WHEEEEEEEE!!!!

I am so, unbelievably happy!

I now have NO medical bills aside from my general practitioner and the vampiric nurses!! The hospital wrote the WHOLE THING off.

I can't believe it. Seriously just...WOW. This has been stressing me out in a major way since I was in the hospital in December because the bills amounted to a few thousand less than what my husband makes per year, and now it's all just completely gone...and I don't have to worry about it anymore!

I'm telling anyone who will sit still about this......eeeeee!!!! Anyone have suggestions for a celebration that contains little or no alcohol since I can't really have much? lol

Wheeeeeeeee!!



(This has to be my most incoherent post ever. I seriously have to calm down. )

Ah, the NHS is truly a great organisation. With a free health service, freeloading the system becomes a lot less risky

Psst...I live in America.

Gosh, how awful for you.

Congarts!
I cant believe people can get such big medical bills. Its just crazy beans really.
Anyways tasty snacks and Jpop are always good ways to celebrate.
Jpop = good reason to dance around spastically.

And now you know how we feel everytime we go in for checkups or emergencies

*Me huggles Canada health system*

Yeah, I said "I'm moving to Canada!" maaany times during this whole ordeal.

I was really, really scared for awhile there. We worked really hard to get good credit, and they were taking forever with that financial aid application, and it was going to go to a collection agency soon. They wanted us to pay the whole thing off in one year. Yeaahhh. So not happening. I'm relieved they realized that. I expected to have to pay some of it back...I was shocked when they said they were giving me a grant for all of it!

It'd definitely be nice for that worry to not even be there in the first place....but I can't see that happening in America anytime soon. And, as much as I may joke about it, I'm not moving to Canada.

Gosh darn it, Candice! And you'd make such an excellent addition to the Canadian population!

I'm so glad things worked out for you. As convoluted as it was, it all worked out in the end!

Now go party like it's 1999. Or something.

Yay Candice! **throws rubber chickens and dances around only wearing a basket on her head blowing an air horn**

Congrats!!! (i think )

Personally I hate medical bills. Which is why I am so ill. I also refuse to pay for dental treatment. In Australia, we get free doctors appointments for low income earners, but often the doctors prescribe expensive medication, kinda makes the free appointment obsolete. Morons

Well that makes no sense.

Here the pharmacist can suggest a generic brand of the drug your doctor prescribes to save you money. It's the same ingredients...just a different name. If mine hadn't, my prescription would cost probably twice as much. If I still lived with my mom, I could get it for even less. She works at the hospital, and she and all members of her household get prescriptions for $4, provided they fill them at the hospital pharmacy (which is only open for orders 1 or 2 hours a day, but so what?). Of course, if I still lived with her I'd also still be on my dad's insurance plan and this whole hospital thing would have cost me about $100. I still need to get insurance, but apparently I make too much for the Oregon Health Plan (yet the hospital wrote off my entire balance? I don't understand that)...and I don't make enough to pay the INSANE amounts everyone else wants..lol.

After I got refused for the Oregon Health Plan...people (mostly acquaintances who I didn't even know knew about my situation...yay small towns and quick spreading gossip) kept saying, "Well, if you had a kid, you'd have gotten it! Have babies!!!" God forbid I actually be responsible and wait to have children until after I graduate college and am financially able to support them.

Conclusion: medial bills are just crazy.

I can get generic brands for $4 too. But for some reason, the doctor has to allow it or something. Last time I got a prescription was for sleeping pills, and it was only for a certain type. Doctor didn't state that I could get a generic brand. Stupid doctors.

But anyway, go celebrate... have lots and lots of sugar *cant think of anything other than alcohol, used for celebrating*

Yay! for Cands lack of medical bills!

Party sugestions - Get a pile of food you like and a pile of friend and enjoy!
Or get the friends again and go for a meal out!
Or just do something you relly enjoy!

YAY!! Thats always good!!

Just dance around lots and lots!! I'll dance with you!! *grabs Candice and dances round* YAY!!

Dunno what else to say apart from yay?!

Pie is the answer. It's the teetotallers answer to booze. Big, juicy, pies. And tea. Oh how I love pies. I've even written an Ode to Pie.

Why oh Why,
Do I so love Pie?
I feel quite sly,
But I'm not sure why.

