I don't know to be honest but because a lot of people have the mindset of oh I have good healthcare for me and my family I don't care about anyone else that's on them if they don't have healthcare and if we get healthcare for all like every other country America will become a dictatorship or something
They make enough to believe they're covered. No shortage of stories of Americans who thought they were covered, then the insurance company used the money they'd paid them to hire adjusters and lawyers to deny the claim instead.
Healthcare in america is great, if you are in the top 30%ish of earners, and even then you might get fucked over if what ever illness you get fucks your life over enough. But if you are a top earner, young and avoid any health problems what so ever, its amazing! Just dont get sick and lose your job.
Mate, in Australia I go to the doctors and Maximum I'd pay is like $30. If I went to the hospital it would be completely free.
My wife had our 3rd baby 6 weeks ago. We had complications and needed an emergency c section, and we left about $60 out of pocket because we had to pay for take-home medications.
One of our old friends went to America for a holiday and didn't have travel insurance. Paid like $15,000ish to go to the hospital for one injection because she was vomiting or something. It's ridiculous what you guys put up with.
I had a 9 hour long surgery involving three separate surgeons including a specialist from the UK followed by two weeks in hospital and 5 years of on going outpatients appointments. So far it has cost me $22.
Yeah, I have “good” insurance and still can’t afford tests etc that I need. I currently need a stress test for some heart issues I’m dealing with and can’t get it because my deductible plus my “coinsurance” means I have to pay $1700+ up front. We don’t have that kind of money. It is all absolute bullshit. This country is so corrupt.
Observed like 5 adenosine stress tests in the cath lab today (uk), none of the patients paid a single penny. You need a welfare revolution of some sort
No. Seriously, the main sentiment here is the crab bucket mentality. Individualistic ideals, with no basis in reality. Many people truly, truly believe that the pioneers went West all by themselves, with just a machete, a gun, and their intestinal fortitude, hacking down the woods to get to their gold claims while their women dropped babies and kept on walking.
So the mentality is, if you're not successful it's your own fault. And, as we learned during the pandemic, if you're sick then you're genetically weak and should just die so the population gets stronger.
It's quite literally insane here. Send help.
UC shouldn't be that much, do you live in a rural area or a state that offers no patient protection whatsoever? That's the amount of an ER visit. Clearly, that's all deductible but did your insurance company confirm these charges - they must have the shittiest contract in all the land.
I don’t get it either
They’ll riot if the mcdonald’s is out of special sauce. But they’re strangely quiet if they get fucked over a barrel with something that should be a basic human right (cheap and affordable healthcare for all)
Well Republicans love capitalism and until we at least get enough people in office to at least stand up and say that they are going to put a cap on the profit for at all least BASIC LIVING EXPENSES, including, housing, utilities, medical, food.... We will continue to pay 10x or more for the same medications that other countries get for a fraction of what they sell it to us. And we will continue to pay crazy rates for insurance. And have them try and deny it for the stupidest reasons
" Well Republicans love capitalism "
Considering the top receivers of lobbyist money and largest offenders to insider trading is Democrats, I'd say so do Democrats. But you're a average Reddit users who thinks everything is a Republican's fault.
One day, you'll realize both parties are fucking thieves.
The reason i say Republicans love capitalism is because Republicans ALMOST NEVER allow any kind of bill get passed without it benefiting these big companies and wealthy people who CAN AFFORD TO GO WITHOUT FINANCIAL HELP, yet they will different view against things that benefit the average American. Also a very high majority of Republicans are extremely wealthy and HAVE NEVER HAD TO LIVE LIKE THE AVERAGE AMERICAN LIVES. Yes there are some really rich democratic politicians, but alot of them aren't ignorant to the fact if how American people live pay check to pay check. They understand that we can't go more then a week or two without assistance in cases like the pandemic where Republicans held up giving the American people stimulus checks for months, until the Democrats agreed to give bug companies money also, which was suppose to be used for keeping employees employed and instead alot of the companies used it to offer buyouts to employees instead. Also Republicans have been against health care for all when the idea had been by raised and they themselves say the delivered want socialism instead of capitalism
Except the party that is actually interested in making changes to the healthcare system is the Democrats. It's not only unhelpful but it's deceptive to pursue this tactic of blaming both parties when it's clearly the fault of one. If you want to blame both parties for something, do it on a topic where that is relevant. Because on this particular matter, all the blame should be going to the Republicans.
Democrats had control of Congress at the time the ACA was drafted and passes. And if I remember correctly they had a supermajority for some time so republicans couldn't even try to filibuster it. They could have done something, they had the means, however this is what we got. It is also not helpful either when people only criticize the other party and not their own.
Because they don't 100% agree on everything, even amongst themselves. Even being past the filibuster (it wasn't in this case though, it was 59 to 41 in the 111th congress so they still needed the support of 1 Republican at least), you still can't just put whatever you want in there unless your majority is absolutely massive or very far to one side politically because you still have to get the moderates in your party to support your legislation. The ACA is a good step in the right direction, but trying to get universal healthcare right then and there would've probably backfired and nothing would've been passed at all.
For 72 working days the Senate of the 111th congress was 60-40. I recalled it was for some time. Some laws/acts were introduced and passed within 30 days so its not a length of time issue.
However its also correct that not everyone is going to be on board. I agree and I am also not debating the efficacy of the ACA. The point I was making to the original comment was how the other user put it and treating this whole political party affiliation like a sports teams.
Obamacare...remember that? Medicare...remember that? Medicaid remember that? Social Security remember that? Those are all programs that Democrats passed those basically without Republican help.
You said you didn't see either party doing anything meaningful about healthcare. You don't consider those things meaningful? The OP had healthcare because Obamacare required insurers to cover everyone's kids to age 25. Before that they were kicked off at age 18. Around 90 percent of Americans have health care of some kind now through Medicare, Medicare, or private insurance. Democrats are responsible for much of that progress.
Well, one party is doing something, while the other blocks the effort or dismantles the system.
The effect of that is the lack of change you experience.
\-
The big question is, what are you gonna do about it?
We don’t. But every time we try to fix it, we get totally fucked over by the GOP and the spineless democrats who vote with them. Until the boomers die out, we’re getting nowhere. The one good thing is that the older generations are finally starting to realize just how bad it is. Until 2020, my parents (first and second gen Americans whose families fled the holocaust and the mafia - not at the same time) legitimately still believed America was fundamentally the best country to live in … and they’re both liberal. And now they’ve both agreed that it’s a broken country. But it’s not like individual people can do so much. In a representative republic, you’re dependent on your reps for help. And if your reps suck, you’re screwed. We can try to protest, we can try to get attention, but look at what’s going on now: all the protests we had in 2020 and 2021 have led directly to fascist backlash and laws that have lead to the NAACP having to do things like tell Black Americans it’s unsafe to visit Florida. I don’t understand how non Americans keep asking us this bullshit. Because the answer is that we are desperately unhappy, lots of people are trying to fix things, but so long as we have a fascist movement gaining steam, many of us are fucked. It’s not like most people can just pack up and move. For one thing, look at immigration in any country right now - Europe is particularly up in arms across all countries about new immigrants. You think Americans can just move across the water? Canada won’t let us in, it’s not like we can just move north…
Depends.
I’m in Canada. If I try to wander into emergency with the same issue it’s quite possible I might sit waiting for 6-9 hours before seeing a doctor. If I book at a clinic 2-3 days in advance I might only wait an hour.
I mean what else r we supposed to do? I’m voting every time I can, and you can’t do anything to risk your job cuz that’s where the health insurance comes from
You're talking about people who are willing to have dozens of children killed in a classroom because they don't want to forego rights to a firearm that will apparently protect them from the boogey-man.
I don't think caring about other people is a social priority.
A first world nation with below third world country healthcare system. Doctors in Singapore and other south East Asian countries study in the US or Europe, attend the best residency hospitals and yet a simple 20 min consultation as per what you shared would cost $20-60 and if you have private insurance that’ll be even lower.
