I know if I had no health insurance I wouldn't hesitate to go to the emergency room for a snake bite, because I'd rather go bankrupt than die. I wonder if there is a threshold where since the cost of bankruptcy is basically constant (it doesn't matter if you go bankrupt for a $100K bill or a $100M bill unless your assets are >$100K), that the face value of the bill from the hospital can grow without bound beyond that upper boundary, since no one is actually paying it?
I thank Lady Luck that I live in a country with a single-payer system, and health insurance for 'extras'.
Some years back I found I required an urgent triple-bypass following a routine cardiac angiogram. 14 days later I had the triple bypass followed by 2 days in intensive-care. Cost: NIL.
I then had 5 days post-op in a one-bed private room. That was followed by six weekly Cardiac Rehab sessions. Both of these were covered by my health insurance. Out-of-pocket: NIL
Your life would have been saved in USA too---followed by a massive and fatal heart attack the second you the preliminary $875,214 bill :). Doctors at the hospital bill you extra a lot of times so the bill just keep growing.
You pay for the medicine, for the nurse administering it, for the syringe, for her breaking the ampule, for mixing it, for disposing the syringe and for the gloves the nurse used. I'm exaggerating somewhat, but they do try to find a lot of little things to pad the bill. So what in another country would have cost $2, in a USA hospital might cost well over $1000.
