UPDATE: Holy crap! This thing is going to cost money!

Alternate title "Thank you, Jebus, for giving me sweet, sweet insurance."
I paid some bills last week that had been piling up from my surgery. I had yet to pay a bill since my surgery, as I am lazy and poor. After the sixth & final notice ("No, no, really. This is the final. Please, please pay us! No? Ok, we'll send you another notice in a week or two.") from one very persistent medical group, I figured it was time to get it over with.

Now that my checks have cleared, we can add $2,470.62 to the $1,736.01 that I already paid (insurance adjusted down from $6,897.36) before the surgery. What is shockingly amazing to me is how much insurance adjusted. Can you imagine what people who don't have insurance do?! So sad. Here's the breakdown:

Anesthesia bill $411.21 (insurance adjusted down from $4,578)
Pathology lab $108.72 (insurance adjusted down from $747.89)
Additional labs $53.60 (insurance adjusted down from $1,108.80)
Hospital bills (this is the real kicker) $1,897.09 (insurance adjusted down from $179,654.02, as detailed here)

So if I hadn't had insurance, based on the original bills, I would have had to pay $192,986.07!!

$192,986.07!!!!!

This does not count the prescription meds my parents picked up for me when I left the hospital. I still have to get those receipts, pay them back and then add those to the running total.

So the new running total on this whole shabang is $4,206.63.

Who wants to buy me a drink? Seriously. Don't make me beg.