Assuming nobody else is at fault
ER patches you up, you get a large bill, you declare bankruptcy, life goes on.
The question you should ask is, what happens if you have no insurance and you develop a serious chronic illness.
How does “life go on” with a bankruptcy and health issues?
The point of a bankruptcy is to move on. You start off at zero again, but you can start building up assets again.
As far as the health issues go, because of the bankruptcy and the ACA you probably qualify for medical care under one of the programs.
Yeah, you get fucked over pretty good. Life goes on because you’re not dead. But everything you had, everything you worked for, is gone. You are left literally with life, not with your life.
For some, it can be an unbearable long and leasurely spin around the drains perimeter.
Holy shit what the actual fuck is your health care system America. This thread is nightmare fuel.
It’s like reading dystopian sci-fi
When I was younger and made next to nothing, I ended up in the emergency room with a bill I couldn’t possibly afford to pay. I called up the billing dept and told them about my financial situation and they told me to contact Health Quest so I qualify for a discount. It was relatively easy and not only did it erase my previous debt but it gave me a 0% liability for any hospital fees for the next 6mos. The funny thing was that the hospital ended up selling my my debt to collections by that point so every time they called id fax them a copy of a letter and id never hear from them again and after a few times of them selling this debt to other collectors it just got dropped. This was in upstate NY in like 2010 so YMMV.
They’ll fix you… They fix everything…
If someone calls an ambulance and you’re unconscious they will take you the hospital for treatment. You will be responsible for the bill. Including the thousands of dollars for the ambulance ride.
And no, even though you were unconscious and not able to consent to treatment willingly you will still be responsible for the bill. There are ways of dealing with it, but one accident is all it takes for a ruined credit score for some people. It is as fucked up as it sounds.
There are ways of waiving bills, getting financial assistance etc but it’s a total nightmare dealing with hospital billing departments
If I’m unconscious indoors in a safe place then leave me alone I’ll wake up eventually
And if you don’t, then the problem has still resolved itself!
Emergency rooms are legally required to provide treatment, and will do so even for non-life-threatening conditions.
If you don’t have insurance coverage but can pay, you will get a bill. If you can’t pay, in most cases the hospital will write off the debt.
In short? Medical debt. Emergency rooms will treat you, and in some cases might offer discounted rates for patients without insurance, but at the end of the day you are still responsible for the bill, however large it may be.
Worth noting that those discounted rates are still significantly higher than what insured patients pay, and astronomically higher than what people in actually sane countries pay.
Emergenty rooms in hospitals are legaly required to help all patieints, so you would recieve care. Usually until you are able to leave the hospital. You would not receive followup care without going to the emergecy room, or paying cash. You would be billed for all services, usually at a higher rate than insured patients
Don’t forget the possibility of refusing to identify yourself. Without an identity there is no way to bill you. So you just leave and the hospital has no way to contact you. This is the path taken by many, especially the poor.
Hmm…
