America has among the best healthcare services and expertise available in the free world. That is if you can pay for it. There’s no other developed country in the world that pays more per capita for healthcare, yet they are also one of the few countries on the face of the planet that does not provide universal healthcare.

Rural Americans would prefer to die rather than pay for healthcare, citing the “socialist” agenda. In reality, the “socialist” agenda is actually a product of a far right-wing agenda that denies Americans basic health services.

So what happens when you do happen to need health services, specifically a trip to the hospital? How do you deal with the massive inflation of prices? Why does a band-aid cost $50? Everything not including the air you breath has a price tag.

Turns out you have a few options on top of your insurance provider. You should advocate for yourself, and press hard to have any bill itemized.

Tiktok video on itemized bills

There’s a social media craze right now about how you should request your itemized bill. Requesting a breakdown appears to magically reduce invoices. Asking for payment plans or flat out refusing to pay itemized totals can also reduce your invoice. After all, hospitals are in a business in the American system, and they’d rather get some money rather than none.

The amount a bill can be reduced varies. There are stories about huge reductions from inflammatory invoices. Those are probably urban legend, as the actual bills that go out to the insurance companies can’t amount to fraud.

If you have insurance, you can contact your insurance company and ask for a breakdown of what was billed as well. Most services you were billed for likely weren’t even done. So ALWAYS ask for an itemized bill, they get scared and remove a whole bunch of items!

Another option with exorbitant hospital bills is applying for medical financial assistance (MFA). Every hospital has it, you just need to submit financial info and they will pay it all or half. Sometimes you can even get medicine and visits waived for 6 months or more.

From online: another thing you can do for extra help is ask to apply for charity. The charity department will ask questions about your income situation however, but many people do lie about their income. There’s a chance you’ll get approved and your account is adjusted to zero balance.