By Jane M. Orient, M.D.
Uninsurance is portrayed as being like a disease; it has even been called an epidemic. At a minimum, it puts you one medical bill away from bankruptcy, and you might even die from it, they say.
Yet some people I know, even doctors, do not want to buy health insurance.
And I know of at least one person who was very lucky to have had hers cancelled.
Here’s her story. She told an acquaintance, who happened to be a physician, about her eye symptoms. “Wouldn’t you know! I lost my insurance a couple months ago, and now this!”
We recently had our first baby, the line item hospital charges for him came in at $1,100 I then got a EOB and bill from the hospital stating that I owed almost $4,000 dollars for his care (it was a health birth, no complications or issues) I called BCBS and the hospital curious why my adjustments and write offs were tripling my bill and was eventually told that the DRG is the $4,000 price so that’s what I owe. (I have a high deduct so it was all under deductible). I asked the hospital, “your basically telling me that if I was uninsured my bill would be $1,100 but because I have insurance it is $4,000?” the reply was, yeah that’s basically right.