How do poor people in the states give birth without money?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨moistclump@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

I’m Canadian. And I’m already sorry for asking an ignorant question.

I know you have to pay for hospital visits in the states. I know lower economic status can come with lower access to birth control and sex education. But then, how do they afford to give birth? Do people ever avoid hospital visits because they don’t feel like they can’t afford it?

Do hospitals put people on a payment plan? Is it possible to give birth and not pay if you don’t have the means? How does it work in the states?

How does it all work?

Again. Canadian. And sorry.

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Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My sister was on welfare and had a kid around the same time as me. Hers was covered completely by Medicaid.

Mine, because I had a job and health insurance, cost me $20,000. Didn’t finish paying for the kid until her 2nd birthday.

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- moistclump@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Oh my.
  
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  - GiddyGap@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Medicaid is the correct answer. Surprised more people aren’t mentioning it. It’s specifically in place to cover people with low incomes who often don’t have insurance through an employer.
    
    Medicaid will often cover the cost of child birth for low-income people 100%.
    
    That being said, if you have slightly higher income than allowed to enroll in Medicaid, your only option may be a long-term payment plan and lots of debt that you may carry for the rest of your life. It’s an awful system that really only benefits the strong.
    
    Canada, don’t go down that road.
    
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- ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  That’s pretty much how it works. Newborns qualify for Medicaid, and low income pregnant women generally do too.
  
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- bighatchester@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I always wonder what would of happened to my son if I wasn’t Canadian. He was not growing properly in the womb which meant many doctors appointments and ultrasounds . And then he was born 3 months premature and spent 3 months in the NICU. I didn’t have to pay a cent for any of it .
  
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  - I_AnoN_I@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Natural selection eould have taken place if you were American
    
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- lemmyman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Are you familiar enough with the details to share them? Because this sounds strange to me - every plan has an out of pocket maximum and the highest I’ve seen is $14k. Are you including premiums? Do the costs span multiple years?
  
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  - Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    This was pre-Obamacare, and the birth alone - with c section - was $20k.
    
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  - MightEnlightenYou@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’m not American so maybe I’m getting something wrong… But aren’t you making a faulty assumption about people having a plan at all? Isn’t the amount of completely uninsured in the us in the double digits or something?
    
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Naja_Kaouthia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Have I personally avoided going to the hospital? Absofuckinglutely. Unless I’m in immediate danger of dying I’ll figure it out myself. I’ve superglued more than one nasty cut that probably needed stitches, entirely possible I’ve ignored more than one concussion. Is it smart? Unequivocally and resoundingly not. Do I do it anyway so I can pay my rent? Yep.

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- moistclump@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I wonder about the effects of having a low grade constant stressor like that. Combine that with at-will employment and gum prevalence and it’s surprising anyone is able to feel secure and get healthy.
  
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  - Naja_Kaouthia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Purely anecdotal, since I can only draw from my own personal pool, but I don’t have a single friend or colleague who feels even remotely secure in their life. We’re all one emergency away from bankruptcy.
    
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  - pdxfed@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The effects of having low grade stressor like that, combined with non-federal sick leave nor vacation and predatory corporate labor laws are what you witness in the US every day. Precipitously declining mental health for everyone, reduced social and coping skills. Commonplace violence and rage and incredible rates of anxiety and depression and resultant medication.
    
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  - vrek@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I whole heartedly agree… We should ban all gum… Big chew included 😋/s
    
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  - Sharkwellington@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    I wonder about the effects of having a low grade constant stressor like that.
    
    Heart disease like irregular heartbeat and stroke. Gastrointestinal problems such as ulcers and IBS. Increased susceptibility to illness. Ability to learn/memorize/perceive are reduced. Not to mention the effects of maladaptive coping mechanisms such as drinking, smoking, drugs etc.
    
    Source.
    
    In conclusion, the effects of stress on the GI system can be classified into six different actions: GI tract movement disorders, increased visceral irritability, altered rate and extent of various GI secretions, modified permeability of the intestinal barrier, negative effects on blood flow to the GI tract, and increased intestinal bacteria counts
    
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- orphiebaby@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  My housemate lost his awesome mom when he was like, 10, because of that. She refused to go to the hospital, and it got infected. Fuck this country.
  
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- drphungky@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Definitely same.
  
  For our northern cousins, an illustrative story. I was attacked by a dog and with my arm bleeding everywhere my first call was to my wife to get her to come pick me up because I knew an ambulance would be insanely expensive, and my second call was to insurance to find out if I could go to the hospital instead of urgent care. They sent me to urgent care, where they told me it was the worst attack they’d ever seen that wasn’t on the face.
  