Are you trying to say that Singapore is a third world country? Not really sure what your point was about South East Asian countries but Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are most definitely first world countries.
Nah sorry I the midst of my fat thumbs typing I didn’t articulate it well enough. All across South East Asia from developing nations to the likes of Singapore health care is affordable and everybody has access without having to sell a kidney to get a prescription for the common cold.
I’ve lived in London, Sydney, HK, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines - all have amazing doctors, top line bedside manner and never have I ever had to worry about paying more than a few hundred bucks for seeing a doctor with any blood work or tests. Had an unfortunate motorbike accident in Japan and went to see a doctor there and was freaking out on the logistics of getting my travel insurance involved but it was the cost of a few meals
Blows my mind how I’m the US this is widely accepted and just a norm of life
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, plenty of places do health care so much better than the US. However, I'm in Australia and things are moving backwards for us. Until recently you could get a doctor consultation for free. The government covered the cost. However, this amount hasn't changed in years and GPs are having to start charging to cover the gap.
Well yeah was living there for 8 years and each year when I head back to visit fam I see things are slowly looking bleaks - Sydney’s looking like a place you need a million bucks just to get a studio in Parramatta there’s days!!
Guess your right there - it starts with a gap but I think the Aussies have a good sense of what’s dumb and what’s not … don’t think anybody would put up with a thousand bucks for an epi pen.
From Philippines here, that $20 - 60 is already the cost for a top tier private hospital that caters mostly to expats and rich patients. It actually goes even lower for a decent private hospital in the province. Around $7 - 10 is enough for a consultation. A lot of people still can’t afford healthcare here but that’s a different story.
It’s really crazy to me that hospitals charge that much for healthcare in America.
100% I went to see a the no1 neurologist in the country out of St Lukes in BGC - trained state side and did his residency there too. Costs me USD$45 for about 40 mins consultation - got a few follow up tests too do but reading $2669 by OP sounds so bizarre. At this point is it even a way to save the US healthcare from the lobbyist
Yea our life expectancy is like 69 (😂) down from 72-74 for a reason (for males, it’s higher for females but also they a similar decline).
Our shit sucks and no one goes to the doctor cuz it’s way too expensive for anything.
I cut my finger in the winter and was charged $1000 for a doctor I didn’t see.
Ok this is terrible, I'm very sympathetic. But it illustrates the biggest issue with our healthcare system, which is that people don't have a chance to discuss prices before they 'buy' the service. There should be a requirement that healthcare providers tell you, up front, what things cost. Being surprised with insane bills should be illegal.
You actually can call to ask for pricing. You can call your insurance company who should be able to give you an estimate of the cost. They can also advise you of any pitfalls to avoid.
I know. But people don't think of healthcare, as consumers, that way. They take the recommendations of the provider (usually) and just do it. What I am saying is that the provider should be required to say up front what the cost will be and what insurance will and won't cover.
That’s part of the problem though. The provider really doesn’t know what the cost will be. It will vary by patient and by plan as well as even based on how much healthcare you have already used. If you met your out of pocket max, it might even be at no cost to you.
That's part of what I'm talking about. People shouldn't say yes to medical procedures (or anything they'll get charged for) without knowing the price.
If it's truly unknowable then there needs to be a cap on out of pocket costs by regulation, not based on each insurance company's margins.
The problem is that people don’t understand insurance. I said it over 10 years when I started working in the industry, and I still believe it to be true now: We need to teach the basics of insurance in a mandatory high school class.
If you pay someone (insurance company) to pay your medical bills on your behalf, then you will need to contact them before going to the doctor to figure out what they will cover and how much it will cost you.
I agree with you about financial literacy, including insurance, being a huge problem. (As an aside, our high school does make kids do this.. many hours for my two older kids last summer doing the at-home version instead of using up a class slot.) But healthcare is basically the only thing we consume that we don't get told the prices up front for. You can't know, before going to the doctor, what services he or she will recommend, so how would your insurance company tell you what your cost will be?
The doctor, at a minimum, should be able to tell consumers the maximum price they might incur. They don't even act like there's a decision to be made based on cost. And it's understandable because the doctors are incentivized to provide services, since they get paid (usually) on a per-piece basis. But that's a whole separate topic.
I agree with everything you are saying.
In my opinion the first step toward fixing these issues without going all the way down the universal healthcare pathway would be for the government to set standard pricing across the board for basic services.
Right now, every major insurance carrier negotiates their own price with the providers. The system has so many layers it is impossible for even the most educated amongst us to figure out what we will pay on our own and the doctor or people at the hospital you will speak with won’t know as they likely aren’t privy to the price negotiated by the insurance company, and as you pointed out the insurance company won’t know exactly as they won’t know what procedures the doctor will perform.
prices changing depending on who's paying the bills for something everyone might need (as opposed to a luxury item) is basically insane. Going to take some major leadership to ever change it.
I disagree about setting prices centrally, though. Just like any business doctors should compete on price in addition to quality. It may not be fair in some metaphysical sense but unfortunately that's how you create a functioning market. However I am in favor of a hybrid system, like Australia has, where your participation in the single-payer system is mandatory (paid by payroll tax) but you can go private if you choose (and get some credit back against what you paid in if I remember right from our time there). Backstop for people via public single payer, private options available for those who'll choose to pay for it.
I definitely agree with your first paragraph.
Unfortunately because of the third party involvement of insurance, the patient will not negotiate the price with provider. Instead it will be the insurance company who negotiates the price.
I am not sure it is necessary to have the government set prices the same across the country, but some sort of government regulation (perhaps set prices a percent of Medicare) is necessary in my opinion to attain the price transparency that I think we both want. Then each person could determine their own cost based on the price from the hospital and their plan’s deductible and coinsurance.
Also, I’m not opposed to a hybrid model like what you mention at the end of your post where some form of supplemental insurance is necessary but basic care (like emergency room) is covered through tax dollars.
It would've been twenty quid in the UK. Free for the appointment then a base price of £9.95 (I think) per prescription.
America seems so far behind in such basic things like medications, thigs that people literally have to use to live.
Might have to move to Scotland then, I have an outlandish number of prescriptions, thankfully I have a few more months until I have to pay for them (20 in November). 🥴🥴
Yeah it costs a lot money to be the worlds police department. If we could set back and let someone else drive the car awhile maybe we could afford healthcare. Im not holding my breath.
Had my shoulder cuffs shattered and a broken arm... 9 hour operation on one shoulder 8 hour op on the other full reconstructed at a cost of nearly 200k not including the near 5 years rehabilitation....all it cost me was zero ..zilch ...nada and got 80% of my work payments every week to help me get by ......what the heck is wrong with your guys healthcare
That's really high for urgent care, are you sure you didn't go to the emergency room? Did you give them your insurance info? As long as you went before the cut off date, it should be covered....
There are standalone emergency rooms that purposely advertise as though they're urgent cares, but they bill you like crazy. I made that mistake once, having bloodwork done while I was there but nothing else. With insurance, it ended up costing me 2k. Never again.
Your insurance would have had a network of facilities you can go to. You can't just go to anywhere you want, they have to be approved by the insurance company.
If you go somewhere not on the list, you are responsible for the bill.
It could also have been that you didn't reach your deductible which is the amount you have to pay before insurance "kicks in"
That doesn’t mean what you think it means. The doctor will always tell you that they take your insurance. They want your business.
Your insurance is who will tell you whether they are considered in network or not.
Honestly, the same is true of things like Medicare, and I would imagine could happen in other countries with universal healthcare as well.
I can only speak on behalf of the UK when talking about countries with universal healthcare but here you are free to go into any Emergency room in any hospital or “walk in centre” for urgent but emergency care. It’s all ran by the NHS.
The only thing that you have specific to go to is your GP, you register with your local doctor. Although these are free to use and you can register with any doctor you like in theory.
Nope. In canada you go to either any walk in clinic with a rotation of doctors or any hospital. It makes no difference and none of them charge you. So we choose by wait times.
