[ksclarke]

The whole time I was reading this, as someone from the U.S., I was wondering what country the writer was from, because it sure as #$@! wasn't written by someone in the U.S. When I got to that part, I was, "Oh. Okay. That makes sense."

[thatfrenchguy]

In the US, you'll be billed the maximum out of pocket for your health insurance whether your little one is in the ICU for months or whether it was a easy delivery though, so at least birth is a predictable medical expense.

[t0mas88]

If you have health insurance... Which is not automatically a thing for many Americans, and it seems even more with current political trends.

[trollbridge]

If someone doesn’t have health insurance in my state, they get sent to financial counselling/assistance and signed up for Medicaid, CHIP, or HCAP.

I asked one of their counsellors once if they ever have any ultra wealthy people who don’t have insurance and also don’t qualify for any assistance. (This was at a children’s hospital with a Level IV NICU.) She said she was unaware of that ever happening, other than very wealthy foreigners who would prepare in advance, arrange payment in advance, fly in, and have a special procedure done.

Overall, in many states, it is logistically impossible to have an unaffordable bill and also not qualify for assistance. The worst situation actually is the person who has insurance but has high deductibles and copays.

[fooker]

Ah you don’t seem to understand the depravity of the modern American medical system. It’s not as bad in the way you think, and significantly fucked up in a different way.

If you do not have insurance, you tell them you don’t. They’ll give you a bill lower than what you’d pay as deductible if you had insurance. Or you just don’t pay…

This raises insurance premiums and reduces the quality of healthcare in a dystopian AF feedback loop.

[chrisgeleven]

Yeah in my case, for two years in a row now we've maxed out my kid's out of pocket expense within ~30 days of the year starting...that's not fun.

[hattmall]

Realistically it's much more likely that someone in the US would be telling this story vs someone from Norway.

Norway has only 50k births a year. The US has 3.6 Million, and >40% of those are 100% free to Medicaid recipients. So 1.4 million each year, meaning a story like this is about 28 times more likely to be told from someone in the US than Norway.

[heavyset_go]

Medicaid isn't paying parents to not work. New parents will still have to worry about paying bills and the economy.

When those parents die, any potential generational wealth for their children will be taken by the state to pay back the benefits they received from Medicaid.

[hattmall]

>Medicaid isn't paying parents to not work. New parents will still have to worry about paying bills and the economy.

That would be up to their job if they had one of course, but Medicaid does have some cash benefits and if you have a baby on Medicaid you typically get auto-qualified for TANF so that covers a lot of bills.

>When those parents die, any potential generational wealth for their children will be taken by the state to pay back the benefits they received from Medicaid.

This would only be true if the parents received long-term care or something. And this happens to TONS of people who have otherwise been financially well off, they have to exhaust their assets before Medicaid starts paying for a nursing home. It's got nothing to do with pregnancy benefits.

[heavyset_go]

I just looked it up and I'm wrong, estate recovery is for anyone at any age who is institutionalized and/or anyone over 55 receiving care. States can additionally choose care and populations from which they do estate recovery for their Medicaid programs.

All I know is a family member would get the Medicaid warnings about their estate each month in the mail.

[terminalshort]

Well of course it will because medicaid is healthcare for poor people, not people with generational wealth. If you are rich and use medicaid that's fraud, and medicaid should take double for that.

[Sammi]

That is misuse of statistics if I ever saw it. You could count the people that are screwed in the US and also get a much larger number than in Norway. The US has a relative problem.