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  1. Wow – this is really an eye opener! so i guess dumb asses like me who pay for insurance and then pay out of pocket costs are truly also paying for whoever shows up at a hospital and doesn’t give their real name……..

  2. “For that amount of money I could stay at the Four Seasons President’s suite and have a visiting nurse come over.”

    OK gem, make sure you are sitting down….

    Our fee for our 5-day birthing stay at the birthing center in Oz included full accomodations at the Sofitel Melbourne on day 3 through 5. If you are healthy after day 2, they discharge you to the Sofitel, where they have a whole floor of regular hotel rooms dedicated to the birthing center. You order regular hotel room service and it’s just part of the hospital bill. And of course there is a 24 hour medical staff, regular visits by nurses, lactation consultants, etc. It’s freakin amazing. It’s like gold plated superstar treatment for the kind of money that normal people have.

  3. I suspect that the hospitals deliver the babies and then they leave ASAP, probably as long as there are no complications.

    Hospitals bill people based on what they can. If you are paying out of pocket, you can actually negotiate the prices. I have a very wealthy friend who self insures and he negotiates the price of everything.

    Trust me, if cash is being paid, the price is flexible.

  4. “Dibs – are you serious? you can do that? you can just show up, get care and not give them any documents like a driver’s license etc?”

    The law is that the hospital has to treat you. So, yes, you can show up with no ID, no insurance card, etc.

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