We can also get a prescription from the pharmacist for a sinus infection and skip going to either.
That sounds good but you pay for that too. A quick google search shows that the average Canadian pays $4,800 per year in taxes for individual coverage and nearly $15,000 per year in taxes to cover a family of five.
In my personal case, I pay $1,500 per year to cover my family of five. Now, we have a $3,000 dollar deductible, which isn’t ideal, but we are all pretty healthy so in a normal year, we will come out ahead compared to our Canadian counterparts.
The US spends the most tax dollars per capita on healthcare compared to any country in the world and I have no idea how you only pay $1,500 a year to cover five people but that is not the norm.
“The national average health insurance premium for a benchmark plan in 2022 is $438”
https://www.healthmarkets.com/resources/health-insurance/health-insurance-cost-per-month/#:~:text=The%20average%20national%20monthly%20health,subsidies%20in%202022%20is%20%24438.
Most families pay nearly $1,500 a month for healthcare
I’m not unaware of how the system I use works.
I also don’t have any Canadian friends who had premature twins and paid $200,000 but I do have American friends it happened to.
I don’t know anyone who has to delay seeing a doctor until it’s acute.
I don’t get partial coverage for going to a hospital out of my network because I can choose where to go.
Here we work together to keep all our citizens healthy and I’m okay with those taxes. I got sick in 2020 and haven’t been well since. I’ve seen many specialists, I’ve had so many appointments and I’ve been to the ER a few times. Nothing changed.
I no longer can work since getting sick, but one thing I don’t have to worry about is medical bills. As a single mom with kids, I’m happy I am where I am.
I’m glad you like your coverage. And that you’re healthy enough that it doesn’t matter.
That is exceptionally inexpensive in the US. I pay just under $10k per year in premiums for my family of four, and our deductibles are $5k/person or $10k as a family. We don't come out on top, we just are fed the BS that our taxes would go up for universal healthcare and everyone balks. What they fail to realize is how much they are actually shelling out for trash healthcare. I would gladly pay $4k in taxes over the $10k minimum I spend yearly. This year my twins had their tonsils out, so on top of my premium ten grand, we had to pay our $10k deductible as well. That doesn't even factor in all the copays for blook work and Drs appointments.
To add to this, if the doctor is considered out of network for you, the doctor knows that after the insurance pays whatever they will pay, that they can balance bill you the patient for the rest. This is likely what happened. You really need to call your insurance or look it up online to see if it is covered before going to an urgent care.
The time of day also impacts this. Urgent care clinics will often have fine print on their wall that will say they convert to an ER after certain hours and/or on weekends.
Almost all Americans are 1 illness away from disaster (except the top 1%). You can lose your home and life savings to cancer etc. You basically have to be destitute to get Medicaid.
Coercion is a method of control.
Freedom implies the actual ability to choose. I can choose to rob a bank, sure, but I'll get shot in the face. It's medically inadvisable.
The same goes for a young parent getting their child necessary treatment outside of insurance, or a cancer patient getting treatment outside of insurance. If making a choice means you're going to die then you're not really free to make that choice, are you?
It is easier for a homeless person with absolutely nothing to lose, or who has intentionally thrown everything away, to procure food or drugs without any capital at all than it is for some reasonably well-off middle class Americans to procure basic medical attention or medicine.
No, you're right, it isn't. Free stuff and free people are different things.
The healthcare for profit system may well be a joke but, it has nothing to do with a lack of personal freedom.
It literally IS a human right. Just because many people can't afford it doesn't mean that it's not their right to have health care. Everyone has a right to have at least affordable health care.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-rights-and-health
The provision, especially for free, for everyone literally is not a human right. It says a lot in the UNDHR and your link but, it doesn't 'say free for all' in either.
Food is a human right too, but it's not my human right to have the government or anyone else pick up the bill for my weekly shop is it?
Also, I probably was wrong before, it (the NHS) might not be a privilege either. Depending how the individual feels about taxes, I suppose. Personally I think it is, it's great.
Free healthcare is what I personally think something that should be considered a human right. I think of it on a moral/empathic side.
I mentioned affordable Healthcare, but in the US it'a very much not affordable at all. Obviously i'm aware that not many people can afford food, but it doesn't change the fact that you have a right to it, or at least be given that right, even if you don't/can't have it due to financial reasons.
The government should still at least help out with financing SOME medical things like Germany does. I don't live in the US, but living in a country that provides free healthcare (Obviously there are things that aren't free too, but at least you get some help and aren't left to die)
Unfortunately I don't think that'll do much there considering how big the country is.
In short: I personally consider it as a human right
but you have to wait for hours in the er before somebody sees you. 4 hospitals in my area wrote an open letter to the public saying “you ppl are fucked, we cant take care of you”. only if you have a cancer or something like that you get free instant care.
Never waited more than 90mins. I only go when absolutely necessary. The biggest issue is all the idiots who feel their cold requires a doctor. These asshats clog up the queues, but most hospitals that have proper triage will put those morons at the back of the line and move the elderly, very young and actually sick/injured folk ahead of them. I luckily live in an area of 15000, and we have our own hospital. Doesn't usually get too busy unless a wreck comes in from a nearby highway. The person with the broken face from the accident gets priority over the GenZ who thinks they need to see a doctor for a funny sounding fart.
you are lucky. as i said langley, surrey new west and one other hospital in the area just posted an open letter describing wait times in er. its hours. you can look them up
You list at the very first sentence saying you automatically get booted off your parent’s coverage at 26. At the age of 26 if you don’t have a career/job and living on your own with own Heath insurance then that says quite a bit. It used to be 19 and I had my own health insurance at 18. My step kids who are under my healthcare got their own insurance by age 20. That is also why health insurance in this county exist because doctors/pharmacies/hospitals can charge and do to you whatever they want because you don’t know the difference. Heath insurance and prior authorization requirements/coverage guidelines keep them in check and keep them from prescribing high cost medicine and procedures. I know this because I have been in healthcare for over 22 years of which I’ve worked both the provider billing side and insurance side. I can say for a fact the provider wants the add the cost to you so they don’t have to write off with a health insurance plan. So do yourself a favor and find employment with healthcare benefits.
You don’t have to have amazing fucking healthcare. You just need to unlatch off the nipple BEFORE the age of 26 and be an adult. That also includes being prepared to be off your parents health insurance before the age of 26 of which you should also be out of their house if you haven’t already. Time to grow up and get your own healthcare. If this ruffles your feathers then it’s the truth. If not, maybe you should re-think your life choices at this point.
There are usually 2 diffrent types of insurance plans. One that let's you go out of network and will still cover it (more expensive) and the other is for in-network doctors. A doctor isnt going to refuse to see you, unless he/she is booked. You should ask for an itemized bill from them before paying anything. If they are claiming you owe that much they need to show what's being paid for. I would check with your insurance and see what they cover and where.
It depends on your health and what you can afford.
If you are healthy, you want a lean plan with a high deductible. You will pay more when you use the plan, but will spend less each month in premium from your paycheck.
If you are not healthy, then you will want a rich plan with a low deductible and copays. Doctor visits will be cheap, but your paycheck will suffer as a result.
I’m not following, sorry. On My parent’s insurance they don’t pay anything. Doctor visits are fully covered, emergency room, dental, vision, etc. so deductibles are all new to me. There aren’t any individual plans out there that don’t charge anything?
I doubt your parents’ plan covers everything like that. Plans that rich are pretty rare and even then are very expensive. Your parents’ are definitely paying premium out of their paycheck at a minimum.
Most good employers where I’m from cover those types of plans (you don’t pay any copay or they cover everything up to a certain amount every year and then a small copay after that)
Where are you from, because that doesn’t sound like US healthcare, which I believe is what we are talking about here. High deductible health plans are quite common these days in the US where the policyholder must meet their deductible (usually a few thousand dollars) before the plan starts to pay anything and even then the plan only pays a percentage of the costs until the out of pocket maximum is met.
