American healthcare is a fucking joke.
I’m so lucky that I live in a country where it’s covered and I don’t have to worry if i get sick.
Yeah I’m about to lose my healthcare for 4 months I’m pretty nervous. Gunna get a physical and my teeth cleaned before it runs out but still a lot can go wrong. Wife’s grandpa was telling me he’s on a pill that’s $10,000 a month if you don’t have insurance
Thanks Martin Shkreli. (Idk how to embed links on this app yet. Kinda embarrassing.)
Edit: let’s see what happens
Thanks again! Wefwef(voyager) doesn’t have that nice little “?”
There’s a little question mark that shows you formatting when you reply it takes you here it’s goes [text] (link) without the spaces
[text](link)Cheers!
Here’s my American Healthcare story:
- snap finger bone, go to urgent care to get splint
- pay 50ish dollars that day
- 2 months later, get bill for 200 dollars
- ahah! everyone says to ask for an itemized bill! do that
- get itemized bill back that claims the 200 charge is for ‘visiting with a doctor with knowledge of medical history’ (paraphrasing)
- contest charge because I did not see a doctor, and splinting a snapped finger does not require any fucking context at all
- get runaround for 2 months, while being threatened with late fees
- finally they say they will adjust the bill
- get new bill for $201, ‘for a visit that did not include a doctor’ (no fucking joke)
welcome the USA, where healthcare operations are scams
(these are just 2 of the scams in my state, thanks to shell companies when one is shut, another opens)
edit: and in case anyone thinks I paid that shit, I didn’t. I sent them a polite version of a ‘fuck you’ reply. Then covid hit and I never heard from them again.
Mine was when I cut the tip of my finger off… Bottle broke and sliced my middle finger from the middle of the nail down to the corner. Only thing holding it on was the nail itself. I go to urgent care because it’s closer than the hospital. The doc soaks it in iodine and alcohol, checks for glass, then says he can stitch or glue it. He opts for glue. I get a wrap and splint to protect it, “keep it dry and unwrap it in a few weeks to make sure it took.” Couple weeks go by and I get a bill. $8,000 for superglue and a bandage! A little less than 1/4 of what I made in a year at the time. Best part? “Payment in full is expected one month from receipt.”
Fucking greedy bastards…
My mom called 911 a few years ago and got taken to a local hospital by the ambulance that showed up. Charged $2500 just for the ambulance ride. The hospital she went to had its own associated ambulance service, not the company that actually took her; my mom ended up getting another bill from this associated ambulance service for $2800 despite the fact that they literally did nothing at all. I almost had to tie my mom up in the basement to prevent her from paying this second bill out of pocket.
Heres mine:
Emergency root canal.
How much does this cost?
Idk.
What will my insurance cover?
Idk.
I need1500 now 1500 after.
Ok please make it stop.
3 months later get a bill already in collections for 3000.
Credit score goes up 30 points
Thats my favorite when the due date is always a few days before the letter arrived and its in collections the first time Ive seen it
Meanwhile, I was hospitalized due to covid and bronchitis combo, paid less than 20 dollars because Government covered all my ass.
And I am in a third world country.
Meanwhile in austria even the dentist is covered
The UK used to have that. This year, 98-99% of NHS dentists shut down or became private. Conservatives, eh?
Is this a joke I am too not-American to understand?
Yeah. The bill is real but st judes is a charity hospital. Joking the only way to pay his debt is rob a charity
I still don’t get it. Is 100k the bill or his account balance after the bill was payed? And if it is the bill why is it listed under “other adjustments”?
I think 100k is the amount he still owes. Looks like he had a follow up or something that added $250 and insurance covered $175. Context is he had a seizure in the shower and was in the hospital for a month. A lot of plans you have co insurance after hitting your deductible where you split any further costs with the insurance company say 80/20. So it’s possible he only ends up paying $20k of that, or his bill was much higher and $100k is what he owes after co insurance
Usually there’s still an out of pocket max, like $5000.
But I guess that could depend on your insurance
It’s such a scam and the people voting against universal care are the same ones who complain they don’t go to the doctor because it’s too expensive
People are voting against universal health care? Do people other than hospital and Pharma owners actually vote against that?
It’s a point of pride for republicans to vote against the working class.
Well, people who want universal healthcare have a D next to their name. That is enough for 10s of millions of Americans to blindly vote against it
Most of those with a D next to their name are fighting just as hard against universal healthcare while collecting campaign donations from pharmaceutical companies anyway. Both parties are rotten servants to the capitalist class
The propaganda is people “like” their private insurance and don’t want to be “forced” to get rid of it. There is also an anti-tax streak that has existed since the 1700s (no taxation without representation, Boston tea party, etc) that lives on strongest in reactionary politics.
