M6NTL wrote:
Thank FECK I had insurance Jim, the total figure for the Paramedics, the Surgery, Hospital Stay, and Medical Flight/Nurse Courier home, was in excess of $300,000.
I would have been forced to sell the family home, and then STILL have been way short of paying that...
Sobering stuff...What does 73 de aa3dn mean???
Well, just because the hospital bills you $300,000 doesn't necessarily mean they can make you pay it. I was once told by a doctor after breaking my foot to just let the insurance I had pay what it would, and when I got billed for the difference to ignore the bill. It worked.
In your case, had you not had insurance, you could have negotiated with the hospital, explaining your situation, and almost certainly had the bill reduced substantially. A friend who recently went through cancer treatment was uninsured, and everyone involved immediately gave him a 50% discount because of that. Often/usually the hospital sets its fees based on many things other than the actual cost of treatment plus profit.
I'm not an expert in this matter, but I've seen enough evidence to believe what I'm saying is true.
Your board name, M6NTL, looks like a British amateur radio call sign, so I thought you were likely to be a ham. "73" is shorthand for "best regards" and de is shorthand for "from", when transmitting by Morse Code. AA3DN is my call sign.