My Heart Hurts
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And your credit will be trashed.
They still aren't free. They can't turn you away, but you're still gonna get a bill. If you are completely poor, own no property and have no assets, the hospital will have to eat the bill. If you have any kind of money or property, you're going to have to negotiate a payment plan or they will send your bill to collections. When a friend of mine was in graduate school he ended up with a ruptured appendix. It was tens of thousands of dollars and he had to declare bankruptcy. Sucks, but then again - sometimes it's life or death.
Just sign up for Obamacare as we've been saying for pages now.
Problem solved. In fact, for college students, it's cheaper than "student health" ever was.0 -
if you go to the ER and don't have insurance and can't afford it then they have to treat you …
also there are numerous urgent care clinics and what I call "dr in the boxes" that have a nurse on hand that will look you over for about 20.00 …
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oh and for the record nothing is "free" ..just because it is free for someone one, it means that someone else is subsidizing said care with their tax dollars….
government does not produce money, it takes it from people and re-distributes it through society...0 -
Emergency medical laws in the US mean that the ER has to treat you, it does NOT say that that treatment will be paid for. People can and are billed into bankruptcy for seeking treatment. Many hospitals will "work with you" on setting up a payment plan. (Yeay for debt, right) but an actual forgiveness or reduction of the cost is entirely up to the hospital, and with for-profit hospital chains on the rise, many billing coordinators are being urged to extract every penny because it's about serving shareholders, not patients.
In an ideal world, OP could have gotten immediate attention. In this one, she wanted to consisted whether her concern was just hypochondria or an Immediate Emergency. I'm sorry, OP, it sucks.
Call your school's student affairs dean or the health center, if it's staffed during break. Ask about coverage during this period and for ailments that require outside consultation. I know my college was set up for mundane college student complaints...flu, STIs, athletic injuries...and referred more complex cases to the local hospital, covered by the health plan. So, it's possible your health plan at school might pay your hospital bill, if you file your claim appropriately. When does session start? I know that the health center sometimes opens before classes start if athletes are back and training. Our ski teams always came back New Year's Day, so the health center opened then, even though classes didn't start until the next week.
actually no …they can't force you to pay they can bill you and you can set up installemtn payments plans and work it out with the hospital or have them donate the care.
When I was 25 I had cancer and no insurance. Most of my chemotherapy was donated. The total cost of my drugs would of been in excess of 100K and no way I could of afforded that and I was not "billed into bankruptcy"..that was one of the largest falsehoods put forward by the proponents of the "affordable" care act..
oh hey - how is that new health law working out….sounds like it is working out really great for OP….
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They still aren't free. They can't turn you away, but you're still gonna get a bill. If you are completely poor, own no property and have no assets, the hospital will have to eat the bill. If you have any kind of money or property, you're going to have to negotiate a payment plan or they will send your bill to collections. When a friend of mine was in graduate school he ended up with a ruptured appendix. It was tens of thousands of dollars and he had to declare bankruptcy. Sucks, but then again - sometimes it's life or death.
I do not mean to pick on this post, but after reading through this thread I just have to respond. Healthcare is not free, nor should it be. I don't care what country you live in. Even if healthcare is nationalized, SOMEONE is paying for it. The money is coming from somewhere.
I am American. I have heard awful stories relating to our healthcare system, and I won't argue there is truth to much of it and that there isn't room for improvement. But I have heard horror stories from nationalized healthcare (long waiting lists, etc) that are equally true. It is a complex issue.
I do know that in the US people think nothing of spending a few hundred bucks every month on cable and cell phones and special ESPN packages. Healthcare? Nah, that's a right. Shouldn't have to pay for that. But the money has to come from somewhere.
Of course all healthcare is paid for - the NHS is paid for through taxation (national insurance contributions) and yes it has many problems
But at point of need we have free general practitioner services (Primary Care Physicians) who refer to hospitals for free treatment, our A&E (ER) and Ambulance and hospital care is free and never turns anyone away. Our media is full of stories of bed blockers (people who stay too long in hospitals), drunks filling A&E and issues associated with reduced budgets and bad management .. but walk into any A&E or call an ambulance with heart problems and you would be seen. After being triaged and you may have to wait a few hours but there is no bill, so no discincentive to seek care and it's equitable across all social / economic strata.
Some of us have private healthcare on top ... ours is through my husband's work (I work in the State Sector so no private benefits), we pay about £240 per month for a family of 4 ($360 out of gross salary, so prior to tax) for the privilege of skipping queues to see consultants, dropping the wait from weeks / months to a couple of days on a convenient appointment basis .. but then, if treatment is required and not covered entirely by our private healthcare the National Health Service takes over and again we're back to free at point of need. It's not fair but it happens.
