• ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Donate anyway. It saves a life. The bills can go unpaid for that person, but without your blood donation they could die. Dying is worse than an unpaid medical bill. Some generous billionaire could come along one day and pay off huge medical debts for patients, on a whim. Some billionaire can’t bring your dead body back to life.

    • Apeman42@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Some generous billionaire could come along one day and pay off huge medical debts for patients, on a whim.

      Go on then, pull the other one.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Better to live a slave than die?

      Weird, we have different perspectives on that.

      • ParabolicMotion@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Are you saying that you have so much medical debt that you’re a slave to it? Blood transfusion costs a patient about $250 on average. High rent, rising gasoline prices, and inflation on cost of food makes you a slave. A $250 blood transfusion doesn’t make you a slave, especially when you live in a state that requires you to have health coverage and offers you free state medical insurance if you can’t afford anything else. If you’re going to complain about the high cost of medical care, please complain about MRI costs, without medical insurance, in a state that won’t cover you. I once paid $8000 for an abdominal MRI while out of state. It took me years to pay it off. That, you can complain about, or perhaps the fact that they expected me to return six months later for another one (which I didn’t). You shouldn’t complain about the cost of a blood transfusion that you may never need. Heck, you’re lucky if they have your blood type. I bled out in the hospital in 2012, and no one there had my blood type. There were no pints available for me. They let me lay in a hospital room with a hemoglobin level of 4, waiting for me to regain consciousness. I had to pay the medical bill for using their room to recover! Be mad about that.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          No I’m saying debt is a means by which many people are locked into their financial circumstances and never manage to pull themselves out of poverty.

          If your entire life is spent working to pay off a life debt - that’s not including paying to eat, drink, sleep under a roof - how is that different from slavery?

          Congrats, you got out of yours. Now maybe have a little empathy for those who can’t.