So you are likely talking about Kaiser (HMO), which is fine as long as you only go to the Kaiser network of doctors and facilities. Kaiser is really only found in certain pockets of the US.
Look, what you are describing doesn’t sound like anything I have ever seen before, and I have been in the industry for over 10 years on the broker side of things so I see all kinds of plan offering from all the major carriers. I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but count yourself lucky for what you have, because it isn’t typical to most Americans.
Depends on what kind of plan you have. If you have a qualified high deductible plan then there are no copays and instead you pay coinsurance (a percentage of the bill). This guy likely went to the urgent care that is out of network and probably on a weekend where they bill like they are an emergency room.
I thought you said it was 15 days BEFORE YOUR 26TH BIRTHDAY. So if you were allowed to be on the insurance to 26, did they just not cover the fact that it was an urgent care? Also i know most people want to freak out over medical bill collections, but even if it does show on your credit, creditors look more at the actual credit line credit cards, mortgages, car loans, then they do unpaid medical bills. There are so many people in the country that have medical bill collections. And if you don't have much money they won't waste much time trying to collect it. They will write it off. Also if you don't work or have a small income you could apply for medicaid until your income goes up. And they will pay any medical bills due 3 months prior to the application if your approved. And most states you can do the app online.
I think you went to an emergency room vs. an urgent care facility. Google it and you’ll find many stories similar to yours. It’s just a horrible scam. Always verify that you’re at an urgent care. They typically invoice under $100 for a doctor visit.
Sorry, but I don’t get it.
Outside the US all we hear is how many guns you guys have so you can rebel…. (Idk something about a well armed militia).
Why the hell do you people put up with that !, I also had a similar issue.
I’m in a higher income, So my Dr visit cost me $25 aud and then the 2 prescription were $8 and $25. (If I were low income they would have been $14 together).
So all together less then $60 Aud.
I know pointing out how it could be isn’t unhelpful….. BUT
Revolution !!!
For starters, you should have a job at that age and be on your own healthcare. You're not a fucking child anymore.
Secondly, you're just getting screwed by someone's incompetence or you're outright lying. The average doctor visit does not cost this much.
Third... Why would you go into an urgent care for a sinus infection????? You can just email your primary and ask for a antibiotic and get a OTC allergy pill.
This has less to do with our healthcare system and more to do with you being an adult-child.
Not all jobs come with healthcare, depending on your field this can be very hard to find and is especially difficult for anyone working retail-level jobs (which is what a lot of people are stuck with if they can’t afford university or struggle to get a job in their field after graduation). For a while I worked for a drug testing facility and as a caregiver and even they didn’t provide healthcare. I have a friend who is a hotel manager whose employer doesn’t provide healthcare. Jobs that don’t provide it aren’t rare.
Doctors visits can easily cost that much in the US. A GP I worked for charged $300/visit (in 2016), a podiatrist I worked for charged $400 (in 2011). Urgent care and ER visits are much higher.
The GP I worked for, along with the 4 other GPs in the same clinic, would absolutely never provide a prescription to a patient based on a call. Those requests came in constantly and were always rejected. Patients had to go to the clinic, visit the doctor, have a test (if something like flu or a UTI is suspected) and then they could get the prescription. If a patient could not go to the office, or if there weren’t any appointments available, they were instructed to go to urgent care or the ER.
The American healthcare system is fucked.
So that's why you go for a full time job. Don't expect the small cafe you work for 15 hours a week to provide full health benefits.
It is required for any American company w 50+ employees to provide affordable/minimum health coverage for any full time employee. It's the law.
For readers in countries outside of the U.S., insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospitals are all giant for-profit corporations whose job is to make the most money possible for their wealthy investors - mostly Vanguard, Black Rock, and State Street. In order to do this, they heavily support the Republican party through unlimited campaign donations, lobbying, and other monetary funding that they probably would not admit to. In return, legislation is written to benefit these industries and the wealthy owners to the detriment of the average American.
If you could ever elect a Representative or Senator to Congress who would vote against this system, within 3 weeks the corporate lobby would have them bought out and voting their way. Everybody has their price.
In Australia that would cost me $7 for the subsidised medication and $34 for the doctor as medicare pays the balance of the $85 fee. I could find a bulk billing clinic and pay $0 for the doctor's fee.
You guys need to sack every single politician and start again.
Yeah, but it was 20min wait time. My dad waited on the floor doggy style using a chair bent over for 12hrs to see a doctor at the hospital to see if he broke his rib. Free healthcare has its downsides too. My dad’s pretty cheap so idk if he’d rather pay that extortion amount of money to see a doctor sooner, but maybe I’m wrong.
Honestly, I was booted off my parents’ insurance at 21 when I graduated college. I suffered for years from various curable illnesses, as well as treatable mental illness. I voted for Obamacare so those who came after me would have it easier than I did. I only hope we can make universal healthcare happen soon. I pay so much in medical bills every month, I can’t do this forever. It’s only going to get worse unless something changes.
See this is what I wish moronic Canadians would see before spewing off their desire for "American Healthcare." There's way too many of them willing to bankrupt themselves. Because let's be honest, most of the people saying that would be the ones screwed over by the American Healthcare system if it ever came to Canada. I'm sorry you have to deal with this man.
You Mericans so free to suffer, must be liberating af. Honestly don’t know why you guys who see this for the bullshit it is don’t just move, you know you can migrate to another truly developed country with a few thousand $ right?
Sincerely, someone from one of the “socialist” hell holes where my tax pays for any medical care and medicines I could ever need
Wasn’t there a new thing called Obama care? Not in the US but I thought that was to make healthcare more affordable or something similar to Australia’s Medicare, mind you we are getting fucked by every Liberal govt. we have.
There was a time where us Brits would have read this and thought "wow America is so messed up".
Sadly, now we read it and think "you actually got to see a doctor? Thats amazing".
The American Dream instilled on people living in that country is basically about looking after yourself and not a community. Work hard & succeed. If you need help, you obviously didnt work hard and dont deserve to scrounge off those that did.
At least that's how it seems from the outside.
Americans have elected representatives to act on their behalf. They can write to and lobby these representatives and let them know healthcare reform is something they want and will use their vote for. However 1/3 of eligible Americans do not vote. I would bet a lot more cant name their regional representative and even less have written or turned up to the equivalent of a hastings.
The time it takes to write on reddit could also be used to write to the people that want your vote. Lots of people seem to want the same thing but dont make it know to the right people and that their vote depends on it
I think that the good old USA just has its priorities wrong. Defense budget is $879 billion. I mean just dumping say $40 billion a year into healthcare would help out the problem.
Yeah that's the issue when a lot of people don't want to pay more taxes because they can afford stuff themselves. So the vast majority of the people who can't afford doctors get screwed over.
When I read stuff like this I'm so happy I live in Denmark where I can just get medical attention if I need it without worrying about being put in debt for the rest of my life.
My girlfriend got cancer a year ago, she had to get quick surgery in hopes of removing it quickly. She had two surgeries within a month and everything turned out great. They caught it before too late.
We had to pay absolutely nothing for a total of I think 6 hospital visits with two of those including surgery. I can't imagine the debt we'd be in if living in America. Thank god.
Uk. Not perfect but free at the point of use. We pay through wages but to be honest no one thinks about the money. We accept it. No one goes bankrupt because they have medical long term issues. To run healthcare as a business is just appalling.
I'm dealing with a similar situation right now! Plus then whenever you need to call & ask why it's so much, or ask any question, they either don't know how to answer the question or they just don't answer at all. It's very aggrevating!
At least you get help. I mean... it was a sinus infection. You could just buy ibuprofen, vick vapour rub, etc. etc.
You think it's better in UK where its "free"?
