- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.ml
- nottheonion@civilloquy.com
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.ml
- nottheonion@civilloquy.com
A couple were told they faced a $200,000 (£146,500) medical bill when their baby was born prematurely in the US, despite them having travel insurance which covered her pregnancy.
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"Hey, man, we told the kid not to be born, that we couldn’t afford it, but he wouldn’t listen, and went and borned himself anyhow, without any permission. So that’s on him. You have to sue him.
But you can’t, because he’s a BABY! And you can’t sue a baby! BOOM! CHECKMATE, BITCH!"
That’ll work in any court in the nation. Don’t even need a lawyer, save your money.
isnt advisable by studies for pregnant woman to not travel outside thier country to avoid situations like these.
So… that baby is basically came to USA without approval? Should it be detained in the concentration camp or something?
That sucks… Born in the US…
Bruce Springsteen has entered the chat. And that song is not celebratory
The US: why is our birth rate so low? Also the US: …
Interestingly it is still higher than a lot of European countries which have affordable healthcare
Aren’t you supposed to avoid air travel during the later stages of pregnancy?
Ferris, who was 33 weeks pregnant with their first child, had been given the all clear for the trip and flight by her midwife and GP.
She was 7 weeks early, that’s easily a good month before she is “recommended not to fly”.
Huh…I didn’t know you could cut it that close. I figured it was more like “don’t fly during the 3rd trimester.”
Shows what I know.
“I don’t think we’ve ever sort of lost the feeling that there isn’t a wolf at the door”.
This captures the current American experience perfectly.
I wanted to see if there is a video clip but couldn’t find. A scene in Orville when they go to Alara’s home planet and Gordon Malloy is in awe of her home planet while piloting their shuttle and just goes something like, “I am trash, my whole family is trash.”
That is us (US), now, and for way too long. Nobody should ever come here until we fix ourselves.
But, send aid when it is necessary. Which was probably last year at the current pace. We don’t even have accurate weather forecasts anymore. FEMA doesn’t exist anymore and States (using the EU as an example, States are Countries here, both in size and somewhat in governance) are on their own for survival, and budgets have been murdered by the Federal government to begin with. Which is delightful that everyone has to pay income tax to the Federal government (EU example again) without choice, and not their state (Country), and there is no way to suspend that payment without penalty or imprisonment. The US system, for some reason is: Person->US->State. So the US can cut off state funding to make them behave. Maybe a civil war holdover introduced in the early 1900s, but dumb as a bag of spoiled potatoes.
I’ve started working on some projects that I hope terminate in localized weather tracking among other things, but with also being laid off recently and the US tech industry trying to downgrade engineer pay and hiring being in a weird void because humans have no value, it’s a…weird time. I’ll complete the project, in a home or homeless, just annoying having to try and survive for like, the I lost count amount of times in this shitfuck of a country.
In the past, when I tried to claim unemployment one time, I was denied because I was in college. In what universe does that make any sense. This time, thankfully, that one system works, but it is structured so terribly that one is way below survival status. Current unemployment rates can’t even cover a current mortgage payment. (There is nuance there based on current cost, I’m not trying to distort it artificially for drama, to be clear.) Figure that out. That is before utilities or food, not even talking about something like fun.
NEVER TRAVEL HERE. DO NOT BUY OUR GOODS. We deserve the pain we set up for ourselves. Punish us like a dom in some weird sex fetish video would. I got beans to eat. Beets too! (It is not…quite that bad yet, but I am prepping as such and respect happy survival diet so hard.)
Just one person’s perspective, don’t bias thoughts upon it. Sorry that couple had that bill. I have a plethora of stories that can hit their $200k in minutes in just the last 2 years. Shit, probably in the last 6 or 7 months, actually.
Edit, and sorry, not trying to be dramatic to again be clear, I might have some errors too. Not trying to hyperbole. We are just such a fucking dumb place doing so many fucking dumb things for no fucking reason when we could easily be profitable (CAPITALISM!) AND also let humans live AND keep the planet habitable. It makes no damn sense what is going on when everyone winning would be simultaneously profitable for the “rich” and nobody dies.