Oho...pie is an excellent idea. I think International Pie Day is coming up, too. I can never remember whether it's in August or April...or both. It's not a real holiday, just one my sister made up because she decided there was far too long of a stretch without pie making during the spring and summer due to the lack of pie-ish holidays.

I'm so sad. I can't read that statement without thinking of IRC convos about perogies...

Yay for Candice's lack of bills! *cheers*

There is an official International Pie Day. It's on March 16th. You kinda missed it... but that's okay, pie's good anytime. Especially when you share with your friends. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Yay! I am quite happy for you, I know what its like to lay in the hospitial and worry not about your health but how are you going to pay for treatment.

I hope to be a doctor one day, and as such I've been doing alot of reading into the whole medicare/hmo/big bill mess. Frankly put, if you live in the US you have three options if you need healthcare.

1)Be freaking rich, have the cash on hand g-d forbid something happens.
2)Pay for health insurance (quite expensive), and that most likely won't cover everything you need. Leaving you to deal with medications and extra 'non-essential' *scoff* treatment.
3)Basically do what Candice here did, pray that somehow the hospital can use public funds to pay your balance (this in itself is not a solution though), and risk having a huge bill saddled on you and nuking your credit.

Why are bills so high? Three reasons really.
1) Public Funding. Public hospitals treat everyone who walks into the ER, regardless of ability to pay. Ideally, the hospitals recieve funding that helps them treat said people. In reality, they never ever recieve enough funds from the government, so the hospital has to make up the balance.
2) Insurance. You have an insurance plan, good. The problem is that the insurance companies pay a set amount for each procedure, regardless of the actual cost to the practioner. Some doctors, my pops included, don't even bother billing certain insurance companies. They just treat the patient for free, it isn't worth the time to submit all the paperwork.
3) Liability. My father delivers babies, and one afternoon he showed me the amount he had to pay for malpractice insurance. Keep in mind, he has never screwed up in terms of negligence. It was astounding, and the figure was a good portion of the office's income. Your child doesn't get into MIT? Sue the doctor, obviously he ****** up delivering the baby 18 years ago and damaged said child's brain. So far, none of the complaints have won at trail, but it costs alot of money to defend against them.

In short, once I get through with my training I hope to set up practice in Canada. Perhaps one day in the far future I'll treat your kid(s) Candice?

David

That'd be cool, but...I really have no plans for seriously moving to Canada. Healthcare and the like aside -- this is still my home. And while I'm not particularly fond of how my country as a whole does certain things, I adore my state. It's the only place I've ever been happy living long-term. Other places are nice to visit...but I'd rather live here. Well, "here" as in Oregon...not as in this particular town. No, I'd rather get out of this town...it's very conservative and un-Candice-like...but then it's rural and very isolated and...I'm rambling now..lol.

Bleh...expensive health insurance. Bah, humbug. I still don't understand how we make too much for the Oregon Health Plan (that'd be one thing I dislike about this state ), yet the hospital decided we made little enough for them to write off the whole thing. The OHP is one of the few options for cheaper health insurance...the rest that I've found are ridiculous, which is why we didn't have any to begin with. Can't afford anything we've found except the OHP, which we make too much for. Crazy things. There needs to be something in between there....

Hoho. I heard a joke about Oregon a few days ago... goes a little something like this...

A man was driving from Oregon down into California. As he crosses the California border, he's stopped and the California border patrol questions him:
"Do you have any drugs, sir?"
"No"
"Do you have any fruit, sir?
"No"
"Are you a communist?"
"No"
"Are you a terrorist?"
"No"
"Are you carrying any concealed firearms?"
"No"
"Good, enjoy your stay in California sir."

And off he drives. On his way back home in a week's time, he's crossing the border into Oregon, and is similarly stopped by an Oregon border patrolman.

"Do you have any drugs, sir"
"No"
"Well, you'd best take a hit off this bong, and here's a few grams of coke to tide you over until you get home"

Must confess, I've never been to Oregon, but the joke was silly enough to entertain me.

lmao....it made me giggle too. The bong thing is definitely an Oregon stereotype. Next to Christmas trees, pot is our biggest export (although, no, it's not legal here). But I was going to say we didn't have border guards, being part of the same country and all, till Lo informed me that there are indeed border guards at the state borders in California. Crazy.