Aussies are left stunned by the brutal reality of the American health system
Australians were shocked to hear that an American patient had to pay for his healthcare using a credit card machine brought straight to his hospital bed.
Bay was rushed to the emergency department of a Florida hospital last week after a medical episode.
Bay shared a video on their social media account that showed them lying in a hospital bed and trying to tap their debit card on a nearby portable credit card terminal.
“From the point of view you almost died, but you live in America,” Bay wrote.
Bay claimed they had just regained consciousness when a nurse instructed them to tap their card to pay their “copay.”
In the United States, a copay is a fixed amount that patients must pay in advance for medical services, as specified in their health insurance.
Bay said they were shocked by the experience and claimed that emergency medical technicians found their wallets and placed them on their laps before they woke up.
Social media users from around the world shared their shock at the US healthcare system, with many claiming Bay should have refused to pay and instead asked the hospital to send them a bill.
Bay shared a video of them taping their debit card to a portable credit card terminal on the side of their hospital bed
“My Australian brain is so grateful that we don’t go to the hospital and worry about payment, it’s all free,” said one.
‘I’m in Australia. I don’t have health insurance for hospital visits, but I don’t need it because of the public healthcare system here,” a second added.
Australia’s Medicare system provides universal healthcare coverage to all Australian citizens and permanent residents, while the United States does not have a universal healthcare system, meaning not everyone is automatically covered.
Most Americans rely on private health insurance offered through employers or purchased individually.
The government runs limited programs, such as Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for low-income people, but these do not cover everyone.
A patient with a broken leg could pay up to $7,500 for treatment, while the average cost of a three-day hospital stay could cost around $30,000, according to the US government’s healthcare website.
By comparison, in Australia, even privately insured patients can claim up to 75 percent of their treatment and surgery costs through the Medicare Benefits Schedule.