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We hire a lot of Europeans at my company, and they are shocked and bewildered by our healthcare system.

"Wait, you mean I pay nearly $5000 a year for healthcare insurance, but they won't pay for healthcare until I reach a $5000 deductible!? And if I don't ask each and every doctor at the hospital if they take my insurance, they may not be covered at all?"




The best part is that the hospital can bring in an out-of-network doctor or nurse after you've passed out from anesthesia... Without asking you if you were cool with this, before you undertake the procedure.

That's one way to discover a giant out-of-network bill, when you went in for surgery at an in-network hospital, performed by an in-network surgeon, with an in-network anesthesiologist... And an out-of-network nurse, whose job consists of holding the saline bag for 30 minutes, at ten times the billed-to-patient rate of anyone else in the operating room.

I wish I was kidding.


I am very afraid of this. My wife has had a few surgeries in recent years. We've always verified, at every possible stage, until I've said goodbye in pre-op, that everything is in-network. But there's no way to know what might happen later.

I wonder if our attorney could prepare a contract that stipulates no out-of-network interaction without authorization. But who would we get to sign it?


We have a couple of Europeans at our company...

...

...

...in our Toronto office.




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