As an Australian living and working in the US with a wife who has a chronic medical condition that costs our insurance company on the order of $100k/yr for her regular treatments, all I can say is "Almost $1k" sounds like a gross underestimate.
An anecdote I like to share with friends back home is related to a routine blood test that she has every few months. The price the provider bills varies significantly, but one time they billed $2900. Our insurance paid them $27 like they usually do and the remainder was written off.
Imagine being sick, having no insurance, maybe no job, and receiving that bill in the mail with absolutely no way for you to know that they would probably accept over 100x less than billed. I can understand why medical expenses are the #1 cause of bankruptcy in this country.
An anecdote I like to share with friends back home is related to a routine blood test that she has every few months. The price the provider bills varies significantly, but one time they billed $2900. Our insurance paid them $27 like they usually do and the remainder was written off.
Imagine being sick, having no insurance, maybe no job, and receiving that bill in the mail with absolutely no way for you to know that they would probably accept over 100x less than billed. I can understand why medical expenses are the #1 cause of bankruptcy in this country.