Our medical debt sucks. Q is what happens these days with no credit score repercussions?
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“millions”:
They’re buying debt that’s been written off and sold, so it’s at a discount, which is even better.
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Yeah Med debt is cheap @ 10%. I wonder how hospitals etc deal with this. Inflate sticker price? Can’t turn away emergencies
Not even 10% – just 1%. That’s basically uncollectable. Reminds of that one story I can’t remember whodoneit, I think it was John Oliver. They did a segment on all this debt that’s been sold and resold and people getting hounded, so they spent some money to buy a few million worth of debt and forgave it.
ETA: yeah, John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, bought and forgave 15M worth of out-of-statute (uncollectable) debt at less than half a cent on the dollar (< $60K) back in 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUAntt1z2c.
IMO it may not be the most impactful way to spend money, because at that price point the debt no longer makes a difference in lives of the people who technically owe it. It’d probably be better to pay off more valuable debt of people who are truly burdened by it. It’d of course be more difficult and expensive to find such people.
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Why dont you just offer to pay the medical debt of others, rather than agreeing it should be forgiven? Because that’s the fallacy here - we are the ones eventually paying all those unpaid bills.
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I don’t agree with our system. Not taking a stand since I don’t have a solution though. Looking at my dads’ $200K sticker price turn to $20K insured costs is weird.
It has nothing to do with “our system”, it’s just an unavoidable fact. No matter how you try to frame it or spin it, the cost of treatment will be borne by someone.
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Is it because the insurance company covers 90% and your father the other 10%?
no they only paid 10%, rest is “adjusted,” similar to the OP debt “forgiveness”
I think a for-profit system is great if you get to see prices prior, not after, esp. in an emergency
Isn’t an emergency, well, an emergency? Can’t imagine negotiating appropriate treatment with a patient in the ER that presumably needs said treatment.
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It’s not forgiveness, it’s the insurance company’s negotiated rate. Having some kind of insurance is akin to having a discount code that reduces the sale price.
I believe the high list rate is calculated due to some reimbursement rate formulas being based on such list prices - if list price reflected actual costs, the actual reimbursements received would only cover a fraction of that cost.
I was rather surprised last summer - I went to the ER with a high deductible insurance plan that was paying nothing. The $1700 bill became less than $500 after being run through the insurance claim, simply because of the negotiated rates. $500 is what my insurance would’ve paid had it been covered, so that is what I had to pay since it wasnt covered.
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“Our system” is messed up because different people, depending on whether they’re insured or not, are presented different prices for the exact same thing, and the relationship is usually the opposite of what logic dictates – the insurance price is higher, often much higher than cash price. It is messed up because every little thing that actually costs the hospital pennies is charged at hundreds or thousands to the patients or their insurance. It is messed up because there’s no price transparency or price competition among hospitals.
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Exactly, I am all about free markets, but not in healthcare
There were some legal efforts in the last year or two to require disclosure of the various costs for hospital services. This way you would at least have some idea of what things will cost depending on your situation, and I think, in general encourage more reasonable pricing due to the disclosures.
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this was mandated. even then they’re burying it deep on their sites.
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Really? Not in my experience, insurance companies use their size to negotiate rates lower than list price. See: my recent ER bill, that went from $1700 to $500 because of my insurance company’s negotiated rate. The doctor postion (billed separately from the facilities portion) was $800 alone, and they tried to bill me that much multiple times before I finally “convinced” them to properly submit a claim through my insurance first - and that $800 suddenly became $270, even though my insurance still didnt pay a penny. No insurance, and I would’ve been paying $800 for just that portion.
One thing that muddles the picture some is charity - cash patients may be eligible for foundation grants or other offsetting funding to lower the cash amount due. I was also informed of this possibility while being treated, asking if my account should be submitted for such charitiable subsidy request.
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That’s why our system is messed up? If I had to deal with an insurance company, I would charge higher rates too.
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That’s messed up!