medical debt back does.
I like how you think these things are so mutually exclusive
Posted on 5/8/24 at 10:52 pm to McChowder
quote:
This. Hospitals are more than willing to negotiate payment plans. The only way it's going to ding your credit is if you refuse to pay the money you owe.
Sure
But most people aren't aware of that
Posted on 5/8/24 at 10:59 pm to thebigmuffaletta
quote:
My wife works for a doctor that had $250k of student debt cancelled.
That requires 10 years of work for a hospital or clinic that qualifies for public service loan forgiveness. That can be a non-profit hospital that pays well or it can be working for the VA or an Indian Health Services facility, which do not.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:05 pm to Timeoday
quote:
“Doctors and nurses shouldn’t be paid for their excessive cost of labor”.
"I get to tell someone else what their services are worth."
FIFY.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:06 pm to Powerman
quote:
But most people aren't aware of that
Maybe where you are. Where I am pretty much everybody knows that.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:07 pm to Powerman
quote:
I like how you think these things are so mutually exclusive
They are in the context of the original discussion.
If medical debt alone hurt your credit score your credit would take a hit whether you were paying it back or not just due to it being on the books.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:11 pm to McChowder
quote:
This. Hospitals are more than willing to negotiate payment plans. The only way it's going to ding your credit is if you refuse to pay the money you owe.
Pretty much this. And you don’t have to break the bank to keep it off your credit report. It only hits if they have to send it to collections. As a general rule, as long as you are paying something toward the debt on a regular basis, they will not report it. My dad ended up with a $9K bill for an emergency surgery and 2 week stay in the hospital. He set up his bank to send them $20 a month in perpetuity and they’ve never given him so much as a phone call about it.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:13 pm to Timeoday
quote:
Getting sick or injured is not a decision made by the sick or injured.
Not all healthcare is the same.
Routine and preventive care is a lot different than catastrophic care.
We should be able to treat routine and preventive care like any other free market like service. Neither the seller or buyer have any kind of advantage.
The problem with catastrophic care is the provider has all the negotiating power. No one has the ability to get quotes and read reviews when you're having a heart attack. This has created a lack of natural market price pressure on the service.
During the evolution from health insurance to HMOs to what he have now we have linked all health care together in some massive costs sharing program with only the insurance provider caring about the costs. And they are regulated to pool all costs...not just risks (which is what the insurance model was built for).
The current system also incentivizes going to the doctor or ER if there is any doubt.
Once we went to HMOs it was all down hill from there. People stopped having control of their care and wanted everything packaged into one nice cheap plan.
deregulate and delink healthcare from employment. There will be a disruption but things will resettle once people take charge of their care and insurance companies can go back to just insuring against risks.
If you go for a check up....freaking pay for it. It's your health.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:21 pm to BuckyCheese
quote:
The solution is reducing costs. You can get similar care in other countries for far less money.
You can get labor for far less money too. That's because different economies are calibrated at different levels relative to the American dollar.
That's just one reason for the difference, of course. Another might be massive government subsidies or fully or partially socialized health care, which means that the care still costs a lot (in the native country's terms, at least), but if being offset by taxes.
Another might be taxpayer funded higher education for medical professionals.
Another reason might be that if you are an American medical tourist, you are able to travel to the hospital or clinic that offers what you need, but you don't stop to wonder how many hospitals or clinics in that country can offer the specific care you're after.
What I mean by that is this...in America the idea is that we enable enough hospitals to stay open so as to be able to serve emergency needs for people without them having to travel 400 miles to get to the nearest hospital. Not many would survive a heart attack or serious trauma if that were the case.
Now hospital systems in NYC or Chicago or Los Angeles make an assload of money. Those are the ones with the fancy fountains you mentioned. But hospitals in rural Montana or Idaho or Nevada barely keep their doors open. Yet people in those areas still have heart attacks and serious traumas that they need hospitals open reasonably close to them.
So our system is calibrated to make sure that those hospitals get paid enough on routine appendectomies and knee arthroscopes and other routine stuff like that that they are able to survive and be there for emergencies. The side effect is that yeah...hospitals in more population dense areas do clean up.
We could reduce costs and it wouldn't be difficult to do so. But a lot of facilities would close if we did. A lot of the medical tourist destinations exist in just that sort of context. The facilities you travel to are great and all, but they are the only facilities like that for 400 miles in any direction. Either that, or they are taxpayer funded.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:32 pm to Damone
"We live in the richest..."
At this point this point I would be ok with Free health care for American citizens if it meant. A. Stop sending billions of dollars to foreign countries. B.) Deporting all illegals, people who wish ill will on America, New citizens within the last decade who refuse to assimilate or only put a financial drain on the country. C) Giving every citizen a certain amount of money that they can spend before being out of pocket for medical expenses. *Cosmetic surgery for vanity reasons would not be included. D) Having a system set up to make sure it isn't abused Financially.
At this point this point I would be ok with Free health care for American citizens if it meant. A. Stop sending billions of dollars to foreign countries. B.) Deporting all illegals, people who wish ill will on America, New citizens within the last decade who refuse to assimilate or only put a financial drain on the country. C) Giving every citizen a certain amount of money that they can spend before being out of pocket for medical expenses. *Cosmetic surgery for vanity reasons would not be included. D) Having a system set up to make sure it isn't abused Financially.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:43 pm to Timeoday
quote:
Timeoday
frick yourself, Marxist.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:47 pm to Powerman
quote:
Sure
But most people aren't aware of that
People without insurance sure as frick are.
Posted on 5/8/24 at 11:47 pm to wackatimesthree
quote:
Now hospital systems in NYC or Chicago or Los Angeles make an assload of money. Those are the ones with the fancy fountains you mentioned.
Portage WI is around 10K people last I looked. And 30 miles from Madison which has several "big" hospitals including UW Hospital. Portage's is the hospital I was thinking of when posting that.
quote:
But hospitals in rural Montana or Idaho or Nevada barely keep their doors open. Yet people in those areas still have heart attacks and serious traumas that they need hospitals open reasonably close to them.
I get that. However, anything serious is generally transported to a larger, better equipped hospital. My experience includes both parents getting Med-Flight trips to Madison for $26k each. I'm sure it is more now as that was 7 years ago.
I'm not saying it needs to be/should be dirt cheap. However it has simply gotten insane and there are a multitude of reasons why.
Posted on 5/9/24 at 12:45 am to RebelExpress38
quote:
“Doctors and nurses shouldn’t be paid for their labor”
They don’t care. They are too busy doing TikTok videos.
Posted on 5/9/24 at 4:05 am to phaz
quote:
Be responsible, maintain insurance and it will take care of you. Insurance paid almost $1.5 million for my cancer treatment, and I owe a manageable $10,000ish for my cancer treatment
No, what we need to start pushing back on is the fact that cancer treatment costs 1.5 million dollars to begin with. Thanks fricking absurd inflated bullshite, just like everything else in the medical industry.
Posted on 5/9/24 at 4:13 am to Timeoday
quote:
Getting sick or injured is not a decision
Americans are not healthy for many reasons. Being obese is a choice. You can self insure by being active, exercising, eating right and being in shape. Doesn’t mean you can’t get sick but it greatly reduces your risk and chances.
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News