Should you get free charity care if you choose not to buy insurance?

[MillCreek]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/hospitals-reconsider-free-healthcare-now-insured/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRundownNewsBlog+%28The+Rundown+News+Blog%29

An interesting article about what many healthcare systems are struggling with: should you give a patient free or charity care when they have the capacity to get insurance but choose not to?   At least with the ACA, the hospitals and physicians get paid something, as opposed to charity care where you get paid nothing. 

What most places are doing is if the patient is eligible for the ACA but chooses to not get it, there is no charity care or discount.  If the patient is not eligible for the ACA, as in the states that did not expand Medicaid, there is still charity care available.  Bear in mind that payments to hospitals and physicians have been cut in the expectation that most of the uninsured would go away after getting insurance through the ACA.  Those cuts apply even in the states that did not expand Medicaid.

[zxcvbob]

You should get free or greatly-reduced health care iff the hospital wants to give it to you.  You should have no expectation of getting free service, and the hospital shouldn't be compelled to give it.

[MechAg94]

IMO, there are two problems:

1.  The Govt forces Hospitals to give free care. 

2.  The Govt rules for collecting debts are such that if they did try to charge some of these people later, they couldn't collect.  Assuming they had proper ID.

Both issues can be fixed, but not with our current politicians. 

[MechAg94]

In this case, we are talking about people with no insurance.  The same issue applies to some with insurance.  There are a lot of people who expect to pay only "$X" for insurance each month, but expect the insurance company to spend "$Y" (Y>X) to cover their drugs or treatment.  Try to tell them they are expecting other people to pay for their medical care and they get really upset.  Maybe it is just another segment of "people who are bad at math".

[Tallpine]

What if you pay the "tax" for not having insurance?   

[brimic]

What if you pay the "tax" for not having insurance?   

Then you should be sent to the IRS for treatment.

[lupinus]

Then you should be sent to the IRS for treatment.

Ok so that covers proctology. What about the rest of ones medical needs?

[SADShooter]

Ok so that covers proctology. What about the rest of ones medical needs?

Easy. TSA.

Wait time. Blue nitriles. Full body scan. Everything available in the conventional system in one inconvenient one-shop stop.

[tokugawa]

ha. I got dis all figured out. See, my insurance company done quit the biz. Then I was worried-how I gonna pay my Doc? Hey? Well, now I done got no more worries-see, my Doc, he done quit too!  An he tol me straight- son, ya'all better get a new Doc soon, cause a whole lot of us done be quitin' an them other Doc's, they gonna be so doggon busy they got no time for new patients.

[Boomhauer]

Thanks to Obamacare, my choice is between health insurance and food, wheras before Obamacare I could get a reasonable policy to cover catastrophic emergencies for about $120 a month.

[onions!]

From the billing departments perspective,what's the real difference between an illegal with no insurance and a native with none?
 

[MillCreek]

From the billing departments perspective,what's the real difference between an illegal with no insurance and a native with none?
 

From the standpoint of eligibility for charity care, there may be a difference.  By Federal law, illegals are not eligible for Obamacare whereas the native may well be.  Since the illegal has no ability to go on Obamacare, he/she may more readily qualify for charity care than the native, who might have the ability to go on Obamacare but chooses not to.

[onions!]

From the standpoint of eligibility for charity care, there may be a difference.  By Federal law, illegals are not eligible for Obamacare whereas the native may well be.  Since the illegal has no ability to go on Obamacare, he/she may more readily qualify for charity care than the native, who might have the ability to go on Obamacare but chooses not to.

So what languages does your hospital not have in interpreter for?
What should I mumble and call myself?

[Tallpine]

So what languages does your hospital not have in interpreter for?
What should I mumble and call myself?

Tha mo chul gort

[MillCreek]

So what languages does your hospital not have in interpreter for?
What should I mumble and call myself?

http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

[Tallpine]

http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

Meow!

[onions!]

http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

Figures.
Party pooper.

[MikeB]

2.  The Govt rules for collecting debts are such that if they did try to charge some of these people later, they couldn't collect.  Assuming they had proper ID.

Oh they can still collect as much as any other other creditor. I almost had my house purchase derailed by a Hospital hitting my credit report for collections. Problem was I wasn't the debtor. Same basic name, but different Social, Address, etc. I was days away from closing when they put that on my credit report. Came down to about 48 hours from closing before I finally got them to understand I wasn't the person in question and send updates to the credit reporting agencies. I had to get an attorney involved.

[MillCreek]

Figures.
Party pooper.

In this area, about 80% of my foreign language translation needs can be met by Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Arabic and Farsi in that order.  Most of the remaining languages are SE Asian and from East Africa.  My wife tells me that the local school district in which she teaches has 80 different languages spoken by the students.  In the schools in which she works, English, Spanish, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian are the most common.

[lee n. field]

http://www.languageline.com/

We have thus far not encountered a spoken language that the Language Line could not handle.  They are really big in the healthcare industry.

Hadzane?

[onions!]

Maybe that click-click language from Southern Africa?
Though I suppose I don't look very much like an African pygmy.

[Tallpine]

Maybe that click-click language from Southern Africa?
Though I suppose I don't look very much like an African pygmy.

You were adopted, right?   

[onions!]

You were adopted, right?   

Adopted AND dropped on my head.

[Scout26]

One of the Eskimo dialects?

Navaho?

Icelandic?

Klingon?

[Tallpine]

http://listverse.com/2014/05/25/10-secret-outlaw-languages/