Couple left with $200k bill after baby born in US

Did you see how they were dressed my god

I would say the problem also was a very high medical bill of $ 200k.

I'm fairly sure in Berlin they won't charge you two hundred thousand fucking dollars for an emergency procedure, but sure, go on strawmanning. What the hell.

You can just imagine whoever made that decision letting out an evil laugh.

I realise that, my connecting thought was that the hospital looking at their insurance policy should have been able to understand the pregnancy was covered. Even with it being unclear due to the contract's wording, it should have triggered the billing department contacting the insurer for clarification.

That's not how America works though, they operate on a 'invoice first, ask questions later' approach. If one in a thousand bills get paid without question, the superfluousness is considered justified. Oh well, I would add this to my list of reasons to avoid the country if it weren't so long already.

You sound like stealth camping extraordinaire Steve Wallis.

It's quite funny to think 'expensive thing' could be just anything, like an orchestral harp or some of them jewels from the Louvre, and you're just hanging out under a hedge with a copy of your insurance policy as a pillow haha.

They'll be happy to charge you for all mail forwarded to your home country, any costs incurred, and a little handling charge at the hotel. No extra effort needed, they already have your credit card and photo id.

No, what this means is that they have increased premiums for anyone at 33 weeks of pregnancy and added something about premature births that will cost more if you're traveling to America. Either that or put in specific language excluding coverage for premature births. Either way, insurance companies are a scam.

Other articles date the birth to 2022.

I don't see how the advice doesn't apply. Do not go to U.S.A

I mean given all I hear it would not entirely surprise me that they would hold the baby hostage, at best

As artists that go on tour, the US leg likely provides a significant chunk of their income. If they were just on vacation, that's a different story.

Worth figuring out for them, as it boiled down to an administrative issue with unclear wording in the insurance contract.

Convict you in absentia then use the judgement as an excuse to freeze your bank account and ban you from all forms of banking (something that the US has the power to impose on foreigner because they hold every western bank by the balls due to their reliance on the fed)?

I don't know if they would do it, but it certainly wouldn't be unconstitutional; the US have long made it clear that foreigners on foreign land don't have any legal rights whatsoever. I would be having a long conversation with lawyers to get some hard assurances before going down that path.

Exactly. You're already outside of the country. Let them send you bills. They aren't going to send the FBI to kick in your door because of unpaid bills...

Repossess the child.

Extradition and imprisonment.

LOL not unique! Where exactly do you think the US stands when comparing their nominal GDP per capita with Mexico, Egypt, the Phillipines, Mumbai or Dehli?

US: #9 out of 193

Mexico.. 71. Egypt.. 134. Phillipines.. 126. India.. 140

Why don't you take a look at the healthcare systems of the countries in the top 10 GDP per capita and make an actual apples to apples comparison, hm?

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT AMERICA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.

Sorry, I could not resist. How ironic that the original American movie quote said Europe (okay, the moon Europa) and now it's basically reversed. (Kubrick, Space Odyssey 2001)

I dunno - my ex burned all the skin off his hand once, the first question at the emergency room was "how are you paying?" and we waited there 5 hours before they saw him, during which time it got so much worse he ended up needing more treatment & therapy. No we didn't have insurance or money back then. They eventually arranged temporary Medicaid for him as he couldn't work with the hand so burned. Which left us without his income (I had just given birth too) so without much food.

Anyway - this was in the 1990s but I am absolutely sure we had to wait because we could not pay, even though it was an obvious emergency.

Just a stark reminder that all insurance, no matter where you get it from and what country it originates in, is 100% a scam.

I am well aware of that. This couple's experience was in parallel to what occurs all the time with people who have insurance in the U.S.

So, your perspective is that pregnant people who have life-threatening medical conditions arising from their pregnancy through no fault of their own should have to pay out-of-pocket? Additionally, in it sounds like you feel that premature births due to life-threatening medical issues that the mother is suffering from and subsequent aftercare for the mother and premature infant should also be paid for out of pocket?

Some of them probably don't even have the means to help, they just get lawyers to avoid accountability and write ridiculous terms for their policies, and in the EXTREME case they actually need to fix something they probably outsource it lol

We need a real life Mr Incredible to do that to every insurance CEO. Throw through 6 concrete walls.

Just checked, it appears you can renounce it :

the State Department no longer proactively attempts to prove such intent, and issues a Certificate of Loss of Nationality (CLN) only when an individual "affirmatively asserts" their relinquishment of citizenship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relinquishment_of_United_States_nationality

private insurance is heavily subsidized by OUR TAXES anyways, but is unvailable or extremely inaccessible to most people. propaganda has convinced the right more than the left that private insurance results in "faster time, appts and guaranteed care" but it does not appear to be in most cases, because insurance can easily nitpick dim/nickle everything of your care(multiple tests, each doctor appointment, what the doctor is doing, who is reading your results,,,,etc)

You all need to fight for universal health care

We've been fighting for over a century. It's a horrifying monster that's only grown bigger and stronger over time.

Closest anyone has come to slaying the beast is Luigi Mangione and look what happened to him.

Very fortunate

Best we can do is get rid of medicade and charge you for murder if you abort or use plan b. Once you are in debtors prison Your baby will then be transferred into a Mossad run sex trafficking and jerky processing operation

different causes: people are having less kids in the US because they're living in misery, whereas in europe we've long had fewer kids because better education and less need to have 8 kids so one of them survives and can take care of you as you get old.