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT AMERICA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.Sorry, I could not resist. How ironic that the original American movie quote said Europe (okay, the moon Europa) and now it’s basically reversed. (Kubrick, Space Odyssey 2001)
The shitty American medical system being what it is I gotta blame the travel insurance. If their insurance was supposed to cover it and didn’t, that’s an insurance problem.
And the insurance did end up paying, but nine months later after what is referred to as a legal battle. So presumably these folks had to go into their own pockets for it. Typical bullshit.
That sucks. I mean, I’m glad it eventually worked out, but that’s a lot of BS for them to put up with because insurance didn’t want to pay.
My son was born at 24 weeks. Modern NICUs are an absolute marvel. They took this tiny little guy at the cusp of viability to a healthy, happy, normal baby boy over the next three months.
The pricetag for this treatment was half a million dollars. But, fortunately, we were eligible for Medicaid. A sum that would have bankrupted us was neatly covered by the state.
Except tax payers now get to send their hard earned money directly to the leeches that work at insurance companies.
No matter if the system works out for individuals with insurance Americans get screwed with the way it is at the moment.
You all need to fight for universal health care so that shit isn’t marked up 5000% so that insurances companies make billions for doing nothing but complicate everything
private insurance is heavily subsidized by OUR TAXES anyways, but is unvailable or extremely inaccessible to most people. propaganda has convinced the right more than the left that private insurance results in “faster time, appts and guaranteed care” but it does not appear to be in most cases, because insurance can easily nitpick dim/nickle everything of your care(multiple tests, each doctor appointment, what the doctor is doing, who is reading your results,etc)
I was born at 28 weeks 5 decades ago.
$0 .
Very fortunate
There’s so, so, so, so, so much I could say about this topic.
Number 1: Why are any of you cunts even coming to the USA anymore? Sincerest apologies for victim blaming, and obviously my stupid ass has not read the article (gonna do that later).
Number 2: US healthcare costs are a scam.
Number 3: Healthcare insurance is a gamified scam.
The dates are not clear on the article, but it’s possible that the birth was even pre Trump… the couple was touring, they’re musicians.
Do not travel to the US
why would you go there??? this couple was asking for it
Did you see how they were dressed my god
If i take a boat and sail to a known cannibal island, where people like me have gone and been eaten before, and I then get eaten, there’s no one to blame but me. The US is simply not a good place to travel to at this time. It would have been even more hell for them if they had to over stay their visa.
It would have been even more hell for them if they had to over stay their visa.
I mean, they may have got a free
beatingplane ticket home.The baby though, that’s a natural born US citizen. That’s staying here.
The problem in this story wasn’t actually the US this time, it was the Swiss insurance company.
I would say the problem also was a very high medical bill of $ 200k.
NICUs are capital and professional labor intensive. I got to meet the team of doctors and nurses who kept my son alive and thriving for the three months between birth and due date. Idk what the magic number to care for him should have been, but I don’t think six figures is an unfair estimate in any socio-economic system.
The question after that is “Who paid for it?” And, in my case, it was Medicaid, which was a huge relief. These poor bastards clearly didn’t have the option.
Why it’s so capital intensive is another issue, but the matter of six figures being reasonable is to compare that to costs of similar treatments in other countries (usually it’s an order of magnitude more expensive).
Healthcare just can’t be free market bcs the demand side cannot be free by definition.
Yes. You’re right. Our healthcare system is absolutely bonkers bananas insane, and that’s before you calculate in the cruelty. And as US citizen, I strongly advise everyone who isn’t to avoid this country like the plague.
However, if I travel to Switzerland or Canada or Italy or wherever, as a tourist, I am not covered if I go in the hospital. I still need to carry travel insurance, and if I don’t, or if it doesn’t cover something, then those countries with their modern, sensible healthcare systems will charge me out of pocket, just like an American hospital. The difference is that in America, even the citizens aren’t covered by default, and the amounts are astronomical compared to other countries.
It’s a shitty system all around, and frankly, I genuinely believe that if it weren’t for America’s weird fetish for as much money as you can possibly choke on, we would probably have started building an actual universal healthcare system for the global community, so that you’re covered by default even when traveling. But like with most things, the right wing nonsense has held us so far back that that is so unlikely as to seem utterly impossible
Yes if you come here to Danmark from the US you will not be covered. But if you are from a country in the EU you will in most cases be covered and don’t have to pay anything for being hospitalized.
