sonamdrukpa said:

1. Don't.*

*Exception: you are bleeding out, having a heart attack, etc.  But if you've got a broken bone or somesuch, google instructions on how to set that shit yourself.

2.  Whatever your injury is (and don't forget, it better be something that'll kill you in the next 20 minutes or it's not worth it), tell them it's something absurdly insignificant, like a scratch or a bruise or a cold or something.  Make sure your fake ailment is extremely, extremely trivial.  Only refer to it as an "owie" if you can.  I recently received a bill from the ER, and there was a $1375 charge for simply showing up and reporting my injury.  The guy I talked to at the billing office told me that the hospital assigned people on a scale from 1 to 5 on severity of injury (5 being the worst), and that the initial fee varied in proportion to how bad off you were.  I had been assigned a 3.  What was my injury?

A hangnail.

Now, at the time I thought it was a serious hangnail.  It was turning colors, I didn't feel anything when I prodded it, it had only gotten worse over the past week, and I have an allergy to my big toe turning gangrenous and falling off.  Plus after-hours clinic I went to first told me they didn't have the equipment to take care of it (my guess is they didn't have needles/local anesthetics) and to go to the ER.  Seemed serious to me.  But once an actual doctor looked at my foot (after an hour's wait), he informed me that it was not, in fact, infected or in danger of falling off.  What sort of injury warrants a 1 or a 2, I'm not sure, but I can't imagine it's something you'd actually need to go to the hospital for.  Which leads me to point number 3:

3.  Leave as soon as humanly possible.

Hospitals are not jails; they cannot prevent you from just walking out.  And they can't charge you if they're not fixing you.  If I had left right then (when I learned that I was not in danger of losing parts of my anatomy), I could have avoided a $1000 charge from the hospital for the actual procedure that fixed my foot plus a $500 charge from the doctor for the same procedure, not to mention the 4 hours of waiting I went through before I was treated.  If you learn that what you've got is something you can fix yourself (even if it is going to be a bloody, painful-as-hell ordeal), for the love of god do not give the hospital the opportunity to take another pound of flesh.

That is all.  Stay safe, y'all.

---

VivaLaMushie said:

My bf needed to get 6 stitches on his arm, he has incredibly good insurance.

25 min in the ER cost him $2,000

When I was pregnant last year and my health went south very quickly, I had to go to the ER for IV fluids (I couldn't eat or drink anything) went about 5 times guess how much $ ( I have no insurance)

$15,000 for IV fluids and nausea medicine.

---

Patlal said:

Everybody knows what I'm going to write. So reply to this as if I said it...

---

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

Not everyone owns their own company.

---

Yeah.  I had to actually pay for my own insurance with after tax money.  What a fucking concept, eh?  Actually paying for something you get.

---

Babylonia said:

I go to university in a different state from where I live full time so I didn't really have much of an option.

---

sonamdrukpa said:

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

Not everyone owns their own company.

---

Yeah.  I had to actually pay for my own insurance with after tax money.  What a fucking concept, eh?  Actually paying for something you get.

---

Right.  My point is that your quality of insurance is likely far out of the reach of most Americans.  You saying that Gresh's insurance sucks is like a guy with a Lambo saying that someone's Saab sucks.

---

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

Not everyone owns their own company.

---

Yeah.  I had to actually pay for my own insurance with after tax money.  What a fucking concept, eh?  Actually paying for something you get.

---

Right.  My point is that your quality of insurance is likely far out of the reach of most Americans.  You saying that Gresh's insurance sucks is like a guy with a Lambo saying that someone's Saab sucks.

---

Either you pay for the insurance or you pay for the care.  Or are you saying that I should pay?

---

No the "government" should pay

thats totally different than you paying for it.

NWlight said:

better idea


4) get insurance, so you don't have to worry about all this crap

---

NWlight said:

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

zappaisgod said:

Yeah.  I had to actually pay for my own insurance with after tax money.  What a fucking concept, eh?  Actually paying for something you get.

---

Right.  My point is that your quality of insurance is likely far out of the reach of most Americans.  You saying that Gresh's insurance sucks is like a guy with a Lambo saying that someone's Saab sucks.

---

Either you pay for the insurance or you pay for the care.  Or are you saying that I should pay?

---

No the "government" should pay

thats totally different than you paying for it.

---

  That is exactly me paying for it

Individual said:

Free healthcare rocks! I haven't had to pay a single dime for my ER visists.

---

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

zappaisgod said:

sonamdrukpa said:

Not everyone owns their own company.

---

Yeah.  I had to actually pay for my own insurance with after tax money.  What a fucking concept, eh?  Actually paying for something you get.

---

Right.  My point is that your quality of insurance is likely far out of the reach of most Americans.  You saying that Gresh's insurance sucks is like a guy with a Lambo saying that someone's Saab sucks.

---

Either you pay for the insurance or you pay for the care.  Or are you saying that I should pay?

---

zappaisgod said:

  That is exactly me paying for it

---

zappaisgod said:

Individual said:

Free healthcare rocks! I haven't had to pay a single dime for my ER visists.

---

How does it feel being a parasite?

---

I too pay the taxes that help keeping the system free for everyone.