The System

Healthcare has certainly gone downhill. And I don't mean that it's a shame we don't have Socialistic Universal Healthcare.

I received the bills for our little ER trip a few weeks ago. Sheesh. You'd think I took Joseph in for surgery and went to the spa while I was at it. The hospital charged us $180.95. I will confess that I ignorantly thought this was the total for our visit. A few days later, I received the bill for Dr. Jamil Bitar, charging us $279.00!

My biggest problem with this is that I never met a Dr. Jamil Bitar.

He sent his Physician's Assistant to take care of it. I want a flippin' discount for letting the rookie treat my child. But no.

I have learned over the last few years that "no" is not such a terrible word to hear, and asking for something that seems ridiculous could pay off. So, I called the hospital to ask if I could pay less than the bill. "Sure", Lily told me. And I paid $162.86. She wouldn't go lower. Then I called Phoenix Physican Services and asked the same thing. "Sure", Stacey told me. I paid $223.20.

I saved $73.89 just by asking.

If anyone has any other tips to save money on high hospital bills, I'm all ears. And don't tell me "Get insurance". I'll laugh like a maniac if you do. We've saved thousands of dollars in 3 years by not having insurance. Puh-lease.

Oh, and don't tempt with me "don't pay". It's working way too well with American homeowners right now!

Edited to add: Let me just say that we actually do have Catastrophic health insurance, which covers incidents that will cost more than (I think) $5,000. But for meeting our health care needs, paying cash has saved us a lot. And we're free to make decisions how we want to make them.