I AM AN

I am an American without health insurance. This is my receipt from spending two days in the hospital. It totaled about $24,000. My co-pay is what I'm actually paying. $2,478. Because when you don't have insurance, these hospitals give you a discount. Unfortunately, given how expensive healthcare in this country has gotten, a lot of people are starting to go without health insurance. Bad. However, in the greatest uno reverse of all time, sometimes not having insurance actually makes medical procedures cost less. Good. Good. Not all hospitals are created equal, and some could charge 10 times as much for the same service. So here's how what your medical procedures might cost out of pocket. Head to search.sumhealth.org. I'm not being paid to say this, this is not an ad, this is a free tool to use. You'll need to create a free account to see your results, but just trust me, it's worth doing. Then you Google. Hip MRI CPT code. In our example, let's use a hip MRI with and without contrast. Go back to the site and then you pop in the CPT code and your zip code. And the results will show you all of the pricing in all of the hospitals in your area. Notice the difference. That MRI in Van Nuys would be about 500 bucks, about 2,500 in Santa Monica and about $4,000 in Burbank. A 30 to 60 minute drive might be well worth saving $3,500. It's a real bummer that we pay into this healthcare system that doesn't have our back when we actually need it. So I'm not advocating for canceling your health insurance, but if you are uninsured, just know you have options. If you want to learn more about money and how to use it to your advantage, I'm Vivian, your rich BFF and your favorite Wall Street girly, teaching you all the finance you never got in school. Follow to get smarter and richer.