Coronavirus survivor gets whopping $1.1 million hospital bill

[flash13]

Coronavirus survivor gets whopping $1.1 million hospital bill

 

Source

 

A 70-year-old Seattle man who nearly died from the coronavirus got hit with another shock after he recovered: a $1.1 million hospital bill.

 

 

Michael Flor was so sick from COVID-19 that his wife and kids called him to say good-bye.

 

But he managed to pull through while being treated at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, the Seattle Times reported.

 

Then he got the sky-high bill for his care.

 

“I opened it and said ‘holy [bleep]!’“ Flor told the paper.

 

The invoice, totaling an eye-popping $1,122,501.04, ran 181 pages, including $9,736 for his room in the intensive care unit, plus an extra $408,912 because the space had to be sealed off and staff

 

needed to wear full protective gear.

 

Many of the charges were for the drugs that kept him alive.

 

Flor has a Medicare Advantage insurance policy that normally covers all charges after the roughly $6,000 deductible, the paper reported.

 

Special financial regulations enacted by Congress for COVID-19 patients, however, might keep Flor from paying one red cent, the Seattle Times said.

 

Flor said he was surprised by his own reaction to beating the coronavirus.

 

“I feel guilty about surviving,” he said. “There’s a sense of, ‘why me?’ Why did I deserve all this? Looking at the incredible cost of it all definitely adds to that survivor’s guilt.”

 

 

[pintas]

This could easily happen in Brazil. My wife's 1 to 3h consult in a famous hospital can easily reach US$ 10.000, without hospitalization.

If she says her knee hurt, they want to take an MRI of her head. It's outrageous!

[ghost]

We in Canada luckily do not have to worry about health care cost. i can't imagine having to choose to die, because I can't afford the health care cost. The next Canadian that bitches about our health care gets a reminder that we are fortunate unlike other countries around the world. 

[pintas]

12 hours ago, ghost said:

We in Canada luckily do not have to worry about health care cost. i can't imagine having to choose to die, because I can't afford the health care cost. The next Canadian that bitches about our health care gets a reminder that we are fortunate unlike other countries around the world. 

The same happens in Portugal. Public health care is very good, but people don't realize how lucky they are.

Here in Brazil, if you can't afford a good health-plan (a really expensive one), you're screwed.

[steven36]

2 hours ago, pintas said:

Here in Brazil, if you can't afford a good health-plan (a really expensive one), you're screwed.

Here in the USA it just depends  on what state you live in  , When the  Clintons reformed welfare back in the 90s they left it up to the state if they want to give people free insurance  or not if you can't afford it . States that vote more to the left have it, states votes to the right don't . That one thing never changed since the 90s  and i dont look for it to change anytime soon, they try to pass new laws and failed . Accept for if you dont buy Obama Care because you don't have anything  they no longer can fine you  for not having  any, they repealed that but thats as far as they went.  Before that  if you did not buy healthcare or have the  free care  they would fine you  so it cost you money if  you didn't have none.

 

I believe they should give it to people who dont make but so much money . But I don't  think it should be free if they can afford it  . In  Canada free care works out OK  for them but in the UK it's  really bad and not worth having.

[d5aqoep]

Most people with mild infection stay indoors as it's so hard to get a test done and next challenge is to secure hospital bed. Whether continuously inhaling Virus throughout the hospital stay may increase Viral load inside body and cause further infection is still unknown.

[steven36]

I also want to add one time i ended up owing  a bunch of  money and i had insurance at work it just didn't pay all of it that was back in the 90s. The way i got out of them taking money from my check was just move to  another state for some years that would not allow other states to collect debt . After so many years the hospital wrote it off on there taxes  and when i came back to the state it happen in they never bother  me again. sometimes if you owe a bunch of debt in the USA  it best to just go to another state  for awhile or for good if you like living  somewhere else .