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Regardless of your political leanings, you’ve gotta admit that the healthcare system in the U.S. leaves much to be desired. It’s expensive and not customer-friendly in the slightest, as one woman’s disturbing tweet makes clear.
Dr. Jennifer Gunter shared on Twitter that the most absurd medical bill she has ever received was for her son. He died three minutes after birth and received no medical care — but she still got a bill in the mail for $600.
Dr. Gunter wrote,
“As he died almost immediately he didn’t get enrolled in my insurance plan, so I got the bill.”
To make things even worse, this happened at the hospital where Dr. Gunter was a doctor. Dr. Gunter is an OBGYN, so she worked in the very department that sent her this wild bill.
$600 for my son who lived about 3 minutes. He received no medical care. At all. As he died almost immediately he didn’t get enrolled in my insurance plan, so I got the bill. From the hospital where I was a doctor. https://t.co/0Psbv11XtZ
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) September 15, 2019
She explained how it was confusing and re-traumatizing to receive the bill in the mail, which was addressed to Parents of Aidan:
“For a second I thought his death was a dream and I got very hopeful he was alive and then confused. And then very sad.”
Dr. Gunter then called the billing department and “literally had to argue with them about my son being dead and they didn’t believe me that I let him die without medical care.”
She wrote further,
“I am literally explaining how some babies are born to die. They say, ‘Too bad.'”
Finally, Dr. Gunter wrote a “very threatening email” to the hospital CEO, saying that she would call them out in the newspaper.
I’d forgotten about those few seconds that felt like an eternity when I saw the letter addressed to “Parents of Aidan…”
I was really confused. I had sepsis and was just home maybe 3 days. My other two were in the NICU. I really thought for a moment he was alive.
Sigh.— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) September 15, 2019
But clearly, that bill was harrowing enough that she remembers it in detail, years later. No one should have to go through something like this, especially someone who’s just given birth and is mourning their child at the same time.
This is why healthcare reform is desperately needed in this country.
