It’s no secret that the U.S. medical system is completely fucked up. We seek medical care without knowing how much it will cost; prices are negotiated between hospitals and insurance companies, and we have little to no choice but to pay our premiums, deductibles, and whatever bills might come our way.
To shine a spotlight on that, a recent tweet from Bernie Sanders asked people to share their “most absurd” medical billing stories, and the results are heartbreaking. (The hardest to read, for me, are the ones where children died, or had their health threatened, for reasons related to billing or finding an in-network hospital. Check out the replies in the link above if you’d like to read them.)
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None of this is news to people who live in the U.S., but every now and then somebody from Canada or the Europe stumbles into the thread to ask how this is even a discussion, how bills like this are even possible.
The medical system in this country isn’t likely to be overhauled any time soon, but several politicians are proposing changes, and projects like Vox’s investigations of emergency department bills are starting to put pressure on hospitals. In the meantime, tell us: what was your most ridiculous medical bill?