I hate the cost of healthcare!

[VisionaryMom]

My husband needs to have a melanoma spot removed next week. We found this out this week, and we apparently need to bring $500-2500 with us next Monday to pay. We could swing the lower end, but we've been hit by so.many.medical.bills lately that we don't have an extra $2500! I want to cry.

[4evermom]

That sucks.

[ltlmrs]

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom

My husband needs to have a melanoma spot removed next week. We found this out this week, and we apparently need to bring $500-2500 with us next Monday to pay. We could swing the lower end, but we've been hit by so.many.medical.bills lately that we don't have an extra $2500! I want to cry.

That's terrible! I've never heard of prepaying for a procedure before.

[VisionaryMom]

In the area where we live, pre-paying is the norm. It's done to keep people from not paying after the fact since medical bills are the reason for most bk.

[Pariah]

I'm sorry...that is a lot to expect of you in a week!! Even with insurance it gets so expensive.

[sweetjasmine]

We had to prepay about 4 years ago for a procedure for my husband, $500. Then last year when he had foot surgery we had to prepay $1k which, what?? They never told us either time!! We had to put it on a cc. We're in Texas, btw. I guess next time we'll ask although why they didn't let us know beforehand is beyond me.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by sweetjasmine

We had to prepay about 4 years ago for a procedure for my husband, $500. Then last year when he had foot surgery we had to prepay $1k which, what?? They never told us either time!! We had to put it on a cc. We're in Texas, btw. I guess next time we'll ask although why they didn't let us know beforehand is beyond me.

Oh, yeah. When I was pg w/ DD, I went in for the 1st appointment. At check out, the woman said, "okay, that will be $1200." I just said nope, not gonna happen today. For starters, I didn't have that money just sitting in my checking account. Beyond that, though, we'd just moved. I'd never been to this practice, so to expect me to pay for L&D after a first visit (since no one here does the free "check us out" visits) is a bit absurd.

[newbymom05]

My DH just had a melanoma removed they billed United $895. What was that, 10 minutes of work? And he had another removed yesterday. Not to mention she wants to take everything off, and how are we going to argue w/ "it could be CANCER!" I'm glad she caught 2 melanomas, but sheesh, his back looks like a minefield.

Medical costs are crazy. He cut the pad of his finger OFF the other day and I talked him out of going to the ER b/c why pay $$$ for what we could do at home? His coworker had a similar issue w/ his wife (cut arm) but their delay in going to the ER resulted in an infected arm.

That's one of my complaints w/ health care reform--it does nothing to address the insane costs.

OP, I would just bring what you have. His doc wants all the costs up front too, but he's started only offering to pay X and they haven't complained.

[AnnaNova]

if it comes out to be high, you could try researching options that would help you pay for it. where we live we have what's called indigent fund that comes out of taxes to help people with no ins, or with high medical bills to pay for treatments. here, you can make up to 3000 per household member and still qualify for it. you can also try negotiating price with the dr. tell them you can pay a part now and go on a payment plan, or ask them to give you a discount. these days most places will be happy to work with you, its better for them than not to get anything at all or have the bill go to collections and pay a hefty fee to the collection agency.