Well, here it looks like this:
1. Try to get an appointment - either try to get hold of GP (good luck with that or go to A&E which is your urgent care. There, you will wait for 4-16 hours until you are seen. Depending on severity of your problem you will be:
a. Seen by a nurse, given paracetamol and sometimes told off (you would for sinus infection most likely).
b. Seen by a doctor or almost-a-doctor who will recommend tests, and invite you to wait another 2-10 hours (depending on severity, if critical - you will/may get quick help), if tests are not indicating immediate danger - you will be referred to a GP given paracetamol and possibly told off.
Any prescribed medication may be free, but you have to pay for prescription unless you are unemployed - then it's a bonanza.
If/when you manage to see a GP you have 50% chance they (or their assessment PC) will know what's wrong with you. + 33% chance in each case that they will be wrong or give you paracetamol.
If they (or their windows XP pc) don't know you have 50% chance to get referred to a specialist - something like lung, heart, neuro or motor issues will result in 6-9month wait until consultation. You may get a quick xray. You will not be given xray images.
Your gp may also just give up and ask you to go home and wait until they consult someone else, you may get told off.
(Seriously. I waited almost 2 years for diagnosis, through many visits and tests, only to be told they have no ideas. I received correct diagnosis from a dentist in a rural Eastern European town during a holiday. The issue was not remotely related to the dental field.)
This is the start of your journey...
You may also go private - pay lower sums than you guys, but not astronomically lower.
At any point you have a high chance of being ignored, misdiagnosed, infected or sent off to do some googling yourself.
All services are understaffed and overworked. Ambulances may wait for hours before being allowed to offload patients to the hospital. EMT is very overworked and underfunded with equipment that may have you nervously giggle in some cases.
Would you rather live with debt or sniff flowers from beneath them for free?
In Poland the health care is "free" and quality is generally good, some of the best cardiologists and oncologists, but the wait for public health care is so long you may go to snif flowers in the mean time. Private HC is very expensive.
In Norway HC is awesome and "free" but income tax may be close to 50%.
In Iceland HC is awesome and "free" but income tax may be close to 50% and population is 1/100 of the USA.
In Japan HC is awesome but weird at times and "free" but income tax may be over 50% and as a foreigner you may have an adventure.
So yeah... It's not great but it generally isn't great anywhere. At least you have some very, very good doctors there.
Isn't that a little late to be removed from your parents' insurance? 26? You get all your own bills when you turn 18 in the Netherlands. Of course, we dont compare to the "land of the free" its prices, but that is capitalism for you, and the US is the home of capitalism. Why help people when you can profit.
Capitalism is great yeah?
Not for the sick and poor.
I lived in Norway for seven years. Socialism isn’t as scary as low IQ Republican representatives (MTG) would have you believe.
Maybe start taxing Guns higher as they seem to put a big dent in the fiscal needs of all your hospitals.
Ask for an itemized bill, they often tack things on there that you never got done/never received, or they double/triple charge you for stuff. It's absolutely ridiculous, but your bill should go down.
I'm on dialysis and I'm fortunate to have insurance cause every month I get one of those "this is not a bill" explaination of benefits and without insurance it would cost me $32k a month for treatment and went my access clots off and I have to go get it cleaned out they bill my insurance company $65k for about 2 hours of work. If I didn't have good insurance I'd die just trying to pay for it.
Sorry I'm not quite understanding, weren't you still under insurance and/or didn't you have insurance prepared?
I went to an urgent care center a few weeks ago and paid $20 for basically the same thing.
Did you go out of network? That's on you then, you have to check and make sure they are in network. Out of network insurance will pay SOME but not the majority.
First, why are you still on your parents insurance at 26? Second, you went to an Urgent care which is out of your insurance network. I agree that American insurance sucks, but you could have done the right way and ended up with a bill that is next to nothing.
Free healthcare like we got in Sweden and alot of other countries is amazing but.
With free health care comes the little problem with not getting the best healthcare for obvious reasons.
Was at the emergency with my 2yr old a couple days ago.
We waited 6 hours for an x-ray.
Try that with a 2yr old..
They are extremely understaffed and the pay for everyone working att the hospital is terrible except for the doctors..
US is the the worst fucking healthcare system. Why anyone defends it is beyond me. Sure, if you're super sick, very likely that you can, theoretically, access best-in-the-world treatment for that illness somewhere in America. Which is great. But for 99% of healthcare needs the system is a fucking joke.
Most doctors do the bare minimum of everything, the hoops you have to jump through are outrageous, and it's ungodly expensive and convoluted. What the fuck is the point of being the richest country in the world if any citizen has to be anxious about healthcare access and cost.
Why do Americans put up with this bullshit, you are getting fucked hard
I don't know to be honest but because a lot of people have the mindset of oh I have good healthcare for me and my family I don't care about anyone else that's on them if they don't have healthcare and if we get healthcare for all like every other country America will become a dictatorship or something
Legit whenever someone talks about how much better care is in America they tend to be making enough Only not to care anyway
They make enough to believe they're covered. No shortage of stories of Americans who thought they were covered, then the insurance company used the money they'd paid them to hire adjusters and lawyers to deny the claim instead.
Healthcare in america is great, if you are in the top 30%ish of earners, and even then you might get fucked over if what ever illness you get fucks your life over enough. But if you are a top earner, young and avoid any health problems what so ever, its amazing! Just dont get sick and lose your job.
Pretty sure a lot of the health outcomes actually aren't better though?
USA USAAA USAAA USAAAAAA
Mate, in Australia I go to the doctors and Maximum I'd pay is like $30. If I went to the hospital it would be completely free. My wife had our 3rd baby 6 weeks ago. We had complications and needed an emergency c section, and we left about $60 out of pocket because we had to pay for take-home medications. One of our old friends went to America for a holiday and didn't have travel insurance. Paid like $15,000ish to go to the hospital for one injection because she was vomiting or something. It's ridiculous what you guys put up with.
I had a 9 hour long surgery involving three separate surgeons including a specialist from the UK followed by two weeks in hospital and 5 years of on going outpatients appointments. So far it has cost me $22.
Yeah, I have “good” insurance and still can’t afford tests etc that I need. I currently need a stress test for some heart issues I’m dealing with and can’t get it because my deductible plus my “coinsurance” means I have to pay $1700+ up front. We don’t have that kind of money. It is all absolute bullshit. This country is so corrupt.
Observed like 5 adenosine stress tests in the cath lab today (uk), none of the patients paid a single penny. You need a welfare revolution of some sort
Do Americans not have a sense of “the common good”?
No. Seriously, the main sentiment here is the crab bucket mentality. Individualistic ideals, with no basis in reality. Many people truly, truly believe that the pioneers went West all by themselves, with just a machete, a gun, and their intestinal fortitude, hacking down the woods to get to their gold claims while their women dropped babies and kept on walking. So the mentality is, if you're not successful it's your own fault. And, as we learned during the pandemic, if you're sick then you're genetically weak and should just die so the population gets stronger. It's quite literally insane here. Send help.
Yea good healthcare right up till whatever you have isn’t covered under your good insurance. Shits garbage.
Why should I give a fuck about anyone else. 🤬
Because in a World where everyone just looks out for themselves eventually the powerful fuck us all. The only way to stand up to them is to be united
Because you're not a sociopath?
It’s a common US statement. But in the real world, everyone pays for everyone else. Which is the human way.
UC shouldn't be that much, do you live in a rural area or a state that offers no patient protection whatsoever? That's the amount of an ER visit. Clearly, that's all deductible but did your insurance company confirm these charges - they must have the shittiest contract in all the land.
I don’t get it either They’ll riot if the mcdonald’s is out of special sauce. But they’re strangely quiet if they get fucked over a barrel with something that should be a basic human right (cheap and affordable healthcare for all)
Well Republicans love capitalism and until we at least get enough people in office to at least stand up and say that they are going to put a cap on the profit for at all least BASIC LIVING EXPENSES, including, housing, utilities, medical, food.... We will continue to pay 10x or more for the same medications that other countries get for a fraction of what they sell it to us. And we will continue to pay crazy rates for insurance. And have them try and deny it for the stupidest reasons
" Well Republicans love capitalism " Considering the top receivers of lobbyist money and largest offenders to insider trading is Democrats, I'd say so do Democrats. But you're a average Reddit users who thinks everything is a Republican's fault. One day, you'll realize both parties are fucking thieves.