You can, but you have to pay fees and forefit a percent of your net worth.

The baby should do it now, while their net worth is $0

You can, but it's a pain in the ass.

That's in addition to a deduction of taxes they pay in their country.

After 7 years without any payment, most debt including medical debt and standard loans are discharged. The non-payment is key. Even sending a cent will restart the obligation to that debt

They are bringing back debtor's prisons in some states, those debts they sell as unrecoverable are bought by shady companies, as in Utah, that sue for them in the big city, and if the defendant doesn't show up they get a default judgement and then get the judge to hold them in contempt, and jail them. If they pay they get out right away. After they get out of jail the holder of the debt can just file for another action and contempt you again, as I understand it.

And they aren't the only state either I hear, they were one of the first to end run around the prohibition, I think case law, on debtor's prisons, over 10 years back.

This guy is correct. IANAL.

I doubt any of them have passports and probably couldn't point to the UK on an atlas, so I think you'd be relatively safe.

and do what? Ensure the U.K also denounces the U.S as an ally?

They have been murdering white people too

Maybe if we had the rule of law instead of a Republican dictatorship.

I mean... there's an injunction on the executive order so for now.... but we'll see how the court case goes... 👀

Yes.

I feel like you should be able to tell them to go fuck themselves, since children can't sign contracts.

Can't you declare bankruptcy for the kids then? Though that would probably fuck with the credit score? But I have no clue how that works.

I'm certainly not going back until at least 2029. Let MAGA eat itself over the Epstein files and the next president reform the gun laws (as both sides are now talking about it) and then I'll think about it.

And that Black people will get benefits if we have social programs, and can't have that.

Dude, look at any chart before idiot in office started going after the only ones having babies.

Gotta be al that avocado toast.

That sucks. I mean, I’m glad it eventually worked out, but that’s a lot of BS for them to put up with because insurance didn’t want to pay.

It's time entirely likely they never actually paid anything out of their own pocket. Situations like this are awfully common, so hospitals pretty easily mark a bill as in legal dispute and move on while it gets sorted.

Part of the horrible cycle is that bills are high to cover costs while bills are disputed, which makes them more likely to be disputed.

Apparently if you ask for an itemised bill (Which they have no right to refuse) they tend to lower the price because they can't actually justify the random numbers they came up with.

Then the insurance is incorrect for the situation. IOW if you know the US charges stupid prices then insurance should be commensurate. Or not go to the US. Not blaming the people, just an insurance company that is inept.

It is for the people who are getting paid, which is the insurance companies.

If it wasn't, it wouldnt be the awful dystopian norm for the past 40 years here this stupid country.

Our first baby was born 5 weeks early and had to spend about 3 weeks in the NICU before we could take him home. Nothing major, just monitoring and a careful feeding regimen to make sure he would make it, as sensitive as they are when born that early.

My wife had to pay $30 for the 3 days she rented a bed in the maternity ward ($10/day). That was our total bill.

Second child we paid nothing.

Nothing negotiated, just how it works in my country. ✌️

And this is embraced because profit is capped to a percentage of payouts

Huh...I didn't know you could cut it that close. I figured it was more like "don't fly during the 3rd trimester."

Shows what I know.

Most travel insurance policies exclude cover once you're in your third trimester. The article mentioned that they'd be clarifying this in their policy as well.

Insurance policy limits are dictated by profits, not doctors' recommendations.

I'm not going to send you my personal info, but it's no secret that anyone with US health first gets a bill with a huge number $$ that's marked THIS IS NOT A BILL, then some weeks later we get another one from the insurance company which shows that number, and then a much smaller number "allowed" by the insurance which then shows as paid by them, then whatever "copay" we might have, usually about $30 with my insurance. Then there's "your responsibility" which is just the copay if the doctor/hospital is in your insurance network. In that situation the provider has to accept what the insurance allows and no more. If they're out of network, you may have to pay the difference between the original bill and what the insurance paid. Which can be a lot, so the first thing you should do is request an itemized bill. This will often be lower to start with, and gives you information to negotiate/contest items. Hospitals will also work with you to make a payment plan at that point.

In the OP case it was Swiss travel insurance not US health insurance and they finally agreed to pay the NICU bill, good work by the couple's lawyer.

if that happened in my country I'd cut my dick off just in case

Yeah the better option is for a multi state compact for a public option. I know Washington has a bit of a public option. That said, you get no subsidies if your employer offers minimum contributions to the health insurance of their choosing.

Edit to finish the thought: we need universal single payer, but barring that we need public options and real choice, including choice over where to apply our employer's contributions. It wouldn't fix everything that universal single payer would, but it would enable you to have the freedom to not need to change doctors every time you get a new job.

USA

You could charitably interpret the stupid games as going to the US when you could be in literally any other developed country.

Its a U.S. medical bill.

The hospital asks for whatever the fuck it wants after it does the treatment.

Then insurance says "we only pay a negotiate rate" and pays $25-$30K."

I had intern from France a year back when I worked in research. He went skiing and broke his leg around 6 months in. The French healthcare system sent him a check for how much the medical treatment would cost in France. It was around 10% of the bill. He paid the 10% to the hospital.

The hospital kept billing him and sent some of the bills to collections. He asked me what to do about it. "Tell them they have been fully paid by the French health system and to take it up with them. Then go back to France in 2 months and forget about it."

He laugh and said they immediately stopped bothering him after that.

Pregananant??