  The kicker is that I even have GOOD insurance, but that’s the reality of not knowing if it’s gonna bankrupt you or be covered or not: hesitation. That’s the reality of having years of habit-forming second-guessing when you had bad insurance, or when with good insurance and a tight budget. Imagine what is like for people with bad or no insurance.
  
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- scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Are you sure you don’t qualify for Medicaid or other public assistance?
  
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  - Naja_Kaouthia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yep. I make ok money and have insurance. Things being what they are, rent has skyrocketed over the past couple years. Food seems to be coming down in price but for a while there it was pretty alarming. I haven’t had a significant raise in about 3 years to keep up with cost of living increases. Choices must be made and if life and limb aren’t in immediate danger, I choose to not have a bill of several thousand dollars for something like a few stitches and/or fight with my insurance company over coverage.
    
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punkwalrus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I can answer this: my son was born in 1990. We were extremely poor.

We had midwives help us out as best they could, to the tune of about $3200 at the time. The birth got complicated due to a variety of health factors, and both my son and wife almost died (not because of the midwives). Luckily the midwives had a direct line to Georgetown Hospital, and the cesarean was done there. The total hospital bill was $58,000, or $138k in today’s money, although hospital costs have rose much higher vs inflation, so maybe it would be in the $200k range now. She was in the ICU for a week, hospital for another week, our son for about 3 weeks.

My wife job didn’t have health insurance, because it wasn’t required back then. Because she was gone a week, her job fired her for an unexcused absence. Oddly enough, this made her unemployed and Washington DC had some law (or rule or something) that immediately dropped the hospital bills because of her unemployment. In the end, we had to pay $15k to about two dozen practices who individually sued us, which took 7 years to pay off and a lot of court visits and wage garnishments. It financially ruined us, pretty much. Both suffered a lot afterwards because we just couldn’t afford minimal care. It was hellish. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be today. We got evicted from our apartment, and lived in government housing for six years.

So, yeah. Don’t have a baby in America unless you can guarantee it will be healthy and you have a lot of money. Most of my friends don’t have kids, they simply can’t afford it and look at it like the previous generation looked at concepts like summer homes and yachts. Nice luxuries, but way out of affordabilty.

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- zik@zorg.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Wow. That’s horrible. The US health system sounds like a dystopian nightmare.
  
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  - TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    And yet so many Canadians seem to want to dive head first in to a fully private healthcare system as if anyone could take that financial hit.
    
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- HunterBidensLapDog@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m sorry you and your family had to go through that.
  
  I’m Canadian and I gladly pay more taxes than you so that I and my friends get free healthcare when we need it.
  
  When we watched the fights over “Obamacare” we just shook our heads.
  
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  - FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    That’s the ridiculous thing. Americans would rather pay a few dollars less in taxes than let people have free healthcare. And it ends up costing them far more than they would have paid in taxes.
    
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  - corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    I’m Canadian and I gladly pay more taxes than you so that I and my friends get free healthcare when we need it.
    
    Here’s the thing. I worked in America for the better part of a decade and I had to submit two tax forms, one to each country. You end up paying the greater of the two and using it to offset the other.
    
    What I know is this: every year, every year, I paid an extra 1% to America. No matter how my (binational) tax guys worked it, my obligation to America was always higher.
    
    The year after I came home I still had to submit taxes (January layoff scares so I moved back) and it was still higher for America despite sitting in a different country (it’s a factor) and using different services. It didn’t matter.
    
    In Canada I pay 1% lower income tax and enjoy healthcare access. While they’ve done away with the regional premiums, I was even okay paying that; as my yearly outlay, proudly at the top bracket, was still less than copays while in America. I would gladly pay the same premium to ensure equal access to dental and optical care for me and especially people who can’t drop (now) c$1000 on some specs or way more on a dental crown.
    
    It’s not that I’m a good guy, but I pay taxes for schools because I don’t want to live around dumb people. I do and will pay taxes so we can take people who aren’t healthy and skilled and contributing income tax and make them so they are. Poverty should be no excuse for not being employable.
    
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- dessimbelackis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  What the actual fuck, and this was in 1990
  
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  - randon31415@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    1990 was around the time of Hillary-care and Romney-care, so the politicians knew that they were going to have to fix it sooner or later by that point.
    
