[pm90]

Yup. Same experience here... had to have an emergency appendectomy and my biggest worry wasn't the operation itself but its cost. I persisted in asking the doctors for an estimate, but they wouldn't budge. Neither would the clerical staff... which made 0 sense to me. Its not the first operation they have done, I just wanted rough figures (i.e. 5k? 50k? 500k?) but they wouldn't give me that either.

Final billing: 55k in total, but because of insurance I paid about 5k. Which still left me wondering... what did people without insurance do? How could they possibly pay that much money, if they couldn't even get insurance?

[photojosh]

They go broke. The exact number is disputed [0], but health costs are a major cause of bankruptcy in the USA (as opposed to most other developed countries where this uncertainty about costs doesn't exist).

I discovered an interesting fact the other day about the US's massive % of GDP spent on health; they spend about the same % of public monies on health that other developed countries do, the extra % is private spending! [1]

Anecdata: I am in Australia and have private health insurance (notably: otherwise I'd be paying an extra tax levy and be worse of in $ terms), but all that has meant is that I can go to a private hospital instead of a public one for elective surgery. For ~$2k a year. A few years back I broke both my collarbone and my ankle on separate occasions. The ankle repair was entirely free. The collarbone was setting too slowly (opportunity cost: I needed to get back to work ASAP... normally they just put your arm in a sling and let it stitch naturally), so I opted to have a surgical repair, which was about $2k all up for the out-of-pockets.

[0]: https://www.thebalance.com/medical-bankruptcy-statistics-415... [1]: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...

[stevenicr]

go broke as you mention, and often go without care.

Sometimes being dumped from a hospital in the middle of the night drugged at some random location.

Often times a small problem gets put off and becomes a much larger problem.

It becomes a burden on family and friends, sometimes leads to amputations and other surgeries such that otherwise could of been avoided with better care.

This a huge problem for a lot of people, especially if you add in the dental care that is needed and not obtained around the country.

ymmv

[rosege]

My mum was on holiday in the US and had to go to hospital in NYC. For 2 days in hospital - no operations and only a few xrays - the bill was around $30,000. I had a look at the bill and over $10,000 of this was for drugs. If she had been given what they said she would have been dead. Basically the hospital just made up a number and fudged expenses. We asked friends about it and they said the way the system works is that they give you a bill then you negotiate - usually you pay around 30% of the first amount - pretty similar to the way bazaars work around the world. Luckily she had travel insurance so just gave it all to them to sort out.

[fma]

You can also get out on a payment plan that lasts for like 20 years. Then after a few years the hospital writes off the debt and says you don't have to pay - assuming you haven't declared bankruptcy yet.

[nojvek]

We had a baby. Bill is north of 25k. We paid about 3k out of pocket, rest was covered by insurance.

Even then it’s a pretty crazy amount for what is supposed to be a routine delivery. No epidural was administered.

I can see why young people aren’t having babies. You work like a dog to pay rent and barely make it. Having a kid puts those finances in jeopardy.