You're making a few incorrect assumptions here. First of all, I am insured and most of the bill will be paid by Humana (after hours and hours of painful phone calls which nobody is paying me to waste my time on).
Secondly, I find it very typical that you've ignored the insane and mind blowing amount. Too many healthcare discussions are focused on "who" should be paying, instead of asking "why so much"?
There is no way in hell they should be charging $250 for a "recovery kit" containing a can of apple juice, 5 crackers and 4 pills of ibuprofen. My Humana policy is STAGGERINGLY expensive.
And finally, I paid more taxes (state+fed) here in California this year than most EU residents did. In my view, I already paid for my healthcare, they're just not delivering it to me, spending my money somewhere else.
> "at this very moment I am sitting on $41K in medical bills"
Uh-Uh. I think you're playing very fast and loose with the language here. I doubt anyone would read that as "my insurance company is settling a bill for $41k for me". Especially when your anecdote does nothing more than confirm what is mentioned in the article: That healthcare in CA is stupidly expensive.
With an high deductible plan, which many have, or for those with less money to afford good insurance, they very well COULD be stuck with a bill like that, or a large portion of it.
For a broken arm. I think we had a lower bill for my kid's childbirth costs.
Child birth costs some friends paid for their kid: ~$60
Child birth costs I paid for my kid (poor insurance plan): ~$3300
I think that the total bill for the child birth (in my instance) was around $18K. I'll note that if you were uninsured, that would probably be significantly more. That $18K cost is negotiated between the hospital and the health plan I had at the time.
Secondly, I find it very typical that you've ignored the insane and mind blowing amount. Too many healthcare discussions are focused on "who" should be paying, instead of asking "why so much"?
There is no way in hell they should be charging $250 for a "recovery kit" containing a can of apple juice, 5 crackers and 4 pills of ibuprofen. My Humana policy is STAGGERINGLY expensive.
And finally, I paid more taxes (state+fed) here in California this year than most EU residents did. In my view, I already paid for my healthcare, they're just not delivering it to me, spending my money somewhere else.