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Where I live, they refuse to give me an invoice at all...
Onces you get the itemized bill you should just not pay that too lol
Each time I’ve asked for an itemized bill for hospital visits it’s only made the price higher…
I found this non-profit from the Pluralistic blog. It's there to help you find discounts that hospitals are obligated to give some patients, but aren't easily found.
Here's the post it came from.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/22/optimized-for-unoptimizability/
I will simply continue to not use healthcare unless I think I'm actually dying.
It still boggles my mind that Americans believe this is normal.
I think a majority of us don't but our democracy is a sham so it doesn't matter what we believe.
Follow-up question: when will the world's most heavily-armed populace decide that enough is enough and start shooting their oppressors instead of eachother?
I dunno. Next time I see a gun owner I will ask.
I do know what happened to Keith Porter Jr and Alex Pretti, both armed.
And its worth noting that the most heavily-armed populace in the world would be facing off against the most heavily-armed government in the world.
Because the word tax is a Boogeyman. Paying 2x as much for half the value is a good thing because the cheaper version is called a tax ...
Here it is normal. Most of us do recognize that it shouldn't be though.
We're a heavily propagandized nation.
A lot of people know our healthcare is fucked, but many have accepted it because they think the alternative is worse. Because they've been told so by healthcare lobbyists.
Recently I watched a moron complain that her elective fat loss injections are not going to be covered properly anymore. This is a person who is boasted on many occasions that they love their private health care and would never trade it for anything.
I don't think it's normal at all. I think it's probably going to kill me one day because I have no interest in interacting with a system where they're apparently just making shit up with 1000s of my dollars.
and if you complain about it, you are a bad American.
Domestic terrorist
we don't. we know it's insanity.
i personally have been trying to change it for 25 years. i'm tired.
I don't know if it's changed, but hospitals use to hang up on you if you ask for a quote on an operation. They don't want you shopping around.
YSK you don't get a medical bill in a civilised country.
Before I moved all I had to pay for was the parking if I parked at a hospital. Now I don't even have to do that.
YSK This is only relevant for the USA.
And some 3rd world countries. Let that sink in.
There are hundreds of movies about US soldiers being heroes by killing their enemies
How many movies are there about US citizens being fucked over by hospitals and insurance for more decades than I've been alive? I don't know of any.
This really encapsulates the US in two paragraphs
How many movies are there about US citizens being fucked over by hospitals and insurance
Acktually this is not a movie
Breaking Bad started out about that. Was the whole reason he broke bad in the first place!
We live in Denmark. My wife lost her job at a senior home due to stress. 3 years later, breast cancer diagnosis followed by a quick operation. Shes waiting for the radiation sessions now. In the US, we would probably have gone bankrupt. Sorry for you guys.
I had a spontaenous pneumothorax in my late 20s, only reason I had insurance was because it was the year of the Obamacare mandate. I was unemployed so the state I was in gave me free insurance. I had about $330k worth of surgeries and paid ... $19 for an optional medication.
Would have definitely bankrupted me.
And my mother, who is buried under her own medical bills, told me "you should have been bankrupted."
She apologized later but that's the mentality. We don't speak anymore.
"Just write it off" -comment from yesterday on medical insolvency.
Amerikkka moment...
My friend recently got their routine blood draw that they get yearly. This time it was over $2000. Usually less than $50. They've called the billing department several times and been hung up on each time when asking for an itemized bill. The system is working as intended and needs to be dismantled
Completely opposite to the finnish experience.
When I broke my ulna and dislocated my wrist, I took an ambulance ride to the hospital, got three xrays, a cast, and two doses of fentanyl.
Told to return the next morning for post-cast xrays of the damage, by the end of that I was scheduled for surgery 8 days later. Sent home with a prescription for some non-opioid painkillers. Picked those up for around 20 euros.
Received four hours of hand surgery. Over a dozen titanium screws and a titanium plate put in. Given three pills of an opioid based painkiller for sleeping through the worst of the post-surgery pain. And another prescription for more non-opioids.
Weeks later, removal of the surgery bandages and stitches. Xrays of how the bone was healing, followed by a consultation with a hand surgeon, and then a physical therapist on recovering motion in the wrist and fingers.