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- pg_sax_i_frage@lemmy.wtf ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  … “So, yeah. Don’t have a baby in America…”
  
  for more on this subject see /c/childfree and childfree.cc. Includes talk, and memes, about some of the benefits, of not having children, including but not limited to finances. (also advice and directoriesabout related medical things, where thise Oare wanted or needed).
  
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SendMePhotos@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Ah… In short… Insurance covers a portion of it and whatever insurance doesn’t pay, I just… Simply don’t pay it. It goes to collections and they spam call me and I don’t answer my phone. Suddenly they give up and after 7 years, it’s gone. Is it right? I don’t know. I definitely haven’t devoted half of my paycheck to medical bills though.

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- totallynotarobot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Does that bork your credit?
  
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  - andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yes it does
    
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- scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Once I got some physical therapy bills sent to collections. It wasn’t because I failed to pay. The practice was really shitty about billing and record keeping and never billed me for a bunch of visits. They went under and sent their records over to collections.
  
  The collectors called me and pretty much opened with “this place went out of business. We would settle for pretty much anything. How about 10% of what you owe?”
  
  They get a percentage of everything they collect so you might think they’d go for the full amount. But I think the game is sometimes just “what can we get easily and quickly.”
  
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ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Do people ever avoid hospital visits

At least in my experience, we’ll generally be able to go to the hospital

Do hospitals put people on a payment plan

Generally, I’ve just seen the debt transferred to a debt collection agency afterwards, since there’s no money for them to take. They’ll harass you, and it affects your credit score, but they can’t send you to jail

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- Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Credit score? Is it like the Chinese social credit system?
  
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  - ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah, just the American version
    
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  - theyoyomaster@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The US version is a system that calculates the risk of loaning money vs being paid back. In order to be approved for a loan the credit score is used to evaluate whether or not it is likely to be paid back within the terms of the loan. As a result those with bad credit have trouble getting favorable terms for cars, housing and basically anything that can’t be purchased outright. Does it negatively affect people for things outside of their control and perpetuate cycles of poverty? Absolutely, but it is based in actual fiscal risk to calculate sustainable loan practices.
    
    China on the other hand took the US term of “credit” and abused the everloving shit out of it to punish people that the government dislikes. Did your cousin post a Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh meme? Well too bad that you were shopping for a house, because your “credit” is no longer high enough to not be homeless. You should have thought of that before you were related to someone who disagreed with the government!
    
    Not being able to demonstrate to a bank that you are financially reliable enough to pay back a loan is unfortunate, but a rational reason for an unfavorable interest rate or denial of a loan. Making people ineligible for even renting an apartment that is within their financial means because the dictator in charge dislikes you is a completely different thing altogether.
    
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  - AttackPanda@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s similar but only take into account financial and professional information. As I understand it, the Chinese version also covers your daily activities.
    
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  - Powerpoint@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    At this point, pretty much
    
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  - scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    As the name hints, a credit score is used to rate the risk of making you a loan. It’s not some essential personal ID. It only comes into play if you are applying for credit and is a set of shared records that financial institutions and private companies use to decide if loaning you money is a good risk or not.
    
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  - Uranium3006@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    yes, but in the classically American fashion we only care about money so much only the money stuff even goes into calculating it
    
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- moistclump@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Would a hospital ever refuse you care if you have outstanding bills or hospital bills with collections?
  
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  - jeffw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s illegal in the Emergency Room. Anywhere else they can. Poor people end up relying on Emergency care, ignoring bills, and the hospitals write it off as “charity care,” which helps them justify their non-profit status, when they’re non-profits
    
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  - ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Depends on the severity of the issue.
    
    For a life threatening emergency, no
    
    For like pain relief, yes
    
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  - ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The hospital must stabilize you and save your life from immediate danger. They don’t have to make you better or solve the problem.
    
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Rhoeri@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Simply.

They don’t pay the hospital bills.

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- Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  “they don’t pay”
  
  Yikes, real “us vs them” without any experience understanding or compassion, eh?
  
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  - tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I understand the point you are trying to make, but I’m not sure what you are reading into? The question was “how do poor people in the states…” I am a poor person in the states, if I was to answer I would probably say they, maybe ‘we’ if I was feeling like sharing. And it’s true, many medical bills throughout my childhood that we couldn’t afford just went unpaid, with debt on my parents credit.
    
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  - Dkarma@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Wow u just made up all that in ur head…just …wow.
    
