Abby Vesoulis @abbyvesoulis: An uninsured COVID-19 patient just got her medical bill

[BeckyDem]

Link to tweet

MEDICARE FOR ALL 2020!

[uponit7771]

1. The hospitals are as shameless as Trump

[BeckyDem]

3. Yes. Profits over people, uponit.

This time around the catastrophic medical debt is going to need to be confronted like never before and I hope the people win the battle.

[dalton99a]

2. Only in America - alone among the civilized world

[BeckyDem]

4. I'm afraid so.

[gratuitous]

8. Look on the bright side

Now poor people without insurance will stay out of hospitals, and lessen the patient load. Trump wins again!

You know, I'm thinking of carrying around a bottle of ipecac so I can vomit on demand on people with this attitude.

[durablend]

10. It's not untrue though

No way in hell I could afford a hospital bill like that. If I were to get sick, may as well down a whole bottle of Tylenol and finish the job.

[DFW]

5. Good enough reason to take precautions

If I get sick here in Europe, I'll be hit for 100% of the bill, which is usually about a third of what it would cost in the USA.

If I get sick in the USA, and am lucky enough to be near a hospital that works with the various medical bureaucracies that work with BCBS, if past experience is any guide, the bill will be for some huge 6 figure amount, reduced by a third if the insurance company agrees to it, and then I'll get hit for 10% of what is left, plus all sorts of extras that will come trickling in afterward.

In other words, it will probably cost me the same no matter where I get treated.

[Sunriser13]

6. Of course, many of the folks losing work lose insurance, too

Not too many will be able to afford Cobra...

The ones who had it in the first place, obviously - sucks that medical security is tied to a job which often offers either no benefits or lousy, expensive benefits that seem geared to keep people from even being able to get it.

Something will have to give. Otherwise medical bankruptcy will definitely skyrocket.

[keithbvadu2]

7. Three ER visits and not even admitted as a patient.

Three ER visits and not even admitted as a patient.

[genxlib]

9. That seems low for in depth treatment

For the people who go into ICU on ventilators, the sums are going to be higher than that.

Even for the ones that don't make it.

Like most of this disaster, this is just the tip of the iceberg.