Months later one more round of xrays, and two more consultations with the physical therapist, and some follow-up with a hand surgeon due to the therapist noticing a lack of motion in my thumb, resulting in the discovery of some nerve-damage from the surgery (which I thankfully ended up recovering from).
By the end, I was sure I would max out the healthcare billing limit. This was the most expensive recovery from an injury I'd ever suffered. Finnish public health care is only allowed to bill you up to a maximum yearly amount, so as to never overload any one individual with debt. But it would still be a lot for me.
When I finally got an un-itemized bill, I was sure it was only the first of many.
Nope. It was the total. 87 euros and 40 cents.
Here in Canada, I recently took a big stumble while snowboarding, and my ankle hurt a lot. I went to the emergency room at the nearest hospital, got X-rays, and they confirmed I had broken my left inner malleolus. They referred me to the specialist clinic, and sent me home with a boot and crutches.
Next Monday, the specialist clinic tell me to show up the next morning (so on Tuesday). I waited pretty much the whole morning for the specialist to see me, he confirmed he needed to operate and put 2 screws in my ankle. The surgery happened later that evening.
Got a follow up 2 weeks later to remove the cast / surgery bandages, more X-rays and they put me back in the boot until the next follow-up a month later, after which I'll probably start physiotherapy.
All of this cost me about 4$ in EV charging while I was at the ER, and maybe 20$ in medication (painkillers and Tylenol)? And I don't think it could've been any faster. People love to shit on our healthcare system here, but in my experience it's been amazing.
People love to shit on our healthcare system here, but in my experience it's been amazing.
Same.
But in terms of quality of care, I have no complaints. The opposite. The nurses and doctors I interacted with were wonderful, and I made a point of telling them that. My surgeon in particular fought like hell for a result that would fully restore function in my hand. I was conscious for the surgery, so I got to sit in on the whole process.
That shit would bankrupt you here in the US.
Funny really. I've never recieved an itemised bill from a hospital visit.
#usacentricpost
Funny for me too. I've never received a bill from a hospital visit.
So glad I got universal heath care
So what if my elective mri took 7 months? Atleast I don’t have medical debt!!!
Waits are just as long here in the US, PLUS we have to pay huge fees. System is fucked.
It’s broken in some way or form everywhere
American here.
I pay dearly for my health care and I still had to wait 6 months for an appointment with a specialist only to find out immediately after sitting down with him that I had been sent to the wrong place AND charged extra for it.
Don't forget 1 grand gets you about 10 minutes of rush time to speak
Maybe this was true in 1967 when the typing pool and the accountants had to coordinate to whip up a bill by hand, but the number that the computer spits out is literally a spreadsheet sum of all the line items.
“Itemized bill with CPT” (if it’s a hospital bill they mostly use HCPCS with Rev codes anyway, so ask for “with procedure codes”) is exactly what they send in on insurance claims, so they already have it. It’s not any extra work, no one reviews it and compares it to medical records; it’s literally generated and pulled directly from the medical records.
Unless you are at a small rural hospital that still uses dot matrix printers with the ribbon paper, it’s highly unlikely this will change anything for you. It costs them the extra paper.
It's still true in that the bill can go back and forth between the hospital and insurance and change.
I had a surgery about 5 years ago that started at about $45k, and every couple of days got the bill would change as things started getting picked up by insurance. Eventually it got down to just over $4k. I waited about a month and then still had to call insurance because my annual out of pocket was capped at $2k and they didn't take that into account. Eventually it ended right around $1500.
This was all through the MyChart app, so it more it less does live updating after the initial bill is sent, opposed to a paper bill. Now I always wait about a month to pay any medical bills just to be sure, because if you over pay, you have to fight to get it back from insurance.
Yes if the hospital is submitting multiple claims for the services then the bill will go down as the insurance company’s “allowed” amount caps the amount the provider can charge you, and the insurance then covers up to the amount they will out of that amount, leaving you responsible for the rest.
It's funny how the errors never work in your favor.
Each error should be punishable by a 100x fine. I bet those pesky little extra charges would stop very quickly.
You can also negotiate directly with your medical provider. Ask if they have Financial Assistance programs you can apply for. Nonprofit hospitals in the US are required by law to have these programs and provide you with information when requested, and it frequently results in having your medical debt reduced or forgiven.
nonprofit hospitals
Jesus Christ...