A few days ago, I began receiving phone calls from a collections company here locally about a doctor's visit I had to a local hospital ER back in June. Allow me to set this one up for you, if I may...
My wife and I have been separated for about 2 years, now...I live in Las Vegas, and she in Texas (along with my youngest daughter). My 16 year old was out here for a visit, for a month, in the middle of summer. Living in Texas, she's used to heat and humidity, but nothing compares to Vegas (well...except maybe Phoenix...)
About a week after she got here, we had a problem...
She was used to the heat, but not this heat. 100 degrees and 90% humidity, not 115 and 10%. Getting out in it without having dealt with it before is a challenge for anyone. She and her sister made it back to the house just fine. 20 minutes later, she was out cold on the bathroom floor, having hit the bathroom vanity (and the top of the toilet) with her face on the way down.
In a flash, we were off to the hospital for an ER visit. The closest facility was one that would accept my insurance (Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Michigan), but it was out of network. It had to do.
' Once we got there, we were informed by the ER receptionist that our copay for the visit was $200 ( ! ), but that if I paid right now, I would receive a 25% discount for paying the copay in full. So, without thinking twice, I paid $150 so that I could get my daughter into the ER, and have her taken care of.
We were in and out fairly quick (under 4 hours, which I consider rather fast considering some of the other ERs that I've been in), and she was stitched up and sent home with meds, and a referral to an oral surgeon to repair teeth that had been broken in her fall at the house. All told, pretty cut and dry...or so I thought. Insurance should cover about 50% of the bill, and I cover the rest. Alas, it was not to be.
Three months later, the calls started rolling in.
No EOB had been sent to me for services, so I had no clue what had been paid, and what had not. In short order, I found out from not only the hospital, but also the collection agency, what had not been paid.
NONE OF IT HAD BEEN PAID. NOT ONE.....FREAKING.....DIME. I was left holding the bag for a $5200 ER visit that the insurance company said they wouldn't pay because I had yet to meet my $10,000 out of network, out of pocket family deductible. Ten thousand dollars! Imagine my surprise...really. Seriously. Not.
I might as well have not even had the insurance, for all it was worth. I pay these folks $400 a month to cover my family, and they deny the claim because I haven't ponied up out of my pocket before they do (never mind that I've been doing so with them for the last 4 years.)
So now here I am, 4 months after the accident, making 1300 a month and helping to get the oldest the support she needs to go to college, and these folks have the cohones to ask me when I can pay it in full. When I told them my income constraints, they said "Well, Mr. Dingodude, we have a hardship program that allows you to pay back $100 a month on the balance until you get back on your feet."
I am on my feet - this is my life. I'm going to school to get my Medical Assistant diploma, to try and get a REAL job, instead of pushing pizzas ad nauseum for the rest of my life, but they don't care beans about that. They want their money. Yesterday.
I can't win. The money's not there. And until I change careers, or end up working two or three jobs, it may never be (and even that's no guarantee).
Thank you, BCBS. You're a fine bunch of money hungry, greedy corporate bastards bent on the destruction of the American population for nothing more than the benefit of your executives and shareholders. The bottom line is all that matters. It's all that's ever mattered to you.
I still want the protection that single payer healthcare offers, not this for-profit insurance crap. Because, in the end, that's all it really is.
Crap.