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Anchor Intro: You'd like to get some expensive elective surgery, but you don't really have the money... and there's no insurance. What do you do? Bankrate.com takes a look at financing as an option for health care.
VOSOT: "They can be anywhere from $2,000 up
to $40,000 up to $100,000." "Probably something typical would be
in about the $10 to $20,000 range is probably kind of typical in
most scenarios."
Voice-over 1: Oral surgeon Arun Garg routinely
does expensive cosmetic surgery with no hope of ever seeing an insurance
check, since more often than not the work he does is deemed elective
and thus not covered by insurance. And that means he has to offer
more than medical expertise...he has to offer financing.
SOT: "For most people, like we do for a house, like we do for a car, we don't just plunk down the money, what we need to do is finance it. And what we do is we offer that. We tell them zero percent interest, up to about two years...beyond two years is a little bit of interest."
Voice-over 2: Dr. Garg offers financing through
one of a growing number of specialty companies: He uses Chase Health
Advance. The patient fills out a form, then within a few minutes,
if they've got good credit, they're approved for an interest-free
loan.
Voice-over 3: It's interest-free because the
patient is essentially paying more...or the doctor is accepting
less...however you want to look at it. So if a procedure costs $10,000,
the finance company pays the doctor, say, nine thousand the next
day and the patient pays 10 over two years.
Standup: While this type of financing sounds
convenient, it also suggests that the doctor might accept a lower
price for cash. If that's the case, it can take a bigger bite out
of your bill. For Bankrate.com, I'm Kristin Arnold.
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