Should hospitals be allowed to turn away non payers/no insurace or liars at ER rooms?

When I click the link, it goes straight to the United Health One - Saver 80 plan for $36.06 per month. I can't seem to find a direct link, and apparently the site is afraid of allowing for direct address searches, which would explain why you seem to be seeing something different from what I see. This one might work better:

https://www.uhone.com/Quote/PlanList.mvc?ProductType=LONG%20TERM

This should show you a list of plans, with the cheapest on that page being the Saver 70 for $27.66.

If that one doesn't work right, let me know and I'll take a screenshot of the search results showing several plans in the $30 range.

 

I had corporate insurance for 25 years. When I was let go I was able to buy insurance through the corporation for two years ( think it was called Cobra). At the end of the two years I was unable to find anyone who would insure me due to my preexisting condition.

If you actually read my post the issue was not that I couldn't get insurance but rather that the hospitals would charge me much more for the same procedure than they would charge the insurance companies. This was true even though I was able to pay cash up front.

 

Hiimjered
The site you posted is not an insurance company but rather a search site. At least try to be honest in your discourse.

 

That is not dishonest. The list of plans included several that cost around the $30 I stated. It is irrelevant whether I find the price at an insurance company, a clearing house or a search site. The source of the quote doesn't change the price of the coverage.

 

That is something that I've always had a problem with. In reality, people paying cash should be charged less - since the provider doesn't have to go through the hassles and delays of billing the insurance company. I have heard of a few cash-only doctors and clinics that have very reasonable prices - much lower than their insurance-accepting counterparts. They claim that the reduced cost partly comes from not having to bill insurance companies.

 

The reason health care is not analogous to food is that there are already many widely available to provide for food needs. Food stamps, school lunch programs, meals on wheels, food banks, etc.

If you have ever had to go to an emergency room you will know that it is not an experience undertaken lightly.

 

I'm an advocate of universal healthcare or some type of "Medicare for all". The crap Obama laid upon the USA is a TAX. The Affordable Care Act mandates middle class tax payers to buy insurance to pay for the imbeciles and dregs of society. It is a nitwit tax. Nobody should pay it and the system should collapse because a complete racist imbecile strong-armed corrupt nitwits (i.e. Congress at the time-DEMOCRAT) to implement it.

 

You are correct and I posted it on this thread.
The thing people need to understand is that Physicians and Surgeons are service business. They rely on patient referrals. They compete for patients as any business competes for customers. You need to shop around to find a good doctor or surgeon who charges fair fees for service. Many will work out a cash payment if you don't have insurance and the fee will be based on discounting the average fee approved by Insurance Plans they have signed with and your ability to pay based on your annual income. Many hospitals and surgery centers will do the same. And, they are willing to do this because their cost of providing the services is reduced since they don't have the extra clerical costs of billing insurance companies, dealing with the Federal Government, disputing claims or waiting months to be paid.

The cost of services increased when patients began to use insurance to cover all services instead of paying cash for ordinary, non-surgery, non-emergency care( basically office visits, and lower cost medical services, x-rays and lab.) Patients wanted insurance that basically covered all medical care and surgery and that caused Insurance Companies to raise premiums in order to offer policies that provided this full coverage. And, it caused Providers to increase their fees to cover the increased administrative costs caused by filing insurance, following up on claims, resubmitting claims, billing patients for their portion/deductibles and their losses for non-payment or underpayment of their fees.

 

I am sorry but you are very wrong. If you don't have health insurance many physicians will work with you to reduce your cost or set up payment plans. The cost that they start with however is not what an insurance company would actually pay but rather what they would charge you originally or in some cases what they would bill Medicare which is way more ( at least twice) then what Medicare actually pays.

If you are on Medicare you know that what the hospitals and physicians bill Medicare is usually about what they bill the uninsured which bears no relationship to what is actually paid by either Medicare or by private insurance companies. This discrepancy between what Medicare is billed and what Medicare pays is easy to verify by looking at the statements Medicare sends out to everyone who is on Medicare.

 

Hospitals get re-imbursed by the State for their uninsured population that comes to the E.R. who cannot pay at all so it is not true that costs are passed onto us. The people that can make payments should be allowed to have their bill reduced to at least Medicare rates.

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Hospitals get re-imbursed by the State for their uninsured population that comes to the E.R. who cannot pay at all so it is not true that costs are passed onto us. The people that can make payments should be allowed to have their bill reduced to at least Medicare rates.

 

That is a state program. Not every state reimburses a hospital for deadbeat patients. Some only reimburse a tiny portion. Most only allow the unpaid portion to be claimed as a business loss on their tax returns - which still makes it about an 80% loss. The costs do get passed on, but to paying patients, not taxpayers.

 

Many people are aiming to stop this from happening. They do not believe that the state government should be giving the hospitals any money what so ever, and that the hospital should pay for the dead beats. And if the hosp refuses, that the deadbeat doesnt get treated.

Many conservatives it seems live in this harsh world where everything must be penalized as a warning against the next person.

 

Under EMTALA, the government does provide some compensation for ER charges by the uninsured, but it's a fraction of what the costs are. I read of a hospital that accrued costs of $150 million dollars for caring for the uninsured and they got $2 million from the feds. So yes, the costs are still passed on.

 

I worked in healthcare for over 20 years dealing with insurance contracts, billing and collections. In order for healthcare providers to see patients they have to be contracted with just about all of the insurance plans that are available in that state or area. Hospitals and physicians had to over inflate their charges because insurance companies are always trying to reduce their compensation for each level of service. There is not an insurance company in the U.S. that would pay anywhere near what is charged and billed to them.

All insurance companies pay just a little above Medicare rates nowadays. A six day inpatient stay at a hospital would only be reimbursed $2,300 and the rest would be written off to contractual reductions except any deductibles or co-insurance owed by the member. If the public only knew what the actual reimbursements are for each level of service they would be pissed off. They would also want an explanation of why their premiums are so high with out of pockets costs.

Since we can do nothing about stopping this mandate, then people need to start demanding that their insurance company provide them with their fee schedule since high deductibles is going to become the norm from now on. The public has a right to know what the cost is going to be for them before services are rendered.

 

I would if very sick just commit a crime that will land me in the County Jail then they will need to provide medical care in a nice Sheriff's medical clinic or failing there at the hospital, I will get care one way or another if turned away from a hospital.