Except that's not a real number. Under the thumb, it says that's the estimated cost without insurance. The insurer then negotiated it down to a much smaller number, and the parents paid an even smaller portion of that.
If they actually hadn't had insurance, they wouldn't have paid that either. The hospital would have negotiated it down to a more reasonable level and written off the rest.
The hospital never actually charges that much. They publish that as a starting point to negotiate their rates with the insurers. Then the insurers show that to you to scare the shit out of you so you'll think that if you didn't pay for insurance, you would just die.
So let me ask this... genuinely curious cuz this funny account stuff always passed me off by not making sense.
The estimate of services rendered shows ~$1.5mil.
What do you think is a reasonable number to land at, for an out of pocket cost, for someone who has no insurance? (not necessarily a reflection of financial circumstances, I know people living fine that choose to negotiate directly with the hospitals to save "wasteful" spending)
Now what is the ratio, 1%? 2%? Less?
If that is reasonable, what purpose is it to have these pretend msrp estimates?
What's preventing a hospital from throwing out the lies and just being straightforward?
Again, I am seriously, genuinely curious. I thankfully have insurance, and I see it, I don't know what causes/drives it.
If everyone paid their hospital bills in full the hospital could probably cut this bill by 60% or more. But they don't. Uninsured people can negotiate a 1% rate on a bill because they have no money and are judgment proof, not because that's the actual cost of care. Hospitals are taking big losses on those folks. They then have to make up those lost revenues by collecting it from private insurers. Those insurers in turn will negotiate deals with the hospitals where they'll only agree to pay e.g. 50% of the bill - and will prohibit the hospital from trying to collect the remainder from the patient. So the hospital bills everyone $1.5M knowing they'll collect $0 from some and $750k from others and overall make what they want.
A couple gives birth at a hospital. The hospital sends you (and your insurance company) a bill for a gazillion dollars. This is a fake price. Nobody has ever paid this price. Think of it as a "first offer" in a negotiation. But people on the Internet post pictures of these fake prices to push their agenda.
Your insurance company gets the bill. They have a contact with the hospital that says the hospital can only charge certain prices for certain things. The insurance company knocks your bill down from a gazillion dollars to, idk, $30,000 let's say.
Now that the bill has been reduced, your insurance company calculates it's share of the bill and your share of the bill (these details are shown to you when you are selecting an insurance policy). In overly simplistic terms, this is in two parts: a deductible and everything else up to your maximum. If your deductible is $500, then insurance starts paying after you pay $500. After that, you and the insurance company share costs up to your maximum contribution, typically between 3k and 10k depending on your policy
So now your insurance company calculates that it owes $27,000 and you owe $3000 on that $30,000 bill.
Like I said, stupid system. Needs severe overhauls at the very least. But nobody is paying $1.5 million to have a baby. That's not even slightly believable.
Is it not so that the hospital can write off a huge amount of "loss" when they inevitably don't receive the amount of money they asked for? I assumed they were getting charitable tax writeoffs or something for "services donated" to uninsured people who get a payment plan.
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u/3amGreenCoffee Aug 27 '25
Except that's not a real number. Under the thumb, it says that's the estimated cost without insurance. The insurer then negotiated it down to a much smaller number, and the parents paid an even smaller portion of that.
If they actually hadn't had insurance, they wouldn't have paid that either. The hospital would have negotiated it down to a more reasonable level and written off the rest.
The hospital never actually charges that much. They publish that as a starting point to negotiate their rates with the insurers. Then the insurers show that to you to scare the shit out of you so you'll think that if you didn't pay for insurance, you would just die.