In the US, how do people go bankrupt from medical bills when most insurance have a max out of pocket?

Question

Just was thinking about this the other day while looking at my insurance. How do people in the U.S. accumulate huge bills without hitting their max out of pockets? Are cancer treatments not usually covered by insurance? Are the doctors that provide the treatment just happening to be out of network?

I guess I’m wondering if there is anyway I can plan to not be in a situation of me or my husband rejecting treatment and dying or having huge medical bills cripple us. We’re relatively healthy now, but the future is near.

I’d like to understand better how it seems to be so *common* for people to not be covered by their out of pocket max.

Thanks.

In: 4623

Answer 1

Also health providers pad the bill. We had a supposed covered procedure. Bill for the procedure under insurance was going to be $45K. Insurance denied the claim and it turned out we were actually dropped by the insurance company a week before the procedure (longer story than I want to explain here). Once hospital found out we were paying cash instead of being insured, bill was set at only $8k. So, hospital was padding the bill by $37K to milk the insurance company. Welcome to America!