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Question

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Hey Scott,

You always hear about wrestlers getting these injuries that require surgery, which is pretty costly, while working for these smaller promotions. How do these guys afford this when they are apparently making peanuts? For instance, I'm sure Smoky Mountain Wrestling didn't offer insurance if you tore a pectoral muscle. What is the insurance/healthcare situation for an independent wrestler?

Thanks

Typically there's not much to help indy guys unless they've got their own insurance.  Just look at what happened with Zema Ion, for instance.  I imagine most of them just into debt to deal with the astronomical bills.  Or they could move to Canada, I suppose.  

Comments

  1. parallax1978January 18, 2014 at 11:16 AM

    THANKS OBAMA!

    ReplyDelete
  2. nebb28January 18, 2014 at 11:33 AM

    O CANADA!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tom DawkingsJanuary 18, 2014 at 12:31 PM

    Don't a lot of indy workers have second jobs? Though, I think if you're a big indy star (like Kevin Steen) they can probably afford those bills.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Love-Matic Grampa!January 18, 2014 at 1:01 PM

    My week-and-a-half stay in the hospital two years ago ended up costing over $100,000, and that was without surgery. Medical bills are no joke.

    ReplyDelete
  5. jabronivilleJanuary 18, 2014 at 2:22 PM

    Did they fill you with diamonds or something?

    ReplyDelete
  6. spicollidriverJanuary 18, 2014 at 4:48 PM

    for European (like me) this discussion seems kind of strange.

    ReplyDelete
  7. jdg9January 18, 2014 at 6:01 PM

    It's completely believable. Our hospital initially charged us 20,000 for the delivery of our baby and my wife's four night stay. We didn't actually pay that much ( the billed the insurance company incorrectly) but it shows how much it costs.

    ReplyDelete
  8. brocoreJanuary 18, 2014 at 6:03 PM

    Hospitals intentionally overcharge on services to a ridiculous degree (sometimes like x1000 the actual cost) because so many of the people they end up providing service to never end up paying their bills. The hospital ends up writing it off because how are you going to garnish wages from someone you can't find or is so poor you literally will be getting next to nothing? So all the poor schlubs who have insurance and/or are responsible get fucked unless they contest the charges, in which case the hospitals sometimes lower the amount to where you're just slightly fucked instead of completely fucked.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mister_E_MahnJanuary 18, 2014 at 6:10 PM

    I've heard this before, and I don't understand how poor people continue to breed if this is the cost.


    Between our government coverage, and my insurance through work I was to pay $50 to have our baby, and that was because we upgraded to a private room. The hospital then forgot to bill us the $50, so we paid nothing at all.

    ReplyDelete
  10. jdg9January 18, 2014 at 9:39 PM

    Welcome to to the American health care system. We had some complications, so it was more than it should have. And we wound up paying nothing as well, since the hospital screwed up the claim.



    Regardless, while you may have only been billed $50, your insurance company was billed a shitload more. How do poor people have children? How do they afford any hospital service? In some cases they can't, so the cost gets passed on to those people who can pay. Which is one reason why medical costs in general (and hospital costs specifically) in the U.S.are so expensive. In other cases, they wind up going into crippling debt.

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  11. jabronivilleJanuary 18, 2014 at 11:41 PM

    aaaaaaand I'm glad I'm Canadian.

    ReplyDelete
  12. brocoreJanuary 19, 2014 at 9:49 PM

    No joke. I'm all for a single-payer system. All the current health care reform did was create a system that reaffirmed the dominance of insurance companies.

    ReplyDelete

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