Member-only story
Unlawful Imprisonment (And White Privilege) In Hospital California
Where you can be discharged but never leave…unless you pay up first
Last week my youngest son’s wife gave birth to their first child, a beautiful little girl named Lily. And yes, all those memes about grandparents’ opinions of their grandkids being the cutest and bestest ever are absolutely true.
As the proud parents were about to leave the hospital here near Seattle, my son Eric went to the reception desk and asked, “Who do we pay? Do you accept a card, or does it have to be cash?” The receptionist and the nurses nearby looked at him with wide eyes, and then began laughing when they realized he was being completely serious. He honestly thought they wouldn’t be allowed to leave the hospital without paying the entire bill first. My wife (who was there helping them) pulled him along, and reassured him that insurance had it covered, that he had nothing to worry about.
But that short vignette begs the question: why was Eric under the impression that he had to pay the whole hospital bill first before leaving the hospital? Here’s a clue: it wasn’t because he was just being stupid. It was because that’s precisely what he’d been forced to do the last time he’d been in a hospital.
