it really varies HUGELY depending on what insurance company you have. So you have basically high deductible insurance, where generally speaking your premiums are relatively low, but you have to pay a lot of money before the insurance will kick in. Some high deductible plans will pay 100% of costs after the deductible is met, some will only pay a percentage (80% is common), in which case you'd be responsible for the full amount of the deductible plus whatever percentage the insurance didn't cover. Low deductible plans will cover a lot more, but the premiums are typically higher, so they may not be chosen by people (ie, Matt) who don't have a ton of money. And that's just for employer-sponsered health care; Matt would be paying for his out of pocket, and I have no idea what kind of plan he'd be able to afford (probably a high deductible plan, but other than that...)
When you're admitted to a hospital, you're generally asked for your insurance card, so that's how they know how to bill you. If you don't have an insurance card, or they don't know who you are, or whatever, they're still required to provide life-saving care but they WILL do their best to track you down afterward and get you to pay. IME, your insurance will be billed first and whatever they don't cover will be billed to you. You should have some idea of what's covered and to what percentage, but you DON'T generally know how much a hospital charges for a given procedure (it varies A LOT), so you won't necessarily know how much it costs until you get the bill. A lot of insurances have out of pocket maximums beyond which they will pay the full cost, but even those can be ruinously expensive, particularly for people without much money.
That said, as first anon said, a lot of hospitals have people who will help you work out a payment plan/look for alternate sources. But yeah, inpatient surgery with a 5-day stay? you're looking at high double-digits at least, easily into triple digits, particularly if it was an ER visit. ERs are expensive. For reference, when I was pregnant I had to stay overnight in the ER because they thought I might have blood clots (I didn't). No invasive procedures, no drugs, pretty much no intervention at all, and they still billed my insurance almost 4K.
Re: What kind of insurance would Matt have?
it really varies HUGELY depending on what insurance company you have. So you have basically high deductible insurance, where generally speaking your premiums are relatively low, but you have to pay a lot of money before the insurance will kick in. Some high deductible plans will pay 100% of costs after the deductible is met, some will only pay a percentage (80% is common), in which case you'd be responsible for the full amount of the deductible plus whatever percentage the insurance didn't cover. Low deductible plans will cover a lot more, but the premiums are typically higher, so they may not be chosen by people (ie, Matt) who don't have a ton of money. And that's just for employer-sponsered health care; Matt would be paying for his out of pocket, and I have no idea what kind of plan he'd be able to afford (probably a high deductible plan, but other than that...)
When you're admitted to a hospital, you're generally asked for your insurance card, so that's how they know how to bill you. If you don't have an insurance card, or they don't know who you are, or whatever, they're still required to provide life-saving care but they WILL do their best to track you down afterward and get you to pay. IME, your insurance will be billed first and whatever they don't cover will be billed to you. You should have some idea of what's covered and to what percentage, but you DON'T generally know how much a hospital charges for a given procedure (it varies A LOT), so you won't necessarily know how much it costs until you get the bill. A lot of insurances have out of pocket maximums beyond which they will pay the full cost, but even those can be ruinously expensive, particularly for people without much money.
That said, as first anon said, a lot of hospitals have people who will help you work out a payment plan/look for alternate sources. But yeah, inpatient surgery with a 5-day stay? you're looking at high double-digits at least, easily into triple digits, particularly if it was an ER visit. ERs are expensive. For reference, when I was pregnant I had to stay overnight in the ER because they thought I might have blood clots (I didn't). No invasive procedures, no drugs, pretty much no intervention at all, and they still billed my insurance almost 4K.
Hope that helps...