HHS announces rule to protect consumers from surprise medical bills
Anecdotal:  my dad had a heart attack and was in the hospital for 6 months due to complications. After a certain amount of time, the bills started to rack up and we were being charged for services that we thought would be covered under “health insurance coverage.”  Instead of being covered, the health insurance provided coverage for standard hospital care, but we were charged every time a non network doctor stepped into his room. Then, the non-covered machines that were used. Then, stupid things like “staying in an ICU longer than allowed by coverage.”<p>My father passed away before making it home, but when all was said and done, insurance was billed $10 million in total, of which the various doctors and hospitals billed the estate $2 million. My dad didn’t have an estate because he had no assets. But imagine your life + childrens’ lives being ruined for having insurance yet filled with invisible asterisks.<p>At the time, NJ laws were onerous in this regard and favored insurance companies so we had no recourse.  The state had a process for dealing with issues like this, but it was more of a cursory “jobs done here boss” type process and didn’t provide consumers with relief. Because of that, I moved my family out of NJ. When all contingency plans are filled with asterisks, do you really have insurance/protection?