We have medical insurance to help us pay our medical bills, like trips to the doctor, but we hope that we never really need to use that insurance for accidents or illnesses that lead to trips to the hospital.
Hospital bills can be outrageously expensive, and even with insurance, sometimes the bills are unaffordable. Have you ever seen a GoFundMe for a medical bill? We’re thinking you probably have.
Back in September 2019, Bernie Sanders asked his Twitter followers, “What’s the most absurd medical bill you have ever received?” The responses came flooding in, and many of them are very truly absurd.
Scroll down to see 21 examples of medical bills that no average person would ever be able to afford to pay.
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— Becca 🐾🌲👣🌎 (@Becca2400) September 15, 2019
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In 1991, at age 21, I broke my neck in a diving accident.$1.2 million for eight months in hospital.After months of fighting with Blue Cross and Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, I owed $250,000 after insurance.Filed medical bankruptcy at 23 years old.
— Troy – 🌹✊🏼🌻 Here comes the “find out” part… (@troyrudd) September 15, 2019
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$10K to pay for our daughter’s neonatal care one year after the fact. She died thirty minutes after birth and our insurance wouldn’t pay because we failed to add her to our policy.
— didderbops (@didderbops) September 15, 2019
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🤔 The whole stack. Bills for cancer diagnosis and treatment and surveillance with for-profit insurance. Diagnosed three times. #ThisIsAmerica 🙄 We need #MedicareForAll pic.twitter.com/ydStgp1BYs
— 🏴🚩#WeDeserveBetter2020✊ #YouDontNeedMyVote🖕 (@Of_the_People7) September 15, 2019
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These are my grandfather’s bills for his dialysis treatment ($2,433.84 daily) and doctors visit ($150,005.73). #MedicareForAll pic.twitter.com/zfyBGPKBR7
— Brianna Westbrook (@BWestbrookAZ8) September 15, 2019
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$800 out of pocket for the ER to give my three year old daughter with a 105 fever Tylenol, popsicles, and send her home.
— JMandrik (@j_mandrik) September 15, 2019
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Few years ago in the ER with my daughter suffering a severe asthma attack. Rep from billing came in and made us pay $300 BEFORE they would send in a doctor to give her a breathing treatment.
— Farron Cousins (@farronbalanced) September 16, 2019
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When my best friend died 2 weeks after his 30th birthday, he had a bill of over 2 million dollars.
— Sleepy Josh 🏳️🌈 🍀⌛✊ (@abortu) September 15, 2019
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$90,000 because the ambulance automatically drove to the nearest hospital, not the nearest in-network hospital
— Debs (@DebsEugenia) September 15, 2019
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A bill for over $60k (after insurance) came a few days into my newborn daughter’s NICU stay, wound up with a six-figure bill by the time we brought her home
— Tyler Evans (@tylerevansokay) September 15, 2019
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Heart attack, quadruple bypass. Hubby 2007. Vet. Taken to Mayo. VA would not pay. I’m paying a 200,000.00 bill
— Katherine (@Kathatestrump) September 15, 2019
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$10k for an emergency CT scan to find out whether I had appendicitis. it was inconclusive so I had to have a second one
— i bless the rains down in castamere (@Chinchillazllla) September 15, 2019
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I payed my copay. I got called & asked to pay more. I spent a bunch of time on the phone having a person try to explain why I still owed money.Later I learned this practice is called “balance billing”.I call it “consumer fraud”.
— Carl Nyberg (@CarlNyberg312) September 15, 2019
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$22k for 3 days in the ICU. Had 2 separate insurances and neither of them paid a dime.
— Jacie 💋 (@missjacie22) September 15, 2019
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I always love the $80 coinsurance bill for a pregnancy test (a dip stick that probably costs 50 cents) at a routine check-up when telling the doctor you definitely are not pregnant isn’t enough. I actually refused for them to do the test once, then STILL got the bill.
— Lauren Ashcraft 🌹 (@VoteAshcraft) September 15, 2019
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$400.00 for administration of Bayer Baby Aspirin while in an ambulance.
— Patrick (@Pirate2Duck) September 15, 2019
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There’s too many to list but one that always comes to mind is a $57 bill for two Motrin that were given to my ex-husband after surgery. pic.twitter.com/vECIww1pqc
— Spiritual Deviant🌹 (@Musicology247) September 15, 2019
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My cousin’s wife had four different doctors peek around the doorframe in the hours after she gave birth to ask if she needed anything. Later she got a bill for two thousand dollars from each of them
— ComixThomas (@onionsandpeppe1) December 1, 2019
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I went to the doctor in Wisconsin because of a strep infection in my throat just to get a antibiotic prescription. 5k.
— ☢️👨🏽⚕️ (@herm3ss) December 3, 2019
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I was in the hospital for a few hours after passing out from moving boxes for 16 hours. I got a TWELVE different bills ranging from $35 – $1200 during the next two months.
— Fox McCloud (@FoxMcCl) December 2, 2019
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$44,000 for rabies shots after we tried to save a cat. 💉🍑
— uncanny valley girl ⋆ ʙʟᴍ (@nuns_on_film) December 1, 2019