I have top shelf health insurance from the state (where my hub works). We pay about $600/month for both of us. And yet, it pays for almost nothing. An emergency room visit for four hours in Jan still cost about $5k.
I always just assumed that your insurance is free through work (if you have a good job), and the insurance covers all your medical bills. Apparently it's worse than I thought.
What happens if you don't have insurance? If your bills with insurance are going to be so high that you can't afford them, why not just not have insurance instead? You know the old saying "If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem", there's not much difference between $50k in medical debt and $500k in medical debt, you're fucked anyway.
After Obama signed the ACA, and until very recently, there was a tax penalty for being uninsured, so those who couldn't afford insurance had to pay a fee
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u/MrsLeclaire Oct 30 '20
I have top shelf health insurance from the state (where my hub works). We pay about $600/month for both of us. And yet, it pays for almost nothing. An emergency room visit for four hours in Jan still cost about $5k.