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  - iheartneopets@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    This is unfortunately true, though. A lot of people just don’t pay them, especially homeless people. How are they gonna get billed? They have no address and many don’t even have a phone. I’m not making a moral judgement, but it does happen very often.
    
    Source: husband is an ER doc at a city hospital that serves most of the city’s homeless and below-poverty-line population where we live.
    
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  - Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Downvotes without any replies? Yeah, that checks out.
    
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- Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Wait for them to repo the baby…
  
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IntrepidIceIgloo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
If you are poor enough you can qualify for Medicaid (MediCal in California) which is a sort of limited health insurance. This is life saving for poorer families and most of the time completely covers birth costs. After birth in some states they even offer follow up plans from nurses for assistance with food and meal plans for babies and toddlers.

Even if you don’t qualify you can apply for financial aid which I believe is required to be offered in every public hospital even to people whether citizens or not. If not you can just take on the debt and not pay, which destroys your credit score but after long enough you might be offered a favorable financing or a discount… Only after being harassed by collections for months.

Source: not American but I’ve worked with American healthcare workers interpreting for Spanish.

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- aidan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Also to clarify saying if you’re poor enough makes it seem like it’s a high bar, but iirc ~35% of people are on Medicare/Medicaid
  
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  - trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Everyone over 65 is eligible for Medicare, regardless of income, but others can qualify under some circumstances.
    
    In 2022, according to the 2023 Medicare Trustees Report, Medicare provided health insurance for 65.0 million individuals—more than 57 million people aged 65 and older and about 8 million younger people.
    
    You have to qualify for Medicaid, and I think different states have different requirments.
    
    Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and health-related services for people with low income in the United States, providing free health insurance to 85 million low-income and disabled people as of 2022; in 2019, the program paid for half of all U.S. births.
    
    There is also CHIP, and I think that is part of Medicaid.
    
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- atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Came here to explain this.
  
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psycho_driver@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
They send the infant to debtors prison to begin working off the $70,000 hospital bill. They don’t have to pay the infant minimum wage though, and they charge them for room and board and meals, so by the time they’re 18 they are actually indebted to the hospital an average of 1.4 million dollars, which they will then begin working off as adults earning minimum wage.

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- moistclump@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I man you joke, but don’t give them any ideas.
  
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- AttackPanda@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Arkansas has upvoted your comment and taken notes.
  
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  - Kadaj21@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Ohio awaits program completion and results to “improve” on it.
    
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- Blamemeta@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I know you’re joking, but Im pretty sure that there was a supreme court case that made debtors prison a thing of the past.
  
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  - ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Might want to take a look at this then.
    
    And this.
    
    And this too.
    
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HamSwagwich@showeq.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
American hospitals cannot legally refuse to treat you even if they know you can’t pay/don’t have insurance. So worst case scenario is you go and have whatever done and they bill you and you don’t pay and it’s a write off for the hospital.

Often times, if you can’t pay they will offer a reduced amount to at least get something out of you if they know they won’t get anything otherwise.

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- XEAL@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Fucking crooks
  
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  - iheartneopets@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    People are thinking you mean the poor people, not the hospitals.
    
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HootinNHollerin@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I told gf I don’t see how we can afford one kid yet alone the 3 she wants. And a house in SoCal. Then the family trips she imagines. I have a masters and 20 yrs experience in engineering. Seems like if I don’t get aggressive it’ll never happen

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- Stumblinbear@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  If you have a master’s and 20 years of experience, youre pretty much guaranteed to have a job that has the health insurance to pay for all of that. If you don’t, then you need a new job
  
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- ilovesatan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Leave California and this all becomes possible with your salary.
  
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SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Was poor, had a baby at 20. $6,000 hospital bill we paid in monthly installments of like $100

Paid off my kid being born when she was like 6 or 7 lol. Kind of like a car

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PeterPoopshit@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
People give birth in their own homes like in medival times.

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- Sidewayshighways@yall.theatl.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Hell they’re trying to take our choice in the matter.
  
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- Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  There’s nothing wrong with it. Thats what midwives are for.
  
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- blackn1ght@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  We opted to have our second at home in a birthing pool, it was amazing! Mum and baby were monitored way more than when we were in the hospital with our first, and we could just recover and relax in our own home after. No stressing about having to get to the hospital etc.
  
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Flabbergassed@artemis.camp ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Vaginally

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RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Mine were born at home with a midwife who did sliding scale pricing (charged based on your income). Only available to low risk women who lived close to the hospital though.

