What if ..., After I go bankrupt?

[irishonyx33]

My original post was not an indictment of people who don't pay (I think that many of us on this forum have been or are it a situation where they need to make hard choices about who they pay and when), it was simply a request to not vilify a physician because he (or the healthcare organization for which he works) cannot continue to treat someone without compensation. Every month there are bills that any medical facility has to pay, and THOSE bills can only go unpaid for so long before that facility has problems...like paying its employees (I speak from personal experience here). At some point, there IS NO MONEY left, and the doors close, and that's it. So while the policies may seem heartless, they are in place to protect the institution so that it can continue to provide services to as many people as possible.

I agree with you to a point, when it comes to non-life threatening situations. Hang nail, sore throat, root canal...fine, deny treatment. Cancer? Ridiculous. What makes it more ridiculous is the doctor dedmanding payment for an entire medical complex.

At the point of bankruptcy you do have to make some hard choices, but this isn't a tough one for me. Eat or pay the doctor? Granted, the doctor is owed the money and should be paid, but you can't squeeze blood from a stone. OP mentioned insurance, so the doctor did not go uncompensated.

[aquavir]

I'm definitely not defending our completely screwed up healthcare system, and I am not even saying that there aren't doctors who have gotten to a point where they could perhaps be reminded of their oaths. My beef was not even with the frustration that people have expressed over the problems with trying to pay VERY high healthcare bills. I simply don't think it is productive to say that you hope that the doctor (who at least in this case seems to have been instrumental in the saving of a life and probably, in general is in medicine to make a difference in people's lives -- there are plenty of easier ways to make money) basically gets what's coming to him. I think it is mean; and moreover, I think the ire is misplaced. I apologize if I have offended anyone by my spirited defense of this person.