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Comment on How do poor people in the states give birth without money?

Birth is not necessarily an emergency room procedure. In order to have the baby at the hospital, they usually require a portion of payment upfront, along with insurance. If there are complications, they might admit you without a prior plan, but you’d be in the emergency room rather than obstetrics.

The second answer is that they will just bill you and you can pay it off over years or just let it go to collections. They have legally more limited ways to collect medical debt. They can harass you and ding your credit but they can’t garnish wages, etc. As long as you are making a minimum payment, they may not be able to send it to collections (sometimes a few dollars a month).

Collections is a whole other mess.

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mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
So no. What you have said is a lie. I have no idea what motivation you have by making something this up but you did and you should be ashamed.

If a woman in labor enters a hospital in the United States they are legally required by law to deliver the baby regardless of how the person can pay.

Later after the woman and baby are discharged they can send them bills for the medical procedures whatever those maybe and yes they have the option of going after that debt in whatever way our legal system allows them to.

What I am saying is, specifically for medical debt they don’t often go after especially in emergency situations and end of life situations.

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- gedaliyah@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m not a lawyer but I’ve been through the process and I know that OBs aren’t usually in an emergency room. Sorry for any inaccuracies, I’m just speaking from my personal experience.
  
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- CaptObvious@literature.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I can tell you from experience that they will shuttle end-of-life patients around to other facilities because no one wants that death in their ER. They play hot potato until the person dies, then hound the survivors for payment.
  
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  - mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yes because there are specific facilities at least in the US that cater specifically to end of life situations this is a perfectly normal thing at least here.
    
    Unfortunately I have also experienced this in my life with family members so I am acutely aware of how this works.
    
    I’m not defending this practice nor am I saying it’s good I’m specifically addressing emergency medical care and how it will be billed for in the United States.
    
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