If you are quite poor, Medicaid will cover pregnancy and hospital birth expenses, even if you don’t otherwise qualify. I know someone who did that and said the nurse yelled at her because she wasn’t married.

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art@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Debt. Massive amounts of debt.

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BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As a poor Florida resident who grew up and has known several people giving birth in poverty; if you’re lucky you qualify for WIC (women, infants, and children) which is essentially food stamps/ welfare for pregnant women and mothers. That covers food. If you qualify for WIC then you’re also eligible for Medicaid which is the US’ version of free* healthcare for people in poverty. That will cover pre and post natal care for the mother and baby. The baby is usually covered until they’re ~6. Unless you’re still poor by then, in which case it usually covers the child to adulthood or until their parents no longer qualify for Medicaid. Note that none of this covers diapers, clothes, or other necessities for the infant. Just food and drs visits. If you’re poor, but on the [benefits cliff](ncsl.org/…/introduction-to-benefits-cliffs-and-pu… you can get fucked lol. Murica

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- aidan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  To clarify, currently around ~40% of Americans have government funded insurance.
  
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Ultraviolet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Bankruptcy.

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Volume@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My first kid was born at 27 weeks, and would have ended up costing us 3mill if they weren’t on Medicaid due to being born so early. My second kid we were living in Canada (due to my job) and basically only cost us to park at the hospital.

Growing up in the US and living in Canada for a while, I genuinely don’t understand why Universal Healthcare isn’t fought for more. I know it’s talked about but holy fuck, it’s so much better in Canada.

To comment on OP’s actual question, I have no idea how people do it.

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electrogamerman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Question to Americans, is it a secret way to make poor people not have children?

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Ktanaqui@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As far as I know, Hospitals are not allowed to refuse you care; no matter what your finances are, they have to help you. Many people would go to ER for non-ER reasons because it was/is the only way for them to get treatment. (Because other medical centers can refuse you.)

The hospitals will try to get the money from you however they can and they do offer payment plans based on income. Ultimately, though, due many? The debt gets discharged to a debt collection agency that harasses you incessantly for 7 years until it gets discharged from your record.

It destroys your credit (an arbitrary number that every citizen has that supposedly shows how trustworthy they are and how much they are likely to pay you if you loan them money) until it drops off after the statute of limitations (7-10 years, depending on the state).

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codapine@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My son was premature and racked up 14 days in the NICU. The hospital (which is ‘legally a charity’ billed $250,000.00. We were low-income with no employer-provided medical insurance, so the state Medicare provider got to pay a reduced rate of that.

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solidgrue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Giving birth is an inexorable* consequence of being pregnant.

… Which itself is an inexorable* consequence of living in a state that decries and represses reproductive freedom.

Which is what the rest of (in the US) will all have to face down in the next 10 years.

Fun, right?

*s inexorable, as in what the GOP demands any more go forth and multiply, OR ELSE!

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Vox@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
me and my two brothers were at home births

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aidan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You generally don’t pay for hospital visits 95+% of people have some form of insurance that would cover the vast majority of the cost for going to hospitals for giving birth.

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ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Healthcare in the US generally screws the middle, not the poor, even then it’s the lower middle. The poor qualify for Medicaid which generally pays for anything major and basic healthcare, though options may be limited. The old get Medicare which covers pretty much everything outside a nursing home for fairly little out of pocket. The middle and upper class generally has decent insurance that isn’t crazy expensive to have and doesn’t have a ton of out of pocket costs provided by an employer.

It’s the people with high deductible plans that can’t or won’t contribute to an hsa, and those that don’t have employer provided healthcare that really get screwed.

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TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Part of the issue with healthcare costs in the US is that many people never pay. That means those with insurance have to cover them via higher prices.

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Gigan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Ours was completely covered by state provided health insurance.

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kleenbhole@lemy.lol ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The number one reason for bankruptcy in the USA is due to medical debt.

We just go into debt, is your answer.

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Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Honestly, in Arizona surprisingly, the state paid for it because we were poor and eligible for their healthcare programs. I know its bad everywhere here, but we got lucky.

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LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I left one job and went to another. There was a 3 month gap where I had no health insurance, didn’t qualify right away at the new job. Got an infection that required a two week round of antibiotics.

The cost without insurance was a little over $2000. My COBRA coverage was $600+ and a couple dollars with insurance for the anti biotics. I felt lucky to only have to spend the $600+ to enact COBRA coverage and that it happened in the first month so I could only pay once and drop it.

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