this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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Its a U.S. medical bill.
The hospital asks for whatever the fuck it wants after it does the treatment.
Then insurance says "we only pay a negotiate rate" and pays $25-$30K."
I had intern from France a year back when I worked in research. He went skiing and broke his leg around 6 months in. The French healthcare system sent him a check for how much the medical treatment would cost in France. It was around 10% of the bill. He paid the 10% to the hospital.
The hospital kept billing him and sent some of the bills to collections. He asked me what to do about it. "Tell them they have been fully paid by the French health system and to take it up with them. Then go back to France in 2 months and forget about it."
He laugh and said they immediately stopped bothering him after that.
Yes, but insurance companies benefit from large bills as well bcs the premiums go up, it's the main reason why over the years their profits are soaring. Their backoffice negotiating the bil is purely b2b shenanigans (same as recreational denying of coverage, them are just little profit optimisations). And it's not like their b2c approach differs that much.
If non-free (healthcare) markets aren't regulated this is a normal, logical thing to occur.
A broken leg costs (xray/mri, blood work, a cast, labour) are very low, like a couple of hundred monies.