Even if you do have to pay something, the cost Ive seen people post in europe are in the hundreds/thousands, not hundreds of thousands like the US.
Maybe this couple woukd have gotten a $200/2000 bill in the EU for a birth? $200,000 is a purely US problem.
I don’t see how this is the US’ fault. Their insurance, who initially denied them, is with a Zurich company. Do they expect any country they visit to cover them medically?
Maybe I’ll pop over to Berlin if I ever get cancer. Surely they’ll pay for all my treatments even though I’m just a tourist. They aren’t barbarians like the US.
Their baby was born in an American hospital seven weeks early, but the couple said Zurich Insurance Group refused to uphold the policy and cover their costs because the baby was not named in the document.
After a nine month legal battle, Zurich has reversed its decision and told the BBC it was sorry for the stress caused.
The unborn child that isn’t allowed to have a name yet needs to be named in the document.
You can just imagine whoever made that decision letting out an evil laugh.
The legal proceedings had more time to mature than the baby lol
Sylvester said the couple “made 100% sure Issy was insured to be pregnant, and any complications involving pregnancy whilst we were abroad were covered”.
Sylvester explained: “Essentially what they said is that we would have been covered had the baby not survived. But the fact was that the baby survived.”
“We weren’t going to be covered for that, because we didn’t put his name on the insurance policy.”
As someone that wouldn’t choose to travel into or through the United States, I can’t say I would be surprised if I got back home after this ordeal and the medical bills started showing up. US healthcare will charge for anything under the sun. I half expect visitors will be sent invoices for travelling in the vicinity of a hospital in the near future.
I have both a heathcare insurance and because my hobby is reenacting (ie, travel with really expensive things and doing dumb things like sleep under a hedge for 2 days) a very good travel insurance which includes healthcare abroad.
Both go out of their way to point out I have coverage in the entire world except the USA and active warzones.
The insurance on question is not American, but from their home country. The ridiculous price is American though
I realise that, my connecting thought was that the hospital looking at their insurance policy should have been able to understand the pregnancy was covered. Even with it being unclear due to the contract’s wording, it should have triggered the billing department contacting the insurer for clarification.
That’s not how America works though, they operate on a ‘invoice first, ask questions later’ approach. If one in a thousand bills get paid without question, the superfluousness is considered justified. Oh well, I would add this to my list of reasons to avoid the country if it weren’t so long already.
You seem confused.
As someone who has worked directly with medical (dental) insurance, the billing hospital/doctor almost definitely sent the bill to the insurance company first, were denied the claim, and then sent it to the couple afterwards.
You seem to think the hospital told them they weren’t covered, but that isn’t what happened. At least not in this article. They thought it was covered and dealt with until returning to the UK, where the insurer told them they weren’t covered.
A friend living in Mexico fell off a horse and slashed a wrist on a fence. They wouldn’t even treat her until checking her credit card. She moved back to us.
used to be anchor babies, now is trapped in debt babies
Just don’t pay, what are they going to do?
Extradition and imprisonment.
Convict you in absentia then use the judgement as an excuse to freeze your bank account and ban you from all forms of banking (something that the US has the power to impose on foreigner because they hold every western bank by the balls due to their reliance on the fed)?
I don’t know if they would do it, but it certainly wouldn’t be unconstitutional; the US have long made it clear that foreigners on foreign land don’t have any legal rights whatsoever. I would be having a long conversation with lawyers to get some hard assurances before going down that path.
I mean given all I hear it would not entirely surprise me that they would hold the baby hostage, at best
Hospital: we gonna steal ur baby lol
Parents: oh no, you are going to feed it, bathe it, care for it, educate it, all on your own dime? Oh the humanity
Hospital: wait no not like that-
E: hospital: that’s filthy socialism!
Hospital stealing your baby? Just call ICE and they’ll depot you!
Exactly. You’re already outside of the country. Let them send you bills. They aren’t going to send the FBI to kick in your door because of unpaid bills…
ICE, on the other hand, we send them to do all manner of things outside the US.
Repossess the child.
As artists that go on tour, the US leg likely provides a significant chunk of their income. If they were just on vacation, that’s a different story.
Worth figuring out for them, as it boiled down to an administrative issue with unclear wording in the insurance contract.
