Not sure if it’s a good idea to post this. Emergency rooms and clinics across the country that service the poor will read this and go, “Why didn’t we think of this?”
Hospital keeps baby until parents pay
An Indonesian clinic is keeping a baby until his poor parents pay the bill for his delivery, a report said Thursday.
Pedicab driver Sutrisno is 2.2 million rupiah (about $320s) short of the 3.5 million rupiah bill owed to the clinic, The Jakarta Post reported.
Mr Sutrisno, 33, has paid 1.3 million rupiah to the Murni Asih clinic near Jakarta after borrowing from friends.
“I don’t know where I’ll get another 2.2 million rupiah from,” he said.
The clinic in Bojong Nangka allowed his wife Sumarni, 30, to leave after she gave birth last week but is keeping the baby boy until the bill is paid, the Post said.
“We’ll take care of the baby and will return him to his parents as soon as they’ve paid the 3.5 million rupiah in full,” clinic spokesman Fendi Sihombing told the Post.
He said the parents had initially agreed to the arrangement.
“We didn’t take the baby hostage,” he said.
And I thought our health care system sucked…
“We didn’t take the baby hostage,’’ he said.
They must of gone to the GW school of reality. Duh, taking the baby hostage is exactly what you did. Sweet Jeebus.
How much is 3.2 million rupiah? about $400.00 u.s.?
When my daughter was diagnosed with CF in Birmingham the hospital admin said they could not “release” her untill payment was made. (Apparently my company’s HR department had not processed the insurance paperwork properly several months earlier.) We ended up paying $2300 out of pocket on top of the cost for a $800 therapy device
People are vulnerable when they are dealing with the health of a loved one… I guess we could have just left but I didn’t have any fight left in me.
After two years of struggling … we got the money re-imbursed from the Hospital. This only happend several months AFTER our insurance paid them.
Jesus H Freaking Christ!
Imagine how much health care we could provide to the third world if, just as one example, every American would for just one day make a cup of coffee in the morning and donate the cost of a Starbuck’s Mocha Latte to the cause.
This story just points out to me that no matter how poor I am in relation to most Americans, I am amazingly rich by comparison to the real poverty we find all over the world.
OTOH, I don’t know how effective this policy would be if the parents said to the hospital “Fine, take care of the baby as long as you want to. When you get tired of that, then you can return it to us”. Sounds like the parents did not have good negotiation skills.
They agreed to it in advance. I don’t see the problem. It’s probably saving the parents a lot more in “baby supplies” than it’s costing them. I’d probably just let the hospital take care of the kid until it was potty-trained. 🙂
#6,#7 That was my first thought, too.
“Fine, you feed and clothe the thing and send it back to me in 18 years or so when it can start paying for itself.”
An hilarious but scary story…
Just curious: At what point is a health care facility allowed to deny treatment because of lack of payment (either before or after).
I would imagine that if a hospital didn’t get reimbursed for treatment (however), the hospital would eventually go out of business/service. The doctors and nurses do not work for free, and supplies/drugs cost money.
Of course, holding the baby hostage is ridiculous, but I would imagine that if I was hospital administrator and had to lay off staff because we weren’t being paid for services rendered, I would take a hard line. Dunning letters don’t put food in the staff’s families mouths.
[Note that this is *not* a discussion on universal health care, or whatever… the health care budget of a nation has to be limited by definition, and at some point, decisions have to be made as to who pays, how much, and what happens when things go wrong]
This idea just needs to a bit more preemptive. The parents should not had been allowed to procreate until they could afford the ensuing bills. Ah, but that just makes too much sense eh?
Breed like rats people.
This is fundamentally wrong. I have no love of government or taxpayers forced to fund the healthcare of others, but no one has the right to keep another human being against their will. The child is not a thief, yet it is being treated as the criminal here.
#7 – you can’t agree to this in advance. You can’t agree to give up your right to association and then be held to such a contract if you change your mind. The child is not property, there is no title of ownership to the child to transfer between the hospital and the parents. If there’s an issue of payment, there are other ways to go about collecting.
If a hospital in the US tried to do this with me or my child (for instance, in the case where the insurance payment wasn’t forthcoming) there would be hell to pay and lots of police involved.
Still, it’s funny and I’d be the first to ask if they’d keep the kid till he’s out of college – preferably a doctor and ready to support me in my retirement.
FIne, but they should also offer an 18 year satisfaction guaranteed warranty.
#10 – This idea just needs to a bit more preemptive. The parents should not had been allowed to procreate until they could afford the ensuing bills. Ah, but that just makes too much sense eh?
No… It doesn’t make sense because people don’t need permission from anyone else to procreate.
You design a system that prevents people from having children they can’t afford (without forcing invasive procedures or using stormtroopers or some such) and maybe I’ll get behind it. But since I’m sure you can’t do that, it seems the prudent thing to do is fix that failures of a system that allows for such abject poverty to exist in the first place.
#13, OFTLO,
I want to agree with your point so much. You are not only right, you are too right. And that is what makes it wrong. Poverty isn’t what created this situation. It is the high cost of the medical care in relation to the wages.
As a society we have choices. If we want to be civilized with everyone living within certain bounds then at the same time we must give everyone an equal opportunity. If we are willing to accept that there are no boundaries and if you don’t have something then you may just take it.
If I am to be denied health care for my child because I drive a School Bus and don’t get paid enough then damn it, I’ll just get the money from the bank. At gun point if necessary. No, I’m not into violence and so I prefer the civilized version.
#13, #14
Regardless of the state of the “system”, the couple had the ability to observe the situation around them and their own financial situation. They made a poor decision anyway. This not only promised a miserable life for their child (and it WILL be miserable) but insured the entire families’ continued poverty and places another straw on the already strained heath care system of their 3rd world country.
#14, if you are a bus driver and you decide to have children , you’re a cruel idiot and a burden to your society. You should be punished and your hapless spawn taken from you and given to capable people who can bring up a child, properly.
rats, dirty dirty rats.
#15, and you’re a effen idiot. What the hell gives you the right to decide if I may have children? Who the eff decided that anyone who works in a sector that pays less then average automatically lost the right to have children. What if I just shot your effen stupid empty skull off of your shoulders and just took that which you want to deny me.
So take your pick. Did you want to live civilly or with your effen attitude problem? Are we equals or are we into a power struggle.
isn’t it aways a power struggle? We live in a hierarchical system.
I (we) have a right when our health care costs go up to compensate for the ignorant mindless trash that think they have a “right” or a command from “god” to produce offspring at the cost of their society.
eff them.