This does not bode well if we are going to contain this thing. The result of not having a rational health care system like most modern countries. If people are going to face big bills for getting tested then not many are going to do it. The man had one of Trump's new "Junk Insurance plans" that are not ACA compliant. A normal insurance plan would have been required to cover this sort of testing.
A Miami man has received a nearly $3,500 medical bill after getting coronavirus tests following his trip to China.
Osmel Martinez Azcue returned from a work trip last month to China and discovered he was feeling flu-like symptoms. Worried about the coronavirus, the man decided to go to a Florida hospital to get tested, according to the Miami Herald.
Testing revealed Mr Azcue had the flu, not the coronavirus. But his limited health insurance left him with a bill of $3,270 two weeks after his test. He will be responsible for $1,400 of that bill.
“How can they expect normal citizens to contribute to eliminating the potential risk of person-to-person spread if hospitals are waiting to charge us $3,270 for a simple blood test and a nasal swab?” Mr Azcue told the newspaper.
Mr Azcue previously had insurance through the Affordable Care Act. He picked that insurance as he makes $55,000 through his job at a medical-device company, and it does not provide a health insurance plan.
Once he first purchased the plan, he was paying $278 per month. These premiums then shot up to $400 once his full salary kicked in, forcing the man to cancel the coverage and pay $180 per month for a limited plan through National General Insurance.
This decision comes as the Trump administration rolled back the Affordable Care Act regulations in 2018 and allowed “junk plans” on the market.
These junk plans offer short-term, low-benefit coverage for people, but they also are not required to meet the law’s standards for health coverage, meaning the plans could avoid covering pre-existing conditions or offering protections from large out-of-pocket expenses.
One problem people run into when shopping for insurance plans is the way these junk plans are advertised. Someone might think they have coverage for certain expenses only to discover later they don’t.
Mr Azcue discovered that not only does he owe $1,400 out of pocket, but he also needs to provide his insurer with three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn’t relate to a pre-existing condition. If for some reason the flu related to a pre-existing condition, then the insurer would no longer pay a portion of the man’s bill.
Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Mr Azcue received his tests, told the Miami Herald more bills are on its way to the man. It is not clear what else he will have to pay for after getting tested for the coronavirus.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
He can afford to travel to China, and can afford to buy junk insurance, but apparently someone else ought to foot the remaining $1400 instead of him?
I agree our health care system is broken. I’m not finding this account making all that great of a case for socialized medicine.
RZehr wrote:He can afford to travel to China, and can afford to buy junk insurance, but apparently someone else ought to foot the remaining $1400 instead of him?
I agree our health care system is broken. I’m not finding this account making all that great of a case for socialized medicine.
That’s not the point.
The point is that if people face huge medical bills just for a simple cheek swab test that should cost $20 (or actually be free) then people who SHOULD be tested will just avoid going into the hospital at all, and the epidemic will spread even more out of control.
You couldn’t design a worse way to control the epidemic if you tried.
I’m sure they will revisit this issue, but that’s not starting off on the right foot.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Ken wrote:This does not bode well if we are going to contain this thing. The result of not having a rational health care system like most modern countries. If people are going to face big bills for getting tested then not many are going to do it. The man had one of Trump's new "Junk Insurance plans" that are not ACA compliant. A normal insurance plan would have been required to cover this sort of testing.
Can you define "normal insurance"? A Bronze level ACA plan would have made him pay around $6k - $7k out of pocket before picking up any of this cost. Or if he was married and had his wife on the same plan - $10-12k before covering anything other than routine preventive care.
Oh - and flu tests are not preventive care. So not covered until deductible met.
Not everything in life is the current President's fault.
Ken wrote:This does not bode well if we are going to contain this thing. The result of not having a rational health care system like most modern countries. If people are going to face big bills for getting tested then not many are going to do it. The man had one of Trump's new "Junk Insurance plans" that are not ACA compliant. A normal insurance plan would have been required to cover this sort of testing.
Can you define "normal insurance"? A Bronze level ACA plan would have made him pay around $6k - $7k out of pocket before picking up any of this cost. Or if he was married and had his wife on the same plan - $10-12k before covering anything other than routine preventive care.
