What would happen if I come injured and unconscious at a hospital without insurance?

What would happen if I arrive injured and unconscious at a hospital and without insurance? They would take care? And what if a tourist did, how they will charge?

 

They'll take care of you to the point of stabilization, which is the law, but you'll be billed for a huge amount of money. Perhaps tens of thousands of dollars.

I don't think you can escape the debt just because you're from another country. International law probably allows the debt to follow you, but I don't know the specifics.

In the years leading up to the US healthcare reform, I've heard tails of British tourists who said they couldn't believe how they were stuck with huge amounts of debt from US hospitals.

 

Thank you!!

I was in doubt because I thought that non-american friendly countries would forgive the debt, I think if someone do this, he won't be able to back to USA, but americans hospital would get higher prices to compensate costs and that would harm USA, not? And I think this is wrong and unfair, but how to fix this?

 

I'm not an expert on this , so I'd take what I said with a grain of salt.

 

You would be cared for as any other patient presenting to the ER and you will receive a bill once your identity is established. If you can't pay because you earn too little, they will work out a payment plan based on your ability to pay.

Same thing for a tourist if they had no coverage for medical expenses occurred when on vacation out of their Country.

 

Nations with universal health care will usually pay for emergency medical care that their citizens receive when visiting other nations. Some national health care plans include international health insurance and some offer it for a small optional payment. Many nations have agreements to provide emergency care for each others citizens at no charge. Some nations provide free care for everyone who needs it regardless of nationality. Some nations charge a nominal fee to foreigners for care, others bill them at full cost. In many nations a citizen can apply to their national health care plan for the reimbursement of medical bills they incur in other nations.

In the US it really depends on where you are from and where you end up. If you end up in a hospital that regularly treats foreigners once your identity and nationality had been determined your consulate or embassy would be notified and if you are from a nation that routinely pays for its citizens emergency medical care, and quite a few do, you would receive the best care possible for as long as necessary. If you are from a nation that does not pay your consulate will be notified that your condition will be stabilized but you will be released immediately after unless arrangements for payment are made.

If you end up in a hospital that rarely deals with foreigners there is a fair chance that your consulate or embassy will not be notified and you will be stabilized and tossed out the door like all the other indigents that do not have insurance cards. Unless your national health insurance card is in English and has a US phone number there is a good chance that US hospital people will not know what it is or what to do with it. Because this problem is so common some nations suggest their citizens to obtain special multi-language international health insurance cards before travelling, especially to the US.

So, as you can see, it depends.

 

I have heard that some people in the U.S., when they get into a horrible accident and the paramedics are called, they refuse to get in the ambulance. They are scared to death of what they will be later billed.

 

Then we need to educate those people because their are subsidized hospitals that specifically take these people and no hospital would turn them away. As far as them being billed, they may or may not be. But if they are, they will be provided a payment plan based on their income. Isn't that fair?

 

Why? If they would not pay for their medical bills, why should tax payers?
Is it beyond people's comprehension that some medical services might not be absolutely necessary? I mean, when calling an ambulance costs that much, maybe it is better for the family to try and get the person in the car and deliver them to the hospital.

When you do not pay for yourself individually, there is little incentive to question whether the real cost is really worth it. Just imagine if you are with a big group of work colleagues at a really expensive restaurant, and you all agreed beforehand that the table was going to split whatever the final bill came out to be equally.

 

If you were a u.s. citizen you would get treatment and if you were a non-u.s citizen you would get treatment because that is the law. They cannot turn you away. However, if the ambulance that responds knows you have no insurance they will, if possible transport you to a "subsidized" hospital.

 

That isn't the reason they don't want to get in.

A ride to a hospital in an ambulance might range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. If you don't have insurance or a plan which won't cover that, you can save $$s if you can get to the hospital yourself.

 

Why not just let all injured people lay in the street and die because caring for them in an emergency might possibly cost money that they might possibly not be able to pay?
Maybe you don't think you are making excuses for such brutish behaviour but then again, you are calling on the usual callous disregard for human life of people who obsess over money by equivocating going to the emergency room with dining out.

 

A very substantial percentage of people sustain their main injuries while being transported in an ambulance by trained people. How much higher will that figure go when you're being moved by untrained people in a car. Also what if nobody is there, just let them lay?

Your last example is sort of analogous to how health insurance is supposed to work. At any one time, only a small percentage of people are sick. Insurance spreads the cost among everybody so you pay a small part of all the sick people's bills so they will pay yours when you are sick. However, we pervert that system so the insurance companies can refuse to cover more and more people and so make more and more money while giving less and less coverage

 

Because medical care is infrastructure. If all highways were toll, would that help the economy? Medical care, in this country, is a toll and would better help the economy if it were treated as infrastructure instead of a market product. "Medical bills" are inflated by administrative costs. Anyone would pay for medical care, but we know that we are mostly paying for administrative costs. Who want's to pay that?

