My apologies... I picked an article while on my mobile device; try this one then .... Perhaps tell these people that it is free then ? Insured patients with huge 'out of pocket' expenses .... so please let me know how it is "free" for SOC as you claim .... you are well aware it is not, but whatever pushes your agenda
https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3097Covid-19: Medical expenses leave many Americans deep in debtIn the US, the complicated way medical care is paid for leaves some insured people wondering how they will afford their covid-19 bills,
Jessica Wapner finds
When Susan Adair called an ambulance for her husband on 5 April 2020, she thought that he’d be back soon. But after 16 days of treatment at the hospital near their home in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, he died of covid-19 at age 71.
Then came the medical bills.Her husband had private insurance through a plan offered to retired teachers, as well as supplemental coverage through Medicare. The private insurance and Medicare both called for co-payments,
where patients pay a percentage of the bill. Adair hasn’t received an actual bill yet, but the “patient responsibility” sections of the statements have included some harrowing numbers:
$6840 on one, $4959 on another, $5656 on a third, and over $10 000 on yet another. And there are more. “Don’t make me cry,” says Adair, when asked what it’s like to be grieving the loss of her husband as the insurance statements stack up.“It will kill me, truly,” she told
The BMJ. They’d been happy with their coverage, and she believes that the statements reflect a clerical error. Still, she’s dreading the final bills.
She’s hardly alone in that feeling. Donna Talla, who lives in Springfield, Virginia, says that she’s about $150 000 in debt for the medical care she received after contracting covid-19 back in March, despite having private insurance with UnitedHealthcare through her employer. “I think I’m going to have to sell my house in order to pay these medical bills,” Talla, 56, told
The BMJ. “It wasn’t part of my retirement plan, but if I have to do that then I will.”
(20min delay)