It Is Difficult To Get Health Care Without Insurance.

One of the first things they will ask you when you go to a doctor's office or hospital is whether or not you have health insurance and what kind it is. If you tell them you do not have any you may have to jump through many hoops in order to receive care.

Some health care workers do not want to deal with paying patients because they may not be able to pay the bill in the end. Some patients without health care insurance might be able to afford the bill when they receive care, but the reality is that most cannot. Furthermore, things like extra procedures or tests can raise costs. This is why it is easy for a seventy-five dollar doctor office visit to turn into a four hundred dollar visit. It is the additional medical bills that cause it, and the billing team ends up trying to get the patient to pay. This is not easy, and is the reason why many doctors and hospitals do not want to deal with patients without insurance.

There are other factors that make medical bills higher with private pay patients. First, they are not subject to the reasonable and customary charge rules that apply to those who are on a health insurance plan. Whether you realize this or not your health insurance plan saves you a lot of money even on things that they don't cover and once submitted to your health insurance plan you will find that your medical bills quickly reduce.

Moreover, the self-paying patient may not have anything to pay the bill with and might turn to writing bad checks. Doctors and hospitals will often take personal checks but you should notice that uninsured patients might hand over an invalid check that will turn up insufficient, which makes it extremely hard to process payments. As if that is not enough, the uninsured patient may elect to become part of a health insurance plan too late, and after care has already been given they most often will not cover pre-existing payments.

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.