We slag off our healthcare a lot, this thread reminds me to feel grateful
its not free…
your government taxes successfully individuals and makes them pay for healthcare for the less successful…so they are subsidizing care through taxation and redistribution of wealth…
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It's amazing how Healthcare works sometimes, just makes no sense. This past summer a cousin of mine was here from Chile on a student visa when he got an infection in his eye and ended up being admitted to the hospital for 6 days. A couple weeks later a $52,000 bill came in the mail. We called and they told him to go down and speak to the finance department. I took him down there, they signed him up for "emergency medicaid", mind you he was only here in a student visa. 2 weeks later we were told that his bill was now $0. From 52 to 0. The lady also told me that for him it was easeasy-to-use to get him medicad but if I lost my job, hand no insurance and tried to apply for medicaid it would be much harder to get me approved. Makes absolutely no sense.
I'm not entirely sure that's accurate. A colleague of mine was laid off and applied for affordable health care within a month of her lay off and was approved. It wasn't "medicaid" but it costs her about $70 bucks a month. As she's without work for longer, the rate goes down. So no, you wouldn't qualify for *medicaid* right away, but would qualify for low cost healthcare. If you were out of a job for a longer while, you would qualify for Medicaid. While the Act has expanded who qualifies for medicaid, it hasn't fundamentally changed it.
I had a friend visiting in 2009. She had a job (in Germany) but no insurance. She qualified for emergency medicaid for her pulmonary embolism. Medicaid (now) does cover students though, yes.0 -
There should be a free clinic somewhere near you.. go to it asap!
Also, my friends' friend died from a heart attack at age 23 (she was active and healthy as far as she knew), so it's never too early to die from this. ![:\](https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
I don't understand why you aren't on your parents' insurance?? The new age limit is 26 for parents with college students. Don't your parents care about your health?!
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So, OP, you still alive? Did you go in or call a doctor or anything?0
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Apparently, from other posts, the OP didn't really KNOW about it until someone on the phone told ehr.
oh hey - how is that new health law working out….sounds like it is working out really great for OP….
But can we please not make this a politics thread? If we do, you know it will be locked.
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I am sorry but some of the advice in this thread is absolutely absurd and dangerous. If you are having new onset chest pain, regardless of age, you NEED emergency medical attention. Not tomorrow, not next week, now.
As a 24 y/o female, with new onset chest pain, there are a few life threatening emergencies that it could be. Heart attack is only one. On birth control? Smoke? It could be a pulmonary embolism. These are two conditions that can cause sudden DEATH.
I have to say I'm done with this thread. I am starting to get a headache from the face palming at posts (exaggeration but you get the point).
This is true, but now that I've read through I think there have been some great posts helping the OP understand her options for insurance and payment.
I think it's absolutely true (and unfortunate) that lots of people put off medical care either because they don't want to feel stupid if it's nothing or are terrified of the cost and don't know their options. It's important to deal with the latter issue by letting people know what their options are--both for insurance and for urgent care short of an emergency room.
(Also, there's just crazy cultural stuff. My mother had an obvious sign of something that could be serious a few years ago in the middle of the night after Christmas. She waited to say anything until we all got up the next morning since she hadn't wanted to "be a bother" and subsequently ended up in the hospital for several days. She probably would have been anyway (although she lost more blood than she should have, so maybe not), but if she had had a slightly worse form of what she had waiting could have been fatal. I was super annoyed and scared that my mom did that, but if I'm honest I have similar personality traits, since somehow it's been ingrained that treatment should be a last resort and only if you know for certain its bad. Better dead than a hypochondriac. But the problem is I've increasingly seen that the first can be a real possibility as I've gotten older, so it's not a good tendency.)0 -
They still aren't free. They can't turn you away, but you're still gonna get a bill. If you are completely poor, own no property and have no assets, the hospital will have to eat the bill. If you have any kind of money or property, you're going to have to negotiate a payment plan or they will send your bill to collections. When a friend of mine was in graduate school he ended up with a ruptured appendix. It was tens of thousands of dollars and he had to declare bankruptcy. Sucks, but then again - sometimes it's life or death.
I do not mean to pick on this post, but after reading through this thread I just have to respond. Healthcare is not free, nor should it be. I don't care what country you live in. Even if healthcare is nationalized, SOMEONE is paying for it. The money is coming from somewhere.
I am American. I have heard awful stories relating to our healthcare system, and I won't argue there is truth to much of it and that there isn't room for improvement. But I have heard horror stories from nationalized healthcare (long waiting lists, etc) that are equally true. It is a complex issue.
I do know that in the US people think nothing of spending a few hundred bucks every month on cable and cell phones and special ESPN packages. Healthcare? Nah, that's a right. Shouldn't have to pay for that. But the money has to come from somewhere.
