Hospitals Demanding Payments in Advance

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
National correspondent Aaron Rayale to help flat. Good morning, Aaron, been a
while. Good to have you,good morning. How are you well?
Would like to have you flesh outa little bit of a story that popped
up yesterday about a woman who's akid needed a town selectomy pretty badly and
hospital said, nope, you've gotto pay up front, or we're not

(00:20):
going to because we don't want tobe chasing you around for payment afterwards.
And you say, this is happeningwith increasing frequency with hospitals, right,
yes, this is the lead oneof the lead stories in the Wall Street
journally yesterday, and as a mother, it infuriates me because a lot of
procedures that hospitals and surgery centers providethey want payment ahead of time. We're
talking about things like knee replacements,see tea scans, even berths, which,

(00:45):
by the way, I would argueis urgent in many circumstances. But
federal law does require that hospitals takecare of people in an emergency even if
they can't pay. They cannot turnpatients away. But let's say you need
a new knee. You can't walk, oh, but you can breathe and
your heart works, then tough itup because you we are going to need
you to pay for that. It'sa fascinating conundrum given that we're able to

(01:08):
find billions upon billions of dollars forforeign wars, but what we have here
in this country is something called sickcare. Not so much healthcare in the
sense that they're arguing the hospitals thatyou can shop around and try and find
a better deal. Well, Ihope you have a lot of free time,
because you're going to need to beon the phone with your insurance company
and you're also going to need to, you know, call the hospitals.

(01:29):
It's difficult just getting a quote forthe actual price, let alone shopping around.
Well, Jim, we'll have moreon this than as Rosie to Denosi
later this morning about this specific case. But you're wondering. A lot of
listeners are pointing out too that look, if you're coming in this country illegally,
no problem, you get free healthcare. So nice one on it.
Yet, Yeah, and that's evenanother mosaic how broken our system is.

(01:51):
Let me ask you about something elseto erin, because you know, the
cross currents of the economy are alwaysinteresting to me. In this age of
inflation. We know a lot ofpeople are hurting they go to the grocery
store or Bill's spike. So thestats show that Americans are shopping last,
but they're still spending big on thingsthat you would think we're very discretionary,

(02:15):
like travel and entertainment. Right theysure are. And this is fascinating and
I think, like so much elsein our world right now, is the
result of the pandemic. You lockedus away for two years, and we
said we're out and we're traveling,and you be damned if it goes on
the credit card. And as aresult, Disney Disney Parks they saw their
revenue grow eleven percent. United Airlinesthey upped their expectations for growth for the

(02:38):
year, as did Marriott. Longstory short, we're saying you can keep
the stuff. I don't need anew flat screen TV. What I need
is that experience, and however Ihave to get it, I'm going to
do it. And part of mefeels like I kind of like that.
I'd prefer then, you know,a fancy designer bag, having the memory
but also the idea that, yes, you can take a flight. But

(03:00):
I think the idea of an experienceis something that happens like you can be
camping with your loved ones and havethat similar thing. And really what this
is is the labor market has shownremarkable resilience in spite of the fed's rate
hikes, and when people have jobs, they spend, even if it's on
a credit card, they spend.It's the minute you see the jobs drop,
spending, it stops immediately. Therewill be no more travel. So

(03:23):
some travel companies like Expedia, they'relowering guidance for further in the year,
citing economic uncertainty and the fact thatthere might be some job loss. Well,
but you wonder when those when thosecredit cards get maxed out, which
they will. I mean, thecredit card data is spiking in this country.
People are using them for necessities trilliondollars. Yeah, when that's going

(03:46):
to when that's going to come toa screeching halt, you know, Oh
no, listen, it's it's aterrible I'm not saying go on vacation and
put it on your credit card.No, I'm not. Already that is
a very bad idea too. Butthe idea that this is where we clearly
have prioritized what we're willing to spendon in times of economic uncertainty is pretty
interesting. Aaron Reale. Everybody,so what's your weekend. You're a mom,

(04:12):
I am you got big plans thekids little or my loved ones and
maybe maybe get some French toasts.That's about it. Well, you're easy
to please, that's not bad.French toasts. Are your kids little or
medium or big? Oh they're alittle little four and six. They're absolutely
wonderful. They crack me up andI love to be with them. I
would love to take a nap atlike three pm on Sunday, so hopefully

(04:35):
I'll get that. Yeah, well, good luck with that, Thanks,
Aeron, have a great week on. Aaron Rayl at the NBC Radio National
Correspondent Here. Okayfab's morning news.Yeah. These credit card numbers, man,
it's awful. I mean people arenever going to get out of this.
I mean, this is the thingnow, Okay, I mean,
let's just look at the reality.If you've got ten or fifteen or twenty

(04:57):
thousand dollars of credit card debt andthe inter trade is twenty some percent,
and you have a certain income level, unless you decide to stop paying taxes,
you're never getting out of that.Okay. I mean there's just no
way on a month to month basisthat you can climb on top of that
debt. Now, there are techniquesthat some folks are reluctant to use to

(05:20):
try and lower their credit card debtby channeling more of their resources into that,
which means they got to give upthings that are hard for them to
give up. But I mean,gear we have a huge economic crisis in
our country that is very difficult forpoliticians to see because they don't experience it.
They they I mean, god,well you saw that interview with the

(05:41):
President Biden. It was a disgrace. It was it was like, are
you kidding me? What planet areyou on? Dude? Completely out of
touch? Way gone. Wait waitgone