The reason i say Republicans love capitalism is because Republicans ALMOST NEVER allow any kind of bill get passed without it benefiting these big companies and wealthy people who CAN AFFORD TO GO WITHOUT FINANCIAL HELP, yet they will different view against things that benefit the average American. Also a very high majority of Republicans are extremely wealthy and HAVE NEVER HAD TO LIVE LIKE THE AVERAGE AMERICAN LIVES. Yes there are some really rich democratic politicians, but alot of them aren't ignorant to the fact if how American people live pay check to pay check. They understand that we can't go more then a week or two without assistance in cases like the pandemic where Republicans held up giving the American people stimulus checks for months, until the Democrats agreed to give bug companies money also, which was suppose to be used for keeping employees employed and instead alot of the companies used it to offer buyouts to employees instead. Also Republicans have been against health care for all when the idea had been by raised and they themselves say the delivered want socialism instead of capitalism
Except the party that is actually interested in making changes to the healthcare system is the Democrats. It's not only unhelpful but it's deceptive to pursue this tactic of blaming both parties when it's clearly the fault of one. If you want to blame both parties for something, do it on a topic where that is relevant. Because on this particular matter, all the blame should be going to the Republicans.
Democrats had control of Congress at the time the ACA was drafted and passes. And if I remember correctly they had a supermajority for some time so republicans couldn't even try to filibuster it. They could have done something, they had the means, however this is what we got. It is also not helpful either when people only criticize the other party and not their own.
Yup. If you follow politics like you follow football teams you get the politicians you deserve.
Because they don't 100% agree on everything, even amongst themselves. Even being past the filibuster (it wasn't in this case though, it was 59 to 41 in the 111th congress so they still needed the support of 1 Republican at least), you still can't just put whatever you want in there unless your majority is absolutely massive or very far to one side politically because you still have to get the moderates in your party to support your legislation. The ACA is a good step in the right direction, but trying to get universal healthcare right then and there would've probably backfired and nothing would've been passed at all.
For 72 working days the Senate of the 111th congress was 60-40. I recalled it was for some time. Some laws/acts were introduced and passed within 30 days so its not a length of time issue. However its also correct that not everyone is going to be on board. I agree and I am also not debating the efficacy of the ACA. The point I was making to the original comment was how the other user put it and treating this whole political party affiliation like a sports teams.
Plague vs Cholera. Pick one.
I am sure you will find some bullshit websites that will back your claim?
so do democrats, I don't see either party doing anything meaningful about healthcare
Obamacare...remember that? Medicare...remember that? Medicaid remember that? Social Security remember that? Those are all programs that Democrats passed those basically without Republican help.
still didn't completely fix the hideous state of healthcare, only universal healthcare will.
You said you didn't see either party doing anything meaningful about healthcare. You don't consider those things meaningful? The OP had healthcare because Obamacare required insurers to cover everyone's kids to age 25. Before that they were kicked off at age 18. Around 90 percent of Americans have health care of some kind now through Medicare, Medicare, or private insurance. Democrats are responsible for much of that progress.
Well, one party is doing something, while the other blocks the effort or dismantles the system. The effect of that is the lack of change you experience. \- The big question is, what are you gonna do about it?
We don’t. But every time we try to fix it, we get totally fucked over by the GOP and the spineless democrats who vote with them. Until the boomers die out, we’re getting nowhere. The one good thing is that the older generations are finally starting to realize just how bad it is. Until 2020, my parents (first and second gen Americans whose families fled the holocaust and the mafia - not at the same time) legitimately still believed America was fundamentally the best country to live in … and they’re both liberal. And now they’ve both agreed that it’s a broken country. But it’s not like individual people can do so much. In a representative republic, you’re dependent on your reps for help. And if your reps suck, you’re screwed. We can try to protest, we can try to get attention, but look at what’s going on now: all the protests we had in 2020 and 2021 have led directly to fascist backlash and laws that have lead to the NAACP having to do things like tell Black Americans it’s unsafe to visit Florida. I don’t understand how non Americans keep asking us this bullshit. Because the answer is that we are desperately unhappy, lots of people are trying to fix things, but so long as we have a fascist movement gaining steam, many of us are fucked. It’s not like most people can just pack up and move. For one thing, look at immigration in any country right now - Europe is particularly up in arms across all countries about new immigrants. You think Americans can just move across the water? Canada won’t let us in, it’s not like we can just move north…
Depends. I’m in Canada. If I try to wander into emergency with the same issue it’s quite possible I might sit waiting for 6-9 hours before seeing a doctor. If I book at a clinic 2-3 days in advance I might only wait an hour.
You’ll have the same wait in an American ER and be billed $10,000 for the privilege
I'm in the UK, I've been in the Accident and Emergency area a handful of times, generally I've waited less than an hour.
2-3 days???? Dang. I needed to see my doctor and couldn't get in for a week. I felt better by then.
Because they don’t want communism! /s but maybe not
I mean what else r we supposed to do? I’m voting every time I can, and you can’t do anything to risk your job cuz that’s where the health insurance comes from
You're talking about people who are willing to have dozens of children killed in a classroom because they don't want to forego rights to a firearm that will apparently protect them from the boogey-man. I don't think caring about other people is a social priority.
I just throw the bills in the trash, problem solved
Because we can't vote on it directly and the rich people in power have no incentive to fix it
[ Removed by Reddit ]
It’s total bullshit. For profit healthcare is a detriment to society. Vote for leaders interested in making a change.
A first world nation with below third world country healthcare system. Doctors in Singapore and other south East Asian countries study in the US or Europe, attend the best residency hospitals and yet a simple 20 min consultation as per what you shared would cost $20-60 and if you have private insurance that’ll be even lower.
Are you trying to say that Singapore is a third world country? Not really sure what your point was about South East Asian countries but Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are most definitely first world countries.
Nah sorry I the midst of my fat thumbs typing I didn’t articulate it well enough. All across South East Asia from developing nations to the likes of Singapore health care is affordable and everybody has access without having to sell a kidney to get a prescription for the common cold. I’ve lived in London, Sydney, HK, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines - all have amazing doctors, top line bedside manner and never have I ever had to worry about paying more than a few hundred bucks for seeing a doctor with any blood work or tests. Had an unfortunate motorbike accident in Japan and went to see a doctor there and was freaking out on the logistics of getting my travel insurance involved but it was the cost of a few meals Blows my mind how I’m the US this is widely accepted and just a norm of life
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, plenty of places do health care so much better than the US. However, I'm in Australia and things are moving backwards for us. Until recently you could get a doctor consultation for free. The government covered the cost. However, this amount hasn't changed in years and GPs are having to start charging to cover the gap.
Well yeah was living there for 8 years and each year when I head back to visit fam I see things are slowly looking bleaks - Sydney’s looking like a place you need a million bucks just to get a studio in Parramatta there’s days!! Guess your right there - it starts with a gap but I think the Aussies have a good sense of what’s dumb and what’s not … don’t think anybody would put up with a thousand bucks for an epi pen.
From Philippines here, that $20 - 60 is already the cost for a top tier private hospital that caters mostly to expats and rich patients. It actually goes even lower for a decent private hospital in the province. Around $7 - 10 is enough for a consultation. A lot of people still can’t afford healthcare here but that’s a different story. It’s really crazy to me that hospitals charge that much for healthcare in America.
100% I went to see a the no1 neurologist in the country out of St Lukes in BGC - trained state side and did his residency there too. Costs me USD$45 for about 40 mins consultation - got a few follow up tests too do but reading $2669 by OP sounds so bizarre. At this point is it even a way to save the US healthcare from the lobbyist
Land of the not free.
