Seattle coronavirus survivor gets a $1.1 million, 181-page hospital bill

[Northerner]

Remember Michael Flor, the longest-hospitalized COVID-19 patient who, when he unexpectedly did not die, was jokingly dubbed “the miracle child?”

Now they can also call him the million-dollar baby.

Flor, 70, who came so close to death in the spring that a night-shift nurse held a phone to his ear while his wife and kids said their final goodbyes, is recovering nicely these days at his home in West Seattle. But he says his heart almost failed a second time when he got the bill from his health care odyssey the other day.

“I opened it and said ‘holy [bleep]!’ “ Flor says.

The total tab for his bout with the coronavirus: $1.1 million. $1,122,501.04, to be exact. All in one bill that’s more like a book because it runs to 181 pages.

Coronavirus survival comes with a $1.1 million, 181-page price tag

The COVID-19 patient, from West Seattle, has insurance and so isn't on the hook for the vast majority of the charge. But the gold-plated cost highlights one reason why American health care is so hard to reform.

www.seattletimes.com

How can this country be so opposed to a taxpayer-funded national health service like ours? OK, in this particular case he may not have to pay, but it does give an idea of the kind of potential debt that can be run up just from being ill

 

[KARNAK]

The government can put the tax up for the NHS as far as I am concerned, we are normally only talking pence for those tax payers on a low income.

Yes I am retired and pay tax.

 

[trophywench]

Ted - I reckon when I left school and started my first job in July 1966, the rate of Income Tax was 7 bob in the £1, hence having paid in all my working life, now retired 12 years - am now paying a lower rate of Tax than I ever have.

I've said for years, just put the rate of Income Tax up. (for the NHS I mean)

 

[Northerner]

A hypothecated tax is actually quite popular with the public, but I don't see it coming from this government

 

[Drummer]

Wasn't there a proposal to 'ring fence' money to go to the NHS and it was voted down? I seem to recall something going on a few years back.
After the fiasco of the non existent emergency supplies, some bought but vanished, some out of date some stolen from insecure lockups - I think that a proper system ought to be set up to make sure nothing like that happens again.

 

[mikeyB]

It might be worthwhile seeing what happens in Scotland, where the proposal for a hypothecated tax for the NHS keeps recurring and is constantly reviewed. My guess is that it will only occur after independence. Even then, a penny on income tax would pay for NHS Scotland for about a month. There just aren’t enough people in Scotland. The same applies to E

The whole social insurance scheme is a complete mish mash. Originally, back in 1948 National Insurance was there to protect the pensions of those who became, temporarily or permanently unable to work. Only a small proportion went to the NHS, and now none of it does directly.

The government, by long established law, can’t use NI to pay for general government expenditure. When there is, as now, an excess of money in the NI account, that goes into government funds and bonds, which the government does borrow from. Neat trick.

It’s this that left BoJo mystified as to why immigrant workers couldn’t access benefits - they have to pay NI like the rest of us, so denying them benefits is actually illegal. They also pay income tax, which is where money for the NHS comes from (among other sources), so making them pay for using the NHS is also illegal.

What would help is the fat cats who fund the Conservatives paying their tax on monies earned in England. Philip Green, owner of Top Shop and other retail outlets, lives in Monaco. The business is in his wife’s name. So all profits go to Monaco, where the Income Tax rate for foreign nationals is zero.

 

[Ralph-YK]

Ugh.
Without the NHS there'd be a few of us in serious trouble over here.