What happens if you can't pay medical bills? (USA)

[RedDeadReflection]

What happens, as a tourist, if you can't pay your medical bills?

I know as a resident depending on the state they can bankrupt you, seize assets, get priority during probate if you die, sometimes your spouse is responsible after that too.

But what happens if you aren't American? Assuming no (or poor) health insurance.

Reading about the woman who went to Florida without health insurance and has now been in hospital for five weeks. Repatriation not yet possible, and even if it was it's £130k. The gofundme has "only" raised £38k. If she recovers well enough to leave the hospital what happens? There must be a fairly robust procedure in place or nobody would get travel insurance if they could just walk out and fly home with no consequences. In this case the woman is a pensioner with few assets so I've no idea what they could do.

Let them bleed out until the credit card comes out?

So taking your logic, just because you know about something it must also be common knowledge?

I believe it isn't everyday language because a) it's not taught in schools or colleges, or even in university as standard and b) every poster on this thread since you mentioned him other than the one who studied economics at university hasn't heard of him. Why is it so hard to believe you're in the minority? I don't go commenting on other threads pretending to be shocked when people don't know some random obscure bloke from things that impact my life.

Lmao its not a system with a cash register at every point. How on earth would this imaginary person know the ambulance and xray charge at the time they were given? Prices vary considerably and a massive problem in america re health care is the fact that patients have no idea re final costs until weeks or months after the care was given

so I’m calling utter bullshit on your story entertaining tho it was

once more for those in back-WE DO NOT KNOW PRICES DURING CARE NEVER EVER

To try to answer the question, laws vary from state to state. So what might happen in Nebraska might not be what happens in New Jersey.

But as a general rule, medical debt goes to a debt collection agency, which would be a dead end as the person isn't in the US. So the hospital might try to get a legal judgement for failure to pay a debt through the UK courts (there is no debt reciprocity agreement between the US and UK) and then try to pursue collection using the UK legal system. All of that would probably cost way more money in legal fees/court fees than the hospital wants to invest to collect the debt. So the hospital will simply absorb the debt and pass it on to their patients in the form of higher costs. In the end US citizens/residents, US insurance companies, and possibly State and Federal agencies will end up 'paying' the debt.

Can the passport be seized? Theoretically yes, but in practical terms this isn't going to happen. The Fed Govt isn't going to be bothered with debt unless it's debt directly owed the Fed.

Will a hospital stop someone leaving who owes money? Well, they could refuse to discharge and in that case they're not required to disconnect any IVs/tubes nor to provide the care/assistance needed for someone to leave like crutches, medical transport or other equipment but they can't bar the door and refuse to let you leave. You'd just have to leave completely on your own power. They could theoretically call the police but I doubt they'd bother. In the end if they 'forced' the person to stay, all that would do would be to keep the bed occupied and increase the debt.

Love these differences

If she's a visitor to Canada without travel health insurance, she isn't covered in Canada either. However, if she needed care she would be billed at a lower rate than private care in the US costs. The universal health care system in Canada only covers residents who are registered with a provincial health plan.

It's VERY surprising to hear there's no reciprocal debt collection between the US and the UK.

I agree, that never happened. Federal law requires that a person is treated 'to stabilize' regardless of ability to pay. Treatment for a fracture would mean casting at the very least. Medical staff don't even get involved in the financial end. They'd have had no idea of the patient's ability to pay.

I also fractured my ankle in THREE places. I went from the ER into surgery for pinning and plating and my insurance details weren't even asked for until the next day.

I would never give a penny to a go fund me like that. Ever.

Looks like many agree as they've not raised much.

For the record I have most certainly heard of him and so have most of the people I know. The functionality of liberal democracies is dependent in part (and not a small part) on the tenets of Keynesianism. He was an extremely important and influential economist.

I think that since the US system is private, the US Govt chooses not to get involved. It would probably cost a great deal of money to negotiate an official agreement, given that we have 50 states + territories and the agreement would have to cover each state's laws.

I've often wondered the reverse. My 'main' insurance does cover me in foreign countries, but not 100%. I wonder what the UK/NHS processes would be for that excess debt should I be there as a tourist. I assume probably similar, try to get me to pay, but not stop my leaving if I could go under my own power.

