The joys of the American Healthcare System, pt 5 – the begging
After several months, and several thousand dollars (on a claimed US$1025 deductable; remember, this is the American Healthcare System and they're all out to screw you over) the flow of bills from the various "independent" contractors who cluttered up the hospital where I got my series of very expensive (and very fucking useless) tests after my emergency room visit from finally dried up. So you can imagine my surprise when I got another letter from the offending hospital this morning. I opened it, expecting another bill along with some demand for immediate payment, only to discover that, no, the hospital that claimed it was "out of plan" for its own insurance plan was not sending me bills, but starting the Christmas season early by asking me for charity.
Oh. Perhaps you should have considered your "money problems" when you were helping to underwrite the campaign to vote against the state health plan that was proposed for Oregon several years ago? And perhaps you should have considered your "money problems" when you paid for the huge honking advertising campaign that has plastered the name of your hospital chain over hundreds of billboards and city busses in and around Portland? And perhaps you should have considered your fucking "money problems" when you didn't bill my old insurance company for the childbirth costs of #2 son, but instead tried to screw the Oregon Health Plan into paying, and thus ending up, 3 years later, with nobody paying for it.
Regrettably, the stupid begging letter didn't come with a stamped return letter, so I couldn't send them back a little note telling them to take me off their mailing list.