Final hospital expense summary

[lswote]

First off I want to say my wife is almost 100% back to good health.  Her lung capacity was diminished by the pneumonia she had and hasn’t quite bounced back yet, but otherwise she is normal again.  At least as normal as a pregnant woman can be, but that’s another story.

I thought since when my wife was sick I made such a big deal of the costs at the time, I would relate how things finally wrapped up.

The hospital bill came to a total of just under $29,000.  We applied for emergency Medicaid but last week it was denied without even getting an interview.  The hospital offered to settle for $20,000 if I paid now, so I did.

When I was speculating several weeks ago about what the additional doctor and lab bills would be I speculated they would be about the same as the hospital costs, but fortunately I was wrong and it looks like all total they will be under $3000.  I believe there are a few more bills yet to be received, but I think I have received all the major ones now, so I feel pretty confident costs won't go much higher.  The doctors offices were willing to settle with 20% discounts but the labs were unwilling to settle for less than anything than the whole amount.

I know I reacted rashly at the time of my wife's sickness and talked of bankruptcy, but it was an emotional time and the costs were unclear at the time, but now that things are settled, I am glad to say I overreacted and while it is a big financial hit, bankruptcy is not an option I have to use.  I have a lot of work at the office right now and I have been taking the opportunity to work a lot of overtime.  If I can keep the overtime up I might be able to have the bill paid off by the time the baby arrives next February.  I have been getting the overtime by going into the office earlier in the morning rather than working late, so I can still enjoy evenings with my wife.

So the total bill I actually had to pay came to about $23,000.

For those of you who spoke of available policies for women who just come to the states, I have to ask specifically what are you seeing?  I have further investigated policies since my wife's sickness and any available insurance is always with fixed scheduled payouts instead of a percentage payout.  What I mean is that instead of the policies covering all of your hospital bill or 80% of your hospital bill, they say they will pay you $1000 a day if you are in the hospital and $500 for surgery, so much per day for medicine, etc.  My wife’s illness ran up costs a lot faster rate than any scheduled policy I have come across would cover and with a policy like that, an illness like my wife's would still have cost me well over $10,000 as they don't come close to reimbursing you to what the actual costs of hospitalization and treatment are.  I have yet to find a PPO, HMO or even 80%/20% health plan my wife is eligible for right now. I really find it frustrating that good coverage for my wife seems unavailable.  I find it a little more than ironic that my wife is denied insurance by good insurance companies because she hasn’t been in the US six months and yet is still fully responsible for insurance bills should she become ill.  I could understand the six month rule if she was on some temporary tourist or work visa, but why someone who has been granted conditional, permanent residency should be denied good health coverage isn’t quite clear to me.

[Cali vet]

... in response to Final hospital expense summary, posted by lswote on Jul 22, 2003

What Colombian insurence plan does she have? If it is Coomeva Plan Oro it will cover emergency medical care out of the country. If she brings the receipts they will reimburse her but at Colombian rates of course.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Final hospital expense summary, posted by Cali vet on Jul 22, 2003

No, she has Saludcoop.  Thanks for mentioning it.

[Jeff S]

... in response to Final hospital expense summary, posted by lswote on Jul 22, 2003

So happy she's doing better, Bruce, and you've weathered the storm. These times are why people get married - to support each other in times of crisis. Your marriage will grow stronger for it.

One of the best deals for insurance and other services for the small time guy or business startup is the National Association of the self employed - NASE. Check them out if you plan to start a small or home based business.

- Jeff

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Final hospital expense summary, posted by Jeff S on Jul 22, 2003

I looked at that site when you mentioned it last time (nase.org).  Can you tell me where I would look to see about health insurance through them?  I read about the two levels of membership but I don't see any mention of health insurance.

[Jeff S]

... in response to Re: Re: Final hospital expense summary, posted by lswote on Jul 22, 2003

https://www.nase.org/Secured/quote_request2.asp?ReferLink=Link50

[Landover]

... in response to Try here:, posted by Jeff S on Jul 23, 2003

My expertise is in Prop & casualty but would probably stay away from a scheduled plan. Would go thru every health ins agent in your town's yellow pages and give them your scenario. Good your pretty wife is doing well.  Re the 25k if it makes you feel any better, just had to pay out $100,000+ out of pocket to fix a bad mold problem in my house from some water leaks which insurance did not cover. So watch those roof leaks.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Try here:, posted by Landover on Jul 23, 2003

Wow! That does put things into perspective.  Sorry to hear it.

[mudd]

... in response to Final hospital expense summary, posted by lswote on Jul 22, 2003

Did you look into when the doctor miss diagnosed her case, and actualy made it worse? i would have contacted a lawyer( yeh i know, everybody hates that word) and see if you could have got the bills cut into half or something for them screwing up.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Final hospital expense summary, posted by mudd on Jul 22, 2003

Talked to 4 lawyers.  The cost of discover in a case like this would be too expensive to pursue the case unless there were a lot more damages.  The lawyers were all in agreement that unless my wife was disfigured or died the possible recovery from the suit wasn't enough to interest them in taking the case on a contigency basis.

[Jersey Mike]

... in response to Final hospital expense summary, posted by lswote on Jul 22, 2003

Not exactly the same situation, but I thought I'd share a related personal experience for info purposes.  Last year my ex-wife's sister come to visit her.  Two weeks after her arrival in Brooklyn, she suffered a fatal stroke.  Because of the fact that she was here legally on a tourist visa, her hospital expenses were covered by the State of New York under Medicaid.  The hospital filed all of the papaerwork directly with the state and we had no additional financial responsibility.

[cancunhound]

... in response to Final hospital expense summary, posted by lswote on Jul 22, 2003

Glad to hear all is well.  Both Cigna and Aetna PPO's offered thru my employer at the time of my wife's entry did not have any time based entry requirements.  And of course, marriage or having a child was a "qualifying event" so changing/choosing appropriate coverage was not an issue.  I guess it's all luck of the draw what your employer chooses.  For guys in similar scenarios to that which you encountered - sounds like it would be prudent to maintain her Colombian coverage until she's covered here.  A couple of plane tickets would be a hell of alot cheaper than that 20K in case of a forseeable monster medical bill.

Hell, come to think it - given our high premiums in the states maybe it would always make sense to utilize Colombia for ongoing medical care.  And next time you see a lawyer or illegal immigrant - say thanks for their contribution to our clusterf%ck of a medical system.

As far as available health plans - I have not shopped for one outside of employer susidized plans, but something seems fishy about what you finding in the market place.  Everything I've filled out paperworkwise has just asked for Name, DOB and SSN - and the SSN is easily obtained with conditional residency status.  What other info are they asking for, seems like you could "stretch" the truth if they are asking for more info?

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Final hospital expense summary, posted by cancunhound on Jul 22, 2003

My wife still has her Colombia coverage, unfortunately the infection that put her in the hospital all happened within 24 hours and there wasn't time to have her go to Colombia.

I don't have group insurance, this is the whole problem that got me where I am at.  On May 1st, the company I was COBRAing through, dropped insurance coverage for employees and COBRAed ex-employees and I was left without any insurance coverage.  Trying to find private health insurance has been the problem.  I don't qualify for private health insurance because of existing health problems, so finding a policy for my wife alone has run into the six month residency requirement for all the decent health insurance I have investigated.