You're conflating preventive care with emergency care. There is NO unnecessary care in the case of an emergency. But, many expensive emergency treatments can be avoided with preventative care. Preventative care is what you are criticizing when you're talking about "some medical services might not be absolutely necessary", not the "emergency care" that you were discussing earlier.

 

It's really a twilight zone. Some forms of medical care could be compared to "infrastructure", some more than others. There is emergency care, where people are treated before the service provider knows if they can pay, or before the consumer knows what it is going to cost. Then there are contagious diseases that can spread to the rest of society. And sometimes in small remote communities, the building of a hospital represents a substantial capital investments, which can then be used by all the residents, and is thus basically a form of infrastructure.

But in many ways medical care is not like infrastructure. You pay the money or you get sick and die.

 

Interesting, I have private health insurance which costs me about $950 bucks a year. It's been designed for expats working abroad. The policy allows full medical and hospital coverage, plus accidental dental and medi evac. It will cover me for 1 million dollars worth of medical bills.

This policy covers me for every country on the planet except the USA.

 

You would receive emergency care and hospitalized if need be. Tourists, ditto.

If you have no insurance and no job, they have little chance of collecting their fee. If you have a job, they will likely attempt to work out a monthly payment plan based on what you can afford. Period. Would you need to file bankruptcy, likely, 99% of the time no. They write it off as uncollectible. If you can afford to pay and agree to a payment plan and then don't make the payments you agree to you will likely be reported to collection and possibly taken to court as you rightly should be.

 

If your condition required a call to 911 not getting in the ambulance that responds to the call may still cost you. Don't call 911 if it isn't an emergency requiring emergency response.

If you need help, my advice, get in the ambulance and ask to be taken to a facility that is under contract to take the uninsured or indigent and if you have insurance go to the nearest hospital as most policies will cover the care regardless if the hospital is in network when it is an emergency. The insurance may ask you be transferred to an in network hospital after you are stabilized.

The first consideration should be given to getting the treatment you need as quickly as possible. Regardless of the "news media stories" and those in Congress, hospitals, ambulance companies and the physicians who treat you will take your insurance and financial situation under consideration and either reduce the fees they charge or work out a payment plan based on what you can afford to pay on a monthly basis. After all, if they don't, they get nothing, right. The problem is most people don't understand how to work with providers regarding fees they incur when they are under insured or have no insurance. Also, most providers are willing to help you if your health insurance company tries to deny payment that they should cover. Our office does this all of the time as do the hospitals where we are on staff..

Additionally, no hospital can turn you away from receiving ER treatment and must admit you regardless of your ability to pay. But as I say, you may be transferred to a funded facility for indigent people after you are stabilized.

That is how it is suppose to work. If you are in need of emergency care for a life threatening problem and are turned away, you can sue that facility as they are breaking the law. However, if the ambulance could have transported you within the same amount of time to a funded facility and chose to have them take you to an unfunded facility, you may not be able to sue them if you are turned away and taken to the other facility, or if you are treated and/or admitted you may be responsible to make payments to the facility.

 

That is nonsense and you know it. Go ask your billing department what they used to charge an insurance company for a procedure versus what they charged someone without insurance. You will find the uninsured used to be charged about four times what a major insurance company was charged. Sure they would work out a payment plan while charging interest on the unpaid over inflated balance.

This is just a fact and you should know it being in the profession. And if you don't know it you should make the effort to actually find out what used to happen before the ACA and probably still happens for those who chose to not get insurance.

 

Another comment from someone who has no experience in the health care field. Hospitals, legally can not turn anyone away. Regardless if they can pay or not. Where have you been?

 

Is your condition life threatening? If so, you will be treated. They will charge you for it, though.

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Buy a supplemental health insurance policy when you are visiting the U.S.

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Buy a supplemental health insurance policy while you are visiting the U.S.

 

I've never heard of this in the case of a "horrible accident." I have heard of it in terms of minor accidents.

 

agree, I would never call for an ambulance unless I had too, but it depends on the injury for sure, falling down a flight of stairs, call an ambulance if they can't move, do not try to move them... imo of course

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What you posted is so stupid. First of all, the law requires they take you to the nearest hospital and that hospital is required to admit you and treat your emergency. Period. What part of that is a disregard for human life? Please, tell me.

 

Are private for profit hospitals required to admit you and treat your emergency?