Keynsian economics is a daily occurence.
But it is true that many live in blissful ignorance, then argue a point they know nothing about.

I imagine the healthcare organizations and doctors would ask for payment. In the US we have something called patient assistance programs. I'm not sure if this applies to non citizens. Patient assistance provide a sliding scale for payment. I assume her medical costs are running at about half million. They could sue but I'm not sure whether English or US law would be used. In the US public pensions can not be taken in judgements of debt.

To all those saying make sure you have good insurance, I completely agree. However, it's very difficult to know what is 'good' until you come to claim. DH and I were both ill when we were in Florida a couple of weeks ago and had to have to doctor to our room 3 times. I had to pay by credit card and I'm now waiting to see whether the insurers will reimburse us. As far as I'm concerned they are a reputable insurer but I'm sure if they can get out of paying they probably will!

This ☝️
It's a worry that so many haven't a Scoobie about stuff that affects their daily life.

Is this true? As I'm sure Shane Filan (Westlife) pleaded bankruptcy in England and he's not even in NI, he's in ROI so a completely different country. Although maybe as his record company was in UK? Also it was a while back so maybe things have changed since.

The ‘government’ won’t chase the debt but the hospital finance department surely will.

My DH was hospitalised in the USA whilst on holiday - we had great travel insurance who dealt with the finance vipers that appeared the second he was admitted.

The total bill was something like $49,000 and the insurance company haggled them down to about $14K which they paid pretty swiftly HOWEVER there was a small miscalculation (probably due to exchange rates) and there was an $80 shortfall. We only found about it when an international debt collection agency (based in Switzerland) bombarded us with very frightening letters saying they were authorised to collect the debt. Fortunately when we rang and explained they couldn’t have been more helpful and kind. Although we offered to pay the $80 just to make it go away they told us not to as they would get it sorted with the US hospital and our insurance company.

So if they hire international debt collectors for the measly sum of $80 then you’d better believe they will be chasing up bigger amounts! Just don’t go to the USA without insurance.

I hope you're both ok now?

The thing that most people forget, is that their insurance policy needs to be checked / updated during the policy term.

You may not start the year on any medication and the policy documents will reflect that. However, if you're prescribed blood pressure meds six months into the policy term, you need to update the policy.

The need for insurance should be taught in school along with the different (major) laws in some countries eg Dubai?

Since you continue to derail the thread..

How does knowing him possibly affect my daily life? You can be a perfectly functioning member of society without knowing who he is, I'm sure many here are the same. Abiding by something is very different to knowing the origin. I can understand policies, the basics of our economy, what underpins a recession blah blah blah. If you feel it's so important, then feel free to spend your time educating people on it rather than acting like a smarmy git on the internet. The UK curriculum clearly doesn't think he's worth a mention. I'm educated to a masters level and seem to cope just fine.

Millions of diabetic people manage to negotiate their own health matters without knowing about Dorothy Hodgkin but heaven forbid we don't know the great great grandfather of economics. How must us little folks navigate life..

It’s mentioned on the news quite often. It’s something people with a reasonable education should have at least a passing acquaintance with.

Perhaps there's a reciprocal arrangement between ROI and the England/Wales legal system? NI and Scotland being in the UK but having their own system might be why they're more separate in that sense.

Manage to catch the 6 o'clock news every night and still not a dicky bird. Plenty with a reasonable education won't know who he is. From memory I couldn't have told you who invented penicillin but isn't a prerequisite to understanding how to safely take antibiotics. By the same gesture I can quite happily understand the economics talked about on the news without knowing the name of some fella who grandfathered theories behind it.

😃😃
Ok, dearie.

Would be interesting to know how many unpaid foreign person medical bills are left unpaid in UK.
I recall a multiple babies high risk woman arriving into the UK to care for complicated birth …

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3214709/amp/African-mum-quintuplets-let-145-000-NHS-bill-Health-tourist-came-UK-birth-says-no-one-s-asked-pay.html

and this
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4176406/amp/Meet-Nigerian-cost-500-000-IVF-triplets.html