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Comment by war1025 | Hacker News Reader

If you can't pay, the hospital absorbs the cost to a degree. Hospitals are most likely also part of a larger "reinsurance" type pool to keep expenses manageable.

My mom worked in healthcare billing her whole career. My understanding is that half the reason medical bills are so high for normal people is they need to cover the costs for the people that need and have received care but were unable to pay.

In this particular case, it's a matter of national security, so I'm sure the needed funds would magically appear if needed.

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Only if the hospital is state run. In WA the University of Washington hospital routinely runs losses because of this. Private hospitals can give you the bare minimum and kick you out the door.

The "bare minimum" required by law is still "doing whatever is required to save you life". They cannot legally kick you out if you are not stable.

Stable is subjective. It's also common for non-state hospitals to say "outside our expertise; transfer to state run-hospital".

Thing is the state hospitals will actually try to cure you; and they are fairly good at it. Harborview (part of University of Washington) is the only L1 trauma center in the region.

For-profit hospitals stick it to the taxpayers by doing this. It's a good argument for some form of universal healthcare, since we're paying one way or another.

except they (the doctors at the hospital doing whatever is required to save your life) get to decide what "stable" means. I imagine for many doctors that get into the profession because they care about their fellow humans, the answer is sane, but I imagine there are still plenty of for-profit hospitals/doctors whose idea of "stable" is much lower.

But stable doesn't mean (for instance) treating your very treatable brain cancer after discharge. They will remove the tumor causing falling and doziness, but won't provide radiation / chemo follow-up until its terminal and you have to be inpatient.

>half the reason medical bills are so high for normal people is they need to cover the costs for the people that need and have received care but were unable to pay

Sounds totally fair and reasonable to the people who get crazy high bills for the one thing a year that they need it for, despite paying hundreds a month in premiums for the "privilege" of also paying for people who can't. What a system.

Yea. It's a mess.

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