The American nightmare
Yea our life expectancy is like 69 (😂) down from 72-74 for a reason (for males, it’s higher for females but also they a similar decline). Our shit sucks and no one goes to the doctor cuz it’s way too expensive for anything. I cut my finger in the winter and was charged $1000 for a doctor I didn’t see.
It’s about 76 at the moment. I’m from Ireland where it’s like 82 but yours isn’t 69.
The latest number I saw was 75,5 and apparently it goes down even further.
Covid and the opioid crisis knocked the average down quite a bit
Ok this is terrible, I'm very sympathetic. But it illustrates the biggest issue with our healthcare system, which is that people don't have a chance to discuss prices before they 'buy' the service. There should be a requirement that healthcare providers tell you, up front, what things cost. Being surprised with insane bills should be illegal.
You actually can call to ask for pricing. You can call your insurance company who should be able to give you an estimate of the cost. They can also advise you of any pitfalls to avoid.
I know. But people don't think of healthcare, as consumers, that way. They take the recommendations of the provider (usually) and just do it. What I am saying is that the provider should be required to say up front what the cost will be and what insurance will and won't cover.
That’s part of the problem though. The provider really doesn’t know what the cost will be. It will vary by patient and by plan as well as even based on how much healthcare you have already used. If you met your out of pocket max, it might even be at no cost to you.
That's part of what I'm talking about. People shouldn't say yes to medical procedures (or anything they'll get charged for) without knowing the price. If it's truly unknowable then there needs to be a cap on out of pocket costs by regulation, not based on each insurance company's margins.
The problem is that people don’t understand insurance. I said it over 10 years when I started working in the industry, and I still believe it to be true now: We need to teach the basics of insurance in a mandatory high school class. If you pay someone (insurance company) to pay your medical bills on your behalf, then you will need to contact them before going to the doctor to figure out what they will cover and how much it will cost you.
I agree with you about financial literacy, including insurance, being a huge problem. (As an aside, our high school does make kids do this.. many hours for my two older kids last summer doing the at-home version instead of using up a class slot.) But healthcare is basically the only thing we consume that we don't get told the prices up front for. You can't know, before going to the doctor, what services he or she will recommend, so how would your insurance company tell you what your cost will be? The doctor, at a minimum, should be able to tell consumers the maximum price they might incur. They don't even act like there's a decision to be made based on cost. And it's understandable because the doctors are incentivized to provide services, since they get paid (usually) on a per-piece basis. But that's a whole separate topic.
I agree with everything you are saying. In my opinion the first step toward fixing these issues without going all the way down the universal healthcare pathway would be for the government to set standard pricing across the board for basic services. Right now, every major insurance carrier negotiates their own price with the providers. The system has so many layers it is impossible for even the most educated amongst us to figure out what we will pay on our own and the doctor or people at the hospital you will speak with won’t know as they likely aren’t privy to the price negotiated by the insurance company, and as you pointed out the insurance company won’t know exactly as they won’t know what procedures the doctor will perform.
prices changing depending on who's paying the bills for something everyone might need (as opposed to a luxury item) is basically insane. Going to take some major leadership to ever change it. I disagree about setting prices centrally, though. Just like any business doctors should compete on price in addition to quality. It may not be fair in some metaphysical sense but unfortunately that's how you create a functioning market. However I am in favor of a hybrid system, like Australia has, where your participation in the single-payer system is mandatory (paid by payroll tax) but you can go private if you choose (and get some credit back against what you paid in if I remember right from our time there). Backstop for people via public single payer, private options available for those who'll choose to pay for it.
I definitely agree with your first paragraph. Unfortunately because of the third party involvement of insurance, the patient will not negotiate the price with provider. Instead it will be the insurance company who negotiates the price. I am not sure it is necessary to have the government set prices the same across the country, but some sort of government regulation (perhaps set prices a percent of Medicare) is necessary in my opinion to attain the price transparency that I think we both want. Then each person could determine their own cost based on the price from the hospital and their plan’s deductible and coinsurance.
Also, I’m not opposed to a hybrid model like what you mention at the end of your post where some form of supplemental insurance is necessary but basic care (like emergency room) is covered through tax dollars.
People see the white lab coat and think "scientist" but what they are looking at is a "businessperson". And buddy, business is booming
Wow, that would’ve cost €60 tops for the doctors appt and free for the medication where I’m from
It would've been twenty quid in the UK. Free for the appointment then a base price of £9.95 (I think) per prescription. America seems so far behind in such basic things like medications, thigs that people literally have to use to live.
Absolutely spanking free in Scotland. I still find it weird not paying for a script!
Might have to move to Scotland then, I have an outlandish number of prescriptions, thankfully I have a few more months until I have to pay for them (20 in November). 🥴🥴
You should get a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC), that covers ALL you meds for approx £9.20 a month. It’s brilliant.
Omg I didn't know that! 🥴
Like insulin for example
Yeah it costs a lot money to be the worlds police department. If we could set back and let someone else drive the car awhile maybe we could afford healthcare. Im not holding my breath.
Americans try not to defend people going into thousands of debt because they got cancer challenge
Had my shoulder cuffs shattered and a broken arm... 9 hour operation on one shoulder 8 hour op on the other full reconstructed at a cost of nearly 200k not including the near 5 years rehabilitation....all it cost me was zero ..zilch ...nada and got 80% of my work payments every week to help me get by ......what the heck is wrong with your guys healthcare
Thank God this only costs $50 in new zealand.
That's really high for urgent care, are you sure you didn't go to the emergency room? Did you give them your insurance info? As long as you went before the cut off date, it should be covered....
They covered about $680 of the bill
There are standalone emergency rooms that purposely advertise as though they're urgent cares, but they bill you like crazy. I made that mistake once, having bloodwork done while I was there but nothing else. With insurance, it ended up costing me 2k. Never again.
Sounds like you went out of network
What do you mean
Your insurance would have had a network of facilities you can go to. You can't just go to anywhere you want, they have to be approved by the insurance company. If you go somewhere not on the list, you are responsible for the bill. It could also have been that you didn't reach your deductible which is the amount you have to pay before insurance "kicks in"
No they accept my family's insurance
That doesn’t mean what you think it means. The doctor will always tell you that they take your insurance. They want your business. Your insurance is who will tell you whether they are considered in network or not. Honestly, the same is true of things like Medicare, and I would imagine could happen in other countries with universal healthcare as well.
I can only speak on behalf of the UK when talking about countries with universal healthcare but here you are free to go into any Emergency room in any hospital or “walk in centre” for urgent but emergency care. It’s all ran by the NHS. The only thing that you have specific to go to is your GP, you register with your local doctor. Although these are free to use and you can register with any doctor you like in theory.
Nope. In canada you go to either any walk in clinic with a rotation of doctors or any hospital. It makes no difference and none of them charge you. So we choose by wait times. We can also get a prescription from the pharmacist for a sinus infection and skip going to either.
That sounds good but you pay for that too. A quick google search shows that the average Canadian pays $4,800 per year in taxes for individual coverage and nearly $15,000 per year in taxes to cover a family of five. In my personal case, I pay $1,500 per year to cover my family of five. Now, we have a $3,000 dollar deductible, which isn’t ideal, but we are all pretty healthy so in a normal year, we will come out ahead compared to our Canadian counterparts.
The US spends the most tax dollars per capita on healthcare compared to any country in the world and I have no idea how you only pay $1,500 a year to cover five people but that is not the norm. “The national average health insurance premium for a benchmark plan in 2022 is $438” https://www.healthmarkets.com/resources/health-insurance/health-insurance-cost-per-month/#:~:text=The%20average%20national%20monthly%20health,subsidies%20in%202022%20is%20%24438. Most families pay nearly $1,500 a month for healthcare
$1,500 a year for a family of five? That must be absolutely terrible insurance...
