Welcome to America! Land of the free, home of the brave, and the first world’s worst health insurance system!
Cyclist Phil Gaimon was competing in an Olympic qualifying event when he crashed and was taken to a hospital in Allentown, PA unconscious. He had broken seven bones and was in need of multiple surgeries to alleviate the pain, but he ended up getting $150,000 in medical bills due to a stupid discrepancy between how states bill insurance.
Gaimon now has a crippling debt because the hospital that the ambulance took him to, WHILE HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS, wasn’t considered “in-network” by his health insurance provider. I haven’t heard such Grade-A bullshit in a long time.
Check out this video by CBS News This Morning. They do a good job of reporting on this story without expressing the violent rage towards the American health insurance system that I would like to express…
I tried to hold back, but I can’t.
How can we consider ourselves “The greatest country in the world” if you have to choose between surgery to fix a broken collarbone and crippling debt that you’ll never be able to pay off? Also, how in the hell was this guy supposed to know when he arrived at the hospital if it was in-network or not? The man was literally unconscious! Even if he was conscious is he supposed to stop the medical professionals from treating him to make sure he’s covered? Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid.
Okay, my rant is over. I’m sorry but this story pressed all the wrong (or right depending on how you look at it) buttons for me.