Recent hospital stay
An old problem reared its ugly head and a trip to the ER was called for. I ended up being admitted and staying for about 40 hours. CT Scan, treatment, intubation. No surgery required (that was nice).
Bill just came. $13,200.
Insurance subtracted almost $8100, they paid $4800 and I pay $350 as co-pay.
With the premiums we pay, the system recovers the $4800 in 8 months, assuming no other charges. That won't happen, but it won't be much.
So if you have no coverage, you're on the hook for 13 grand. People who do not want health insurance because ObamaCare, are screwed. Not by the gubmint, but by the healthcare system.
If the hospital can function on $4800 then that's what they should charge, not $13,000. We're doing this backwards. People who have no insurance should get basic (but proper) care and pay the lower fare, people who have insurance should get better accommodations and pay more.
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When my ex-husband and I were still trying to save our so-called marriage, we went to a counselor. It went on my insurance because his didn't work on this particular counselor. Her full fee per hour is $125. My insurance had a $57 discount, so the balance was $68 (of which I paid my $30 co-pay). I opted to discontinue seeing her, but my ex-husband continues and pays full price.
I would think that she would prefer seeing patients who did not have insurance over those who did because she then makes more per hour. 
I agree with you. The system is backwards, IMO.
This one's not doing him any good.
(just kidding. sorta)
Therapists seem to be in high demand.
I only went a few times. When it became apparent that all my husband wanted to do in our joint sessions was bash me, I decided that it wasn't productive for me. I already knew all of his gripes about me. I mean, I could listen to that crap at home for free. 
I remember that I went in during the afternoon when I thought I was having another TIA. In the late afternoon they talked me into being admitted so I could have an MRI that evening. I was put into a room with a patient from hell. She had long LOUD phone conversations and kept her tv volume loud too. Around 10:00, when I was awakened by the commotion of her getting help to go to the restroom, I said to the nurse, "I'm not getting that MRI tonight, am I." She answered that none had been ordered. I told her I was going home. She asked if I would wait until she talked to the Nurse Practitioner in charge and I said ok, but then I decided I didn't feel like enduring the whole attempt at them trying to convince me to stay, so I pulled off the electrodes and got dressed and went downstairs to wait for my (then) husband to pick me up. Before my (then) husband got there, the nurse came out and asked if I'd go back up with her so she could remove my IV port thing. 
I forgot I even had it.
Anyhoo, my bill for the roughly eight hours there was $12,085. The Cigna adjustments were $8,839 and they paid $2,197 so my bill was $1,049. So an uninsured patient would be billed over $12,000, but they accepted approximately $3,250 for my "treatment".
That's messed up.
Sounds like you made the right decision. The doctor who admitted you didn't even order the MRI? WTF?
I complained about it when the hospital called to do the follow up, and I also wrote an email, but I got the usual song and dance that one expects. The whole experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I'll probably resist going to the hospital if another situation like that arises. Then I'll probably just have the massive stroke at home.
I did have follow-up care with a whole lot of tests, and I'm apparently fine.
At least your insurance company was looking out for the rest of it. I guess that's the best part of the story.
The monthly premiums are just a shade under $600 per month and I very rarely go to a doctor. Fourteen years ago I had a TIA and went to the ER and subsequently went through four months of quite a few appointments and tests. After that I went for my yearly checkups for a few years and then dropped off on those. So I went about a decade without costing my insurance company a penny. I figure they made well over $70,000 during those years.
Now I'll be on COBRA at a little over $700 per month (which my ex-husband is going to be paying for ) until I get to be on Medicare in the fall.
On the plus side, uninsured people can almost always negotiate bills way down. On the negative side, this is a college grad world, well functioning types, and a lot of people just aren’t. Plus, the bills left her off and dreadfully high.
We once had 100 grand unpaid after insurance Was exhausted. Happily, we were able to negotiate that down to only 50 grand and take out a mortgage to pay it.
for that “happily.” But nice how even the numbers were. Helped us with the math.
all right.
For the era in which we raised our children insurance paid enough that I took them to the doctor often as needed and cheerfully. We had to make time payments a few times when things happened, but basically insurance did its job. Most of today's younger people have never seen this.
Then as empty nesters, like most people we paid increasingly heavy premiums with such high deductibles, etcetera, that the insurance never kicked in. We paid many tens of thousands in premiums over another two decades that literally never paid a single bill; we paid our medical bills out of our pockets, which meant that in spite of being insured we avoided physicals, tests, anything that maybe would go away on its own, etc.
But as you say, we were among the lucky ones. One cancer would have changed all that. The ACA now requires those premium collectors to cover annual health maintenance tests and exams, and that alone is a great thing.