Of course all healthcare is paid for - the NHS is paid for through taxation (national insurance contributions) and yes it has many problems
But at point of need we have free general practitioner services (Primary Care Physicians) who refer to hospitals for free treatment, our A&E (ER) and Ambulance and hospital care is free and never turns anyone away. Our media is full of stories of bed blockers (people who stay too long in hospitals), drunks filling A&E and issues associated with reduced budgets and bad management .. but walk into any A&E or call an ambulance with heart problems and you would be seen. After being triaged and you may have to wait a few hours but there is no bill, so no discincentive to seek care and it's equitable across all social / economic strata.
Some of us have private healthcare on top ... ours is through my husband's work (I work in the State Sector so no private benefits), we pay about £240 per month for a family of 4 ($360 out of gross salary, so prior to tax) for the privilege of skipping queues to see consultants, dropping the wait from weeks / months to a couple of days on a convenient appointment basis .. but then, if treatment is required and not covered entirely by our private healthcare the National Health Service takes over and again we're back to free at point of need. It's not fair but it happens.
We slag off our healthcare a lot, this thread reminds me to feel grateful
its not free…
your government taxes successfully individuals and makes them pay for healthcare for the less successful…so they are subsidizing care through taxation and redistribution of wealth…
If you highlight my entire sentence I specifically said " Of course all healthcare is paid for - the NHS is paid for through taxation (national insurance contributions) and yes it has many problems
But at point of need we have free general practitioner services (Primary Care Physicians) who refer to hospitals for free treatment, our A&E (ER) and Ambulance and hospital care is free and never turns anyone away.
I'm neither ignorant nor an idiot, so unsure why you'd cherry pick a phrase out of context to make it sound like I said something completely different0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Better dead than a hypochondriac.
OMG, that is a funny line. So true for so many of us.0 -
hmm i'd love to have insurance right about now
thanks for the advice guys.
Are you in the US? Are you in a larger metro area? Most have what they call a "warm line" (generally 211) to call for help finding social services. Check the websites for your city and county to see. They would have a list of free clinics and medical practices that offer low or no cost treatment to those who are uninsured. They can also tell you of programs available where you can apply for funds to cover medical treatment.
A year ago I was in bad shape and there was a good chance the problem was the heart. My brother and SIL basically kidnapped me and took me to a free clinic. I received wonderful care there. They did blood tests, an echocardiogram, and chest x-rays and it turns out my problem was severe anemia and edema. I saw a cardiologist and nephrologist and received medications, all at no cost to me. (I now have insurance).
ETA: so many have a mistaken notion that free clinics are just there for the druggies and homeless and are staffed with the less capable of doctors. Not true at all. In fact, those who care enough to volunteer their time at a clinic are often the ones you want . . . they actually see people as people. I found my current PCP at the free clinic and now see her in her regular practice and she is just as caring and thorough, no matter where I see her.
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My health is important but I don't want to take the chance that everything might be ok and be sitting with a $500 bill in my pocket on the way out.
So you're saying you'd rather not pay $500 to make sure you're ok than to avoid that and potentially cause serious issues? Your health isn't that important to you then.
Sorry, but no. I get that money doesn't grow on trees and I'm not rich myself but even if I didn't have insurance I'd do what I could to make sure everything is ok. As someone else mentioned, the hospital can work with you to help you out, I'm sure. The doctors there are probably way more interested in helping you than worrying about how you're going to pay for it - that's an administrative thing. I know I'm lucky and I live in a country with universal health care but I still wouldn't risk it if the pain was around my heart. In my leg, maybe it could wait, but your heart is a little different thing, really.
Your health should be priceless to you - come hell or high water, you take care of yourself, I know I do. What if you had a child (I don't know if you're a mom or not) and they came to you complaining of this? Wouldn't you do whatever you could to make sure they're ok? Do. The. Same. For. Yourself.0 -
It's amazing how Healthcare works sometimes, just makes no sense. This past summer a cousin of mine was here from Chile on a student visa when he got an infection in his eye and ended up being admitted to the hospital for 6 days. A couple weeks later a $52,000 bill came in the mail. We called and they told him to go down and speak to the finance department. I took him down there, they signed him up for "emergency medicaid", mind you he was only here in a student visa. 2 weeks later we were told that his bill was now $0. From 52 to 0. The lady also told me that for him it was easeasy-to-use to get him medicad but if I lost my job, hand no insurance and tried to apply for medicaid it would be much harder to get me approved. Makes absolutely no sense.
when I had cancer they told me that if I quit my job I could get medicare but because I had a full time job I was not eligible..
so it was either quit my job and get government assistance or keep my job and figure out another way ..I went with keep my job...0
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