It does - but here is the thing - of the individual payer bucket (we call it private payer, or self pay) you only collect pennies on the dollar. A HUGE percentage of those will let it go to collections, and fight it until the healthcare provider just writes it off... 

And those write offs - go to those who WILL pay - so, there is your $50 aspirin in the ER. You'll pay. If your insurance doesn't - you'll absorb it. SOMEONE has to pay. 

We ALREADY have socialized medicine - and those who are honest and pay their bills carry EVERYONE else, from Medicare and Medicaid to the private nationals to the deadbeat patients - until you're paying $750 for a saline drip that your insurance doesn't cover but you'll pay because you're an honest person. 

It is all kinds of effed up. 

When I get done, and my wife is out - when we're both retired from healthcare - I'm writing a tell-all expose whistleblower book. 

Shhhhhh

Wed Dec 03 2025 03:08:43 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

A doctor friend explained it to me as a series of buckets.  The first bucket is Medicare and Medicaid, and whatever those refuse to cover spill into the private insurance bucket.  Whatever private insurance won't cover spills over into the individual payer bucket.  Since there is no bucket after that, the costs inflate until there is a zero balance (at least on paper).

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