Edit: Oh and last time we tried to actually improve healthcare they scare mongered the public that there would be “government death panels” who decided whether you would get coverage. As opposed to the current reality where the death panels are real and run by private corporations.
This is the tragic half-truth espoused by the corporate media claiming there are two sides to this issue.
Every time, they fail to complete the statement: “…give up private, but Medicare coverage will be better
I have a buddy who has his own dental practice. Incredibly smart, motivated individual. Hates the thought of universal healthcare. Also hates not getting paid. I just don’t discuss it with him lol
I wonder how many don’t go to the dentist because of poor or no insurance. He’d have more patients for sure
He would also be guaranteed payment. I just don’t understand him. He does a ton of free work for people because he’s truly a great guy. He would get paid for that work. Maybe he thinks he would make less money?
Most of the people voting against universal healthcare are comfortably middle class and want to protect their ~premium coverage~ or they’re on Medicare. Few people struggling to afford healthcare even vote lol
And tons and tons are poor in red srates
No, most of the poor in red states don’t vote. That’s universally true across the country - there’s a small minority that do, but they’re not the ones stopping universal healthcare. It’s business owners, landlords, wealthy blue collar workers, farmers, and retirees.
This myth that the poor vote for their own oppression is something made up to make you hate poor people.
Man I (as a german) often trash on the german insurance plan but from my perspective this is just insanity!
Oh, here’s another fun fact for you: an ambulance ride can be so prohibitively expensive that many people actively avoid calling 911 for fear of having to pay the ambulance bill. This results in people experiencing medical emergencies either: (a) driving themselves to the hospital while having their emergency, which is incredibly dangerous; (b) opting to call a ride share like Uber or Lyft instead; or © not doing anything at all and hoping the emergency resolves itself.
We also think that, unfortunately the poorest white Americans would rather die than risk giving insurance to minorites. So we have this system.
The hospital is charging the patient $100k. This is what’s left of the patients “tab”.
Normally a kid isn’t going to a children’s hospital unless they’re super sick, think cancer etc. So they probably had an office visit and the other adjustments is their prior balance or something.
I’d be dead in America.
Affording the treatment wouldn’t have been an issue, because I wouldn’t have been able to afford the diagnosis.
what the hell is “other adjustments”???
Free money!
Ticketmaster must have been involved in the processing.
I am very lucky that I dont live in America
No big deal. You have until August. Just skip the avocado toast until then and you’ll be fine.
Idk they might have to skip Starbucks for a day or 2 also and that’s just not really fair, ya know?
Oooh, yeah, I didn’t consider that.
It doesn’t have to be this way
But no one will seriously confront it until there’s competition from other parties, you can’t have real competition for votes in a 2 party system.
More parties can be viable if the USA can shake off FPTP voting. Some states have already.
The existing 2 parties have entrenched themselves like ticks. Here’s just 1 example of how they are dug in https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2251&context=caselrev
That’s why I vote single issue for better representation. Whatever other issues we think are important simply will not happen until FPTP is gone. Without better representation, any progress we make on other issues will simply be undone.
We have a ton of problems. This not being a democracy is the problem.
I don’t know exactly what voting single issue for representation means. To me it sounds like voting for women and people of color believing they will be more sympathetic to our causes, but then I see people like Kyrsten Sinema, Clarence Thomas and I think - that shit don’t work. But maybe that isn’t what you mean. (also, not that I don’t vote for women and POC, but I don’t vote for them BECAUSE of that anymore, integrity, knowing their incentives, and actions are all I care about)
Now I think of the whole thing as a system and I seek to put in place incentives that push the representatives to fight for our approval. Right now we fight for their attention. If there’s 5, 6, 7 viable political parties and few barriers to entry, any time they get off the rails into lala land we can vote for whoever is choosing to make sense that cycle. With 2 parties, extremism is incentivized.
(Silent_clash answered correctly)
Only right extremism is incentivized, with the other party being center-right. There is basically no far left in the USA. Being for sale gives candidates a competitive advantage.
We fought hard to elect a man who stood for “hope and change”, only to see him build the surveillance state and tax the poor for the private medical industry. And we thought he was too far left.
They mean any alternative to first past the post, options being STAR voting, approval voting, or ranked choice. Basically anything that means a 3rd party vote isn’t a “wasted” vote.
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In America, it must.
He should ask for an itemized bill. Then he might only owe 50 grand…
Somebody should make a law to make itemized bills obligatory for hospitals, but I guess that counts as communism as well 🤷
And as we all know, if it isn’t Randian Anarcho-capitalism, then it’s Communism, baby!
And? That is still 50 grand too much.
1000% agree.
Just defeatist humor.
While this still won’t cover emergencies (which I understand are the main problem, but there’s realky no fix to it outside of the inadviseable route of attempting to self-learn emergency medicine) ALL AMERICANS HERE should really look into Direct Primary Care practices.
