Cancer Truth Note: #51

Medical debt was part of 66.5% of all bankruptcies in the United States. (2019 report)
In one article 20% of the 66.5% was only medical debt. We need to stop accepting the practice of price gouging in medicine and especially in pharma as normal and acceptable.
In 2006, I had a car accident. When you are admitted through Emergency no one asks for your insurance. I punctured my knee joint. This required a short general surgery to clean it out and get stitched up and an overnight stay for 24 hours of IV antibiotics. My hospital bill… $14,999.99.
Sort of a weirdly roundish number right. Well because I was at fault, my medical insurance paid my bills. This is also why young otherwise healthy people need insurance, a topic for another time. I provided my insurance and when all was said and done I owed around $2k.
If I did not have insurance I would have owed $15k, for something insurance had negotiated to cost $2k. This did not include my doctors or my surgery. Just my emergency room costs and overnight stay. This is NOT ok. Have you experienced a medical emergency where the initial bill nearly caused another medical
emergency from the panic of the number on the bill?
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