subject: Getting Health Care Without Insurance Can Be Difficult [print this page] Doctor offices will often ask you whether or not you have any health insurance and what type when you first arrive for a visit. You may have to go through a ton of hassle if you do not have any health care coverage of any kind.
Self-paying patients become a hassle for those in the doctor's office or hospital because, in the end, they may not be able to come up with the entire amounts due after care. Although some people are able to lay out the money for the bill most self-paying, uninsured patients cannot. Of course, additional procedures or tests or medicines will cost more and raise the patient's bill. So in essence a doctor visit that is supposed to be under $100 turns into a few hundred dollars instead. The billing department ends up trying to get money from the patient after these additional costs are added on, which is not always easy. This is the basis for why so many doctors and hospitals do not want to deal with uninsured people.
Other reasons exist that are responsible for higher health care bills that go along with the self paying patient. For one thing, they may not be part of typical cost rules that you may see with people who carry health insurance. Whether or not your realize it, health insurance saves money across the board and will cover things you don't expect. When you submit costs to your insurance company you will see how quickly the amount of charges reduces.
But there are also other factors that get messy with private pay patients like bad check writing. Most doctors' offices do accept personal checks; however you will very often find that private pay patients will pay up front with a check but that check will be returned further complicating the transaction. Also, when a private pay client does get insurance coverage, it usually won't kick in for a while because everything is considered a pre-existing condition.
Most people might be inclined to think that hospitals have an obligation to treat folks who seek e emergency care, but this is not the truth. Rather, they only have to treat someone if they have a life threatening illness and not for pain or regular procedures. Some hospitals will transfer you somewhere else and you end up waiting for a long time. Those you do not have health care insurance have may find it more difficult simply for the likelihood that doctors might deny care for your ability to pay or whether or not you have insurance.
by: Ethan Kalvin
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