Is it right to be charged for a drug test that the police wanted?

Before I was sent to 5150 I was sent to the hospital for a drug test and overnight ER stay, then I got the lab bill. Has this happened to you?

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That’s not right in my opinion but they have to make sure the symptoms they are seeing aren’t because of drugs. In my opinion they should have done that at 5150 in case anyone really is not on drugs. If they are then the pdoc should be informed and they can help that person.

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Happened to me. Once you’re in the hospital it’s all on you regardless of who wanted the tests done. A doctor orders it and you pay.

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The VA has tested me for drugs several times. I am not sure why. They didn’t tell me they were doing it I saw it online in my health records. But it’s free medical care. I didn’t have to pay for it.

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Before I was committed to the psych Hospital, I was given a drug test in the ER.

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Thanks for the feedback. I probably consented to being drug tested but I don’t remember. That happened a few years ago.

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I would say no, that is technically not fair. However thinking of when people are hospitalized against their will for mental health reasons, does that then mean they shouldn’t have to pay for their hospital stay? If a person experiences a medical emergency, and someone calls an ambulance for them and they are taken in it to the hospital against their will (say they’re unconscious at the time or something), should they still have to pay for the ambulance and emergency treatment?

In the end, someone has to pay. At least in our healthcare system. Canada and Scandinavia have that worked out so it doesn’t happen like that, however their populations are also much smaller than the US so it is easier to implement these systems.

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Happy Cakeday @anon97859349!

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Thank you @Wave!!

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The US are like a third world country.

List of countries with universal health care:

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I got charged for visiting the emergency room one time for an emergency detention. I really did not want to pay that bill because I thought an emergency detention was totally unreasonable, and I really did not want to go to the emergency room. I put it off as long as I could, but I eventually paid the bill.

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Still, none of those countries have even close to the US population size. US has over 250 million. The one that comes closest out of those is Russia, at around 150 million.

Also those countries are not divided into separate states with their own governments that can choose to implement federal law pretty much however they want.

I would love public healthcare, but I also recognize that it is incredibly complicated for a country of this size and government set up.

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Whoops actually the US now has nearly 330 million. That’s quite the population increase from when I last checked.

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So? The US have also much more money than those countries.

It gets into a lot of things that all play in complicated fashions. Lot’s of which I do not know much about. I could tell you about the money, the psychology, but I could not tell you about how actual politics play out.

The big thing that held it back was that these other countries have long waiting lines. I think that is an excuse because not every country is like that and saying that the U.S. would be that way could be attributed to people not wanting to go get checked for whatever reason like not wanting to pay for the bill. So their health just gets worse and takes longer to get better. Most of the debt people had was hospital bills for a long time. I think now it’s starting to pick up to education.

If you ask me…I think the system is sick.

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I think so, I hope it has the money to pay its cures. :wink:

On a serious note it is funny that even every third world country is trying really hard to have a free healthcare system but they can’t afford it, so the US is like the only country that doesn’t see it as a good thing… is it because free healthcare sounds like a socialist/communist thing?

Mexico has free health care.

Like come on.

That might be what they tell people. But they pay for police and other things out of their taxes. Yeah there are some bad things about social services, but it’s a necessary evil. Unless they just want everyone to work for free while they keep all the money…

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Do you think they collect our DNA in case we commit a crime later? I feel like no one trusts us and would love to keep tabs on us. That’s what I think happened to me.

I was in the Marine Corps. They had a DNA sample for if they ever needed to identify my body. Other than that I don’t know. My DNA is on file with the Department of Defense. I don’t know if they share data with criminal justice agencies or not.

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Oh. @TomCat Thank you for your service!

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