They do not work with insurance, and instead charge a monthly fee, usually around $100/mo, that grants you either unrestricted, or significantly less restricted access to your doctor, various types of labs and tests, and tests requiring outsourcing, like MRIs, that aren’t covered under that monthly bill are usually significantly cheaper than your copay under insurance.
It’s gaining popularity since medical practitioners are becoming burnt-out and unmotivated under their cut-throat for-profit corporatized practices prioritize rotating through patients at a stupid-fast rate, overtesting everyone, and keeping minimum staff on hand to maximzie profits.
Because there’s no insurance involved and everything is out of pocket, depending on your life situation, it may be more or less feasible. If you can afford it though, I highly recommend it.
ETA: And for expensive medications, please see if the substance you need is on CostPlusDrugs. In spite of being rich, Mark Cuban started that service to provide affordible medicine.
That’s actually really good to know I was debating whether COBRA was worth it
Thank you for this message. I agree, and this is what my family has had for about 16 years. $250/month for a family of 3 with 2 adults well over 50. Everything about it is great, and they deliver my prescription to my home.
Insurance companies are a joke. I hate it here. I worked at a certain restaurant for years who make an entire thing out of getting donations for St. Judes a few weeks a year. What are we donating for if people still get bills like this?
This isn’t a bill from st judes but you should know you were just soliciting a tax write off for your company. That’s why they do that stuff
The company doesn’t get to tax write off other peoples donations.
They make a donation and use people’s money to cover the cost
Do they not have to pay tax on the money people give them?
I think it depends how it’s being done. If they just collect the donation and hand it off it’s not helping them. Sometimes the fine print is that they’re donating a percent of sales or whatever so if you donate $5 on a $50 sale that might be a higher percentage than what they donate. Now that I’m reading about it I might be wrong https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-000329849244
No. That isn’t how it works either. Well they might use that to meet the pr pledge but that isn’t the same as taking the deduction.
As I told the other person if you actual have any proof to back that up report it to the IRS and collect your bounty.
Yesh the article I linked mentions a tiktok/meme that went around 2 years ago probably where I got it. Basically misinterprets companies getting pr with a tax writeoff
You think so huh?
Why don’t you show me any proof otherwise if you know so much.
In fact if you have any proof otherwise why don’t you send it to the IRS they pay actual bounties on actionable tips on tax evasion.
It is when I see this that I am grateful for having been born in a country with 100% public and universal health
Privatized healthcare is immoral.
I had a medical emergency yesterday that may me realize how lucky I am to live in Canada.
I’m getting weekly immunotherapy allergy shots (which are also covered by the free healthcare here) and I had a bad reaction to a shot. They needed to give me 2 epipens and some ventilator drug and stretchered me in an ambulance to the hospital where I waited about 5-10 min (I was stable at this point) for a private room. They kept me there for like 4 hours with IV drip and prescribed me another EpiPen.
Total cost was 0 with no questions asked. I know for non life threatening injuries like broken bones you might be waiting a few hours to get in, but I’d rather it be like that then have the possibility of going in massive debt.
As an American I never understood the “you have to wait longer in Canada” argument. My sibling almost cut off a few of their fingers and was bleeding profusely and had to wait with a rag around their fingers for almost 4 hours in the ER before they got seen. This is in the US. I’ve had past partners waiting in large amounts of pain for upwards of 10 hours in the ER too (thankfully I brought some bugles to snack on). It’s a problem in general, I’d rather it at least be free
For sure, it’s definitely not perfect here, for example I’m on a year long waitlist for surgery for a deviated septum. But from what I’ve heard they get you in fast if it’s life threatening. I think in my case anaphylaxis can be life threatening so they got me in fast even though I was stable. We also have the option of paying for surgeries privately anyway if we don’t want to wait.
I know for non life threatening injuries like broken bones you might be waiting a few hours to get in, but I’d rather it be like that then have the possibility of going in massive debt.
It’s not as if waiting times here in the US are any better. (In fact, they can be worse, since the profit motive has e.g. been causing rural ERs to close entirely.)
Make no mistake: us here in the States aren’t choosing to pay more to get better healthcare; we’re being forced to pay more to get absolutely fuck-all in return except for the unjust enrichment of insurance industry middlemen.
Interesting, I never realized it was also that slow to get in for the States. To be fair it’s not perfect here, surgery wait times can be really bad. I’m on a year long waitlist for deviated septum surgery and my dad waited quite a long time for a hip replacement and he was in a ton of pain everyday. But the thing is we also have the option to pay to get it done privately.
St Jude’s is a charity hospital that does not charge patients or their families. They accept insurance payments only and the rest is covered as charity.
AKA the only way an American can afford to live.
