Garda shot on holiday in America faces $1,000,000 hospital bill

No sympathy for that idiot. If he really had travel insurance, he must have gotten the cheap shytty insurance that doesn't cover anything. Then drinking until 4am wasn't enough, he follows some guy he just met out of the French Quarter to the 7th Ward, notorious for crime to get some "drink" when there are bars open 24/7 in the French Quarter.

steddyeddy wrote: »

America you're doing civilisation very very wrong. You're going backwards in education, health and housing.

Not completely true. Insurance companies now have to provide cover to people with pre-existing condition. So that's a step forward.

Also have some of the best third level institutions in the world.

Housing, I don't know much about...could do more for homeless people for sure. Unemployment is falling drastically, the economy where I am has picked up and is currently going through a bit of a boom. Lots of jobs!

[Deleted User] wrote: »

He's already back in Ireland.

Which is where they might try to extradite him from.

Greenmachine wrote: »

Had the mugger got a gun? Would have thought a cop should be able to restrain someone, even if they had an knife.

Well there tends to be a gun resent when someo

YFlyer wrote:

How the heck could insurance afford multi million euro treatments on the back of €50 per year?

Normally when I see these cheap travel insurance deals they are for people who already have health insurance in Ireland. It is really their health insurance covering them for medical bills abroad. The travel insurance but is only covering things like lost luggage / missed flights due to sickness /bereavement

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They could try, but they'll get very little traction, especially when they present an itemised bill with $53 for a pair of latex gloves. The best they could hope for is a judge to ask them to present the cost of the equivalent care in Ireland and ask the Garda to pay that.

These levels of bills however are very rarely paid. The advertised healthcare costs are so high so that they can be charged to insurers. When the patient turns around to the hospital and says they have no insurance, the hospital will usually write of 95%+ of the costs so that they only have to chase the patient for $50k rather than $1m. These headline figures are often used to illustrate the absurdity of the US healthcare system, but they're almost never paid.

The hardest cases are the ones where someone's life relies on ongoing critical and expert care, but the family are unable to afford to pay the mounting medical costs. Hospitals in the US will focus on stabilising the patient and then moving them to a cheaper/free hospital where the patient's chances of survival plummet. It's barbaric.

$50k is still insanely expensive and it's ridiculous that not only does a modern country not provide life-saving healthcare to its citizens, but half of the government actively opposes all measures designed to improve the situation and provide healthcare to it citizens, because they have big business interests funding them.

And the Americans vote in these idiots.

My name is URL wrote: »

$53 charge for every pair of non-sterile disposable gloves used during your stay

http://www.rd.com/slideshows/wildly-overinflated-hospital-costs/#slide5=&slideshow=slide5

Sterile ones are more expensive apparently.

Seriously, fcuk that kip

You'd think with the competition between hospitals in America that they'd have competitive prices. I'm sure the actual price of those gloves is at worst $50 for a box of 100.

I had the pleasure of spending a week in a public hospital years ago and then a week for the same thing in a private hospital last year. The differences were crazy. In the public hospital I was on 3 antibiotics, there were no clean towels or bed sheets, because people were using the bed sheets as towels and there were more nurses and doctors running around the place achieving nothing than I could count.

In the private hospital I was on one cheap antibiotic. There was one nurse checking patients routinely all day and night. She could do a better job than 3 nurses in the other place. The biggest surprise was that the bill was half the price of the public hospital and the level of care was in a different league altogether. The impression I got was that the private hospitals treat insurance companies as customers and don't try to rip them off. Whereas the state hospitals see them as cash cows and will throw everything at someone with insurance whether it's needed or not.

I understand the public hospitals do a lot of training but whenever you go into the hospital and start to talk to a doctor a gang of other doctors burst through the door, treat you like a dud sheep at a fair, have a big conflab and go on their merry way leaving you with a piece of paper telling you to come back in a year for a scan. I think the training seems to be taking precedent over patient care, all them trainee doctors and nurses are just getting in the way.

Egginacup wrote: »

Why does anyone have to raise funds to pay his medical bill? Shouldn't the state pay it?

Why should the state pay for a citizen abroad on holidays getting a high medical bill?

I've got all the love for our police and armed forces, but I don't think they should get special treatment abroad as private citizens.

All this story does it highlight how silly it is not to take out basic cover when travelling to the states. I've paid in the region of €40-€60 in the past on trips that cover medical expenses in excess of €6m.

JaseBelleVie wrote: »

Again,

Welcome To America! Come for the Freedom and Amusement Parks, stay for the $130,000 f*cking aspirin.

He shouldn't pay it. What are they going to do? To try and extradite and sue across jurisdictions is a major pain in the hole and the hospital would end up paying far in excess of that $1m to try and claw it out of him. Not a hope. He should send them a cheque made out to that amount and let it bounce and then just tell them "The money is resting in my account" and let them work that one out.

It's amazing what a distorted view people have of legal fees in this country - obtaining a judgment and enforcing it cross-border is nowhere near that expensive and wouldn't be close to a million.

(No comment as to whether they'd actually be able to enforce it - you're supposed to negotiate with the hospital rather than pay Micky Mouse money.).

Greenmachine wrote: »

Had the mugger got a gun? Would have thought a cop should be able to restrain someone, even if they had an knife.

For the sake of €200 I would not put up a fight if all they had was a sharp pencil.

Tzardine wrote: »

For the sake of €200 I would not put up a fight if all they had was a sharp pencil.

I would have knocked the two of them out with one roundhouse kick and karate jumped onto a passing overhead train.