Have you ever gotten a high emergency room bill? If you have, one TikToker has a questionable life hack that many viewers agree has worked for leaving the emergency room (ER) bill free.
While Cheese (@thankucheese) mostly posts videos about reselling cars, he took a break from his regular type of content to share more about how to save some money when you’re sick. In the video, Cheese walks us through how to avoid paying the average ER bill of $2,400- $2,600 (via GoodRx) if you’re uninsured.
The video has over 2,000 likes and over 45,000 views.
@thankucheese #greenscreen This is how you can go to the ER for free. Thank me later. #hospitle #er #emergencyroom #doctors #healthcare #health #corrupt #law #smart #money #expensive #change #fyp #fy #viral #trending ♬ Beautiful Things – Benson Boone
“This is how you can get free emergency room visits. This is extremely unethical but honestly f*ck the U.S. healthcare system. … The first thing you need to do is find a ride there and make sure you both have the exact same story. Once you get to the emergency room, you’re gonna go ahead and say you have no ID and then give them your name. But the most important part about when you give them your name, you need to make up a name. And you can also give them a fictitious address. They won’t be able to give you that extremely outrageous hospital bill if they don’t know who you really are. And it is also the law at every single hospital that they can’t deny you treatment because you don’t have health insurance.”
The law that Cheese is referring to is most likely the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTLA). EMTLA establishes that emergency rooms must treat all regardless of insurance status and a patient’s ability to pay. It was originally enacted in 1986 to protect Medicare recipients from being denied services. The Daily Dot can not confirm that EMTLA also protects patients with no ID. However, viewers in the comments seem to agree with Cheese that this hack does work.
“Been there…done that…” one commenter said.
“Work in healthcare and this will work hopefully you don’t need to be admitted,” mentioned another.
Some comments mention that you might get finger printed as a result of not having an ID and that some private hospitals have the right to not admit you.
While it is unclear if this hack is guaranteed to work at the ER, one thing that is clear are the incredibly high prices patients without insurance must pay for care at the ER.
“The United States Healthcare System needs to be overhauled. There’s no reason why you should be paying thousands of dollars to go to the emergency room, it should be free,” Cheese ends the video saying.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Cheese for comment via TikTok.