Oh - and flu tests are not preventive care. So not covered until deductible met.
Not everything in life is the current President's fault.
Normal ACA coverage is required to cover flu vaccines with no co-pay or deductible so I assumed it would cover tests. If that's not the case then the problem is worse than I imagined and even more of an indictment of our health care system. BTW the current cost of the coronavirus test is about $250 so if the hospital is billing this guy $3500 then they are taking a $3250 profit on his following government recommended procedure. And they are probably a "non-profit" hospital to boot.
Very soon this won't just be people who traveled to China. Pretty soon it's going to be people who haven't gone anywhere at all.
Last edited by Ken on Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Ken wrote:This does not bode well if we are going to contain this thing. The result of not having a rational health care system like most modern countries. If people are going to face big bills for getting tested then not many are going to do it. The man had one of Trump's new "Junk Insurance plans" that are not ACA compliant. A normal insurance plan would have been required to cover this sort of testing.
Can you define "normal insurance"? A Bronze level ACA plan would have made him pay around $6k - $7k out of pocket before picking up any of this cost. Or if he was married and had his wife on the same plan - $10-12k before covering anything other than routine preventive care.
Oh - and flu tests are not preventive care. So not covered until deductible met.
Not everything in life is the current President's fault.
Normal ACA coverage is required to cover flue vaccines with no co-pay or deductible so I assumed it would cover tests. If that's not the case then the problem is worse than I imagined and even more of an indictment of our health care system. BTW the current cost of the coronavirus test is about $250 so if the hospital is billing this guy $3500 then they are taking a $3250 profit on his following government recommended procedure. And they are probably a "non-profit" hospital to boot.
Very soon this won't just be people who traveled to China. Pretty soon it's going to be people who haven't gone anywhere at all.
I was under the impression that $3,500 likely related at least in part to the cost of the bio-secure room and all that went with it, not just for the flu test.
I agree that the system is broke. I would prefer to see a system where health care providers bill, up front, a reasonable rate rather than an inflated rate that they then discount depending on who is paying and how much leverage they have. Then if individuals wanted to buy insurance they could, but many people could also make out just fine paying for the services they actually use. The current system is designed to make people "need" insurance because they get hosed otherwise.
Josh wrote:It’ll be interesting to see how the global elites find ways to privatise profit from the coronavirus pandemic, whilst socialising all the risk.
Since they pulled the plug on sending the G7 summit to Trump's struggling Trump Doral Miami club because it wasn't a good look, maybe they can recycle it for use as a quarantine facility at $5000/day per person or whatever. Win-win. As Winston Churchill famously said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste"
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Josh wrote:It’ll be interesting to see how the global elites find ways to privatise profit from the coronavirus pandemic, whilst socialising all the risk.
Since they pulled the plug on sending the G7 summit to Trump's struggling Trump Doral Miami club because it wasn't a good look, maybe they can recycle it for use as a quarantine facility at $5000/day per person or whatever. Win-win. As Winston Churchill famously said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste"
It would be interesting if the NeverTrump crowd could show the self-discipline to talk about the coronavirus crisis without constantly getting jabs in at Trump.
As Winston Churchill famously said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste"
It would be interesting if the NeverTrump crowd could show the self-discipline to talk about the coronavirus crisis without constantly getting jabs in at Trump.
LOL, get with the program Josh. Haven't you learned by now, Trump haters will, "Never waste a crisis, by not blaming Trump".
It is sad that this dreadful disease has been made into a political issue, instead of everyone working together for the good of all people. AOC and many liberals of her ilk, are having a hissy fit that Trump appointed VP Mike Pence to lead the efforts against the spread of the coronavirus. They lament that Pence doesn't believe in science, thus making him unqualified for the job. LOL...these are the same people who don't believe in the scientific evidence that a fetus is an actual living human being, and the same people who do not believe in basic scientific biology that a person with male parts is a male, or a person with female parts is a female. The believe there are umpteen genders no matter what biological parts people are born with.