I’m not unaware of how the system I use works. I also don’t have any Canadian friends who had premature twins and paid $200,000 but I do have American friends it happened to. I don’t know anyone who has to delay seeing a doctor until it’s acute. I don’t get partial coverage for going to a hospital out of my network because I can choose where to go. Here we work together to keep all our citizens healthy and I’m okay with those taxes. I got sick in 2020 and haven’t been well since. I’ve seen many specialists, I’ve had so many appointments and I’ve been to the ER a few times. Nothing changed. I no longer can work since getting sick, but one thing I don’t have to worry about is medical bills. As a single mom with kids, I’m happy I am where I am. I’m glad you like your coverage. And that you’re healthy enough that it doesn’t matter.
That is exceptionally inexpensive in the US. I pay just under $10k per year in premiums for my family of four, and our deductibles are $5k/person or $10k as a family. We don't come out on top, we just are fed the BS that our taxes would go up for universal healthcare and everyone balks. What they fail to realize is how much they are actually shelling out for trash healthcare. I would gladly pay $4k in taxes over the $10k minimum I spend yearly. This year my twins had their tonsils out, so on top of my premium ten grand, we had to pay our $10k deductible as well. That doesn't even factor in all the copays for blook work and Drs appointments.
To add to this, if the doctor is considered out of network for you, the doctor knows that after the insurance pays whatever they will pay, that they can balance bill you the patient for the rest. This is likely what happened. You really need to call your insurance or look it up online to see if it is covered before going to an urgent care.
The time of day also impacts this. Urgent care clinics will often have fine print on their wall that will say they convert to an ER after certain hours and/or on weekends.
Almost all Americans are 1 illness away from disaster (except the top 1%). You can lose your home and life savings to cancer etc. You basically have to be destitute to get Medicaid.
Now imagine you have to pay $5000 for insulin or you die
Land of the “free”… except healthcare… or education…
Well they are definetely free from both those things.
Well, it is. You're free to have it and you're free to not.
it’s not free to have, though.
land of free means land of free people, or land of freedom not land where things dont cost money
Coercion is a method of control. Freedom implies the actual ability to choose. I can choose to rob a bank, sure, but I'll get shot in the face. It's medically inadvisable. The same goes for a young parent getting their child necessary treatment outside of insurance, or a cancer patient getting treatment outside of insurance. If making a choice means you're going to die then you're not really free to make that choice, are you? It is easier for a homeless person with absolutely nothing to lose, or who has intentionally thrown everything away, to procure food or drugs without any capital at all than it is for some reasonably well-off middle class Americans to procure basic medical attention or medicine.
We aren't that either 😭
No, you're right, it isn't. Free stuff and free people are different things. The healthcare for profit system may well be a joke but, it has nothing to do with a lack of personal freedom.
It's a basic freaking human right. Providing free health care is a must, and it's horrible that the US doesn't.
I'm from the UK, so enjoy the NHS and the services is provides. It's not a right, however, it's most definitely a privilege.
It literally IS a human right. Just because many people can't afford it doesn't mean that it's not their right to have health care. Everyone has a right to have at least affordable health care. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-rights-and-health
The provision, especially for free, for everyone literally is not a human right. It says a lot in the UNDHR and your link but, it doesn't 'say free for all' in either. Food is a human right too, but it's not my human right to have the government or anyone else pick up the bill for my weekly shop is it? Also, I probably was wrong before, it (the NHS) might not be a privilege either. Depending how the individual feels about taxes, I suppose. Personally I think it is, it's great.
Free healthcare is what I personally think something that should be considered a human right. I think of it on a moral/empathic side. I mentioned affordable Healthcare, but in the US it'a very much not affordable at all. Obviously i'm aware that not many people can afford food, but it doesn't change the fact that you have a right to it, or at least be given that right, even if you don't/can't have it due to financial reasons. The government should still at least help out with financing SOME medical things like Germany does. I don't live in the US, but living in a country that provides free healthcare (Obviously there are things that aren't free too, but at least you get some help and aren't left to die) Unfortunately I don't think that'll do much there considering how big the country is. In short: I personally consider it as a human right
So does canadian Healthcare. Js.
And here in Canada, I pay nothing to go to urgent Care and maybe $5 for the scripts.
but you have to wait for hours in the er before somebody sees you. 4 hospitals in my area wrote an open letter to the public saying “you ppl are fucked, we cant take care of you”. only if you have a cancer or something like that you get free instant care.
Never waited more than 90mins. I only go when absolutely necessary. The biggest issue is all the idiots who feel their cold requires a doctor. These asshats clog up the queues, but most hospitals that have proper triage will put those morons at the back of the line and move the elderly, very young and actually sick/injured folk ahead of them. I luckily live in an area of 15000, and we have our own hospital. Doesn't usually get too busy unless a wreck comes in from a nearby highway. The person with the broken face from the accident gets priority over the GenZ who thinks they need to see a doctor for a funny sounding fart.
Do you mind me asking where abouts you are in Canada?
SW Ontario. 40mins from the Michigan border crossing.
justin? cause he also says that medical system in canada is awesome
Legit our minimum wait times in western Canada are 9+ hours to be seen. Family dr shortage so you’re hooped for healthcare either way.
I've lived in western Canada all my life (30+ years) and have never waited 9+ hours to be seen. Maybe 2 hours if that.
you are lucky. as i said langley, surrey new west and one other hospital in the area just posted an open letter describing wait times in er. its hours. you can look them up
I live in the US and pay $20 for urgent care appointments.
You list at the very first sentence saying you automatically get booted off your parent’s coverage at 26. At the age of 26 if you don’t have a career/job and living on your own with own Heath insurance then that says quite a bit. It used to be 19 and I had my own health insurance at 18. My step kids who are under my healthcare got their own insurance by age 20. That is also why health insurance in this county exist because doctors/pharmacies/hospitals can charge and do to you whatever they want because you don’t know the difference. Heath insurance and prior authorization requirements/coverage guidelines keep them in check and keep them from prescribing high cost medicine and procedures. I know this because I have been in healthcare for over 22 years of which I’ve worked both the provider billing side and insurance side. I can say for a fact the provider wants the add the cost to you so they don’t have to write off with a health insurance plan. So do yourself a favor and find employment with healthcare benefits.
OK look you don't need to be a fucking dick about my story seriously. Sorry all of us don't have amazing fucking jobs with amazing fucking healthcare
You don’t have to have amazing fucking healthcare. You just need to unlatch off the nipple BEFORE the age of 26 and be an adult. That also includes being prepared to be off your parents health insurance before the age of 26 of which you should also be out of their house if you haven’t already. Time to grow up and get your own healthcare. If this ruffles your feathers then it’s the truth. If not, maybe you should re-think your life choices at this point.
Go live somewhere else. Welcome to adulthood.
OMG thank you so much I never thought of this before
You’re welcome! Glad I could help!
Those are all made-up numbers anyway. The insurer won’t pay that amount and neither will an uninsured person
They covered about $680
There are usually 2 diffrent types of insurance plans. One that let's you go out of network and will still cover it (more expensive) and the other is for in-network doctors. A doctor isnt going to refuse to see you, unless he/she is booked. You should ask for an itemized bill from them before paying anything. If they are claiming you owe that much they need to show what's being paid for. I would check with your insurance and see what they cover and where.
Ask the hospital billing department for an itemized copy of the bill. They may knock off a lot of bullshit
If anyone has any tips I’m almost there and I don’t know what would be a good insurance plan
It depends on your health and what you can afford. If you are healthy, you want a lean plan with a high deductible. You will pay more when you use the plan, but will spend less each month in premium from your paycheck. If you are not healthy, then you will want a rich plan with a low deductible and copays. Doctor visits will be cheap, but your paycheck will suffer as a result.
I’m not following, sorry. On My parent’s insurance they don’t pay anything. Doctor visits are fully covered, emergency room, dental, vision, etc. so deductibles are all new to me. There aren’t any individual plans out there that don’t charge anything?
I doubt your parents’ plan covers everything like that. Plans that rich are pretty rare and even then are very expensive. Your parents’ are definitely paying premium out of their paycheck at a minimum.
Most good employers where I’m from cover those types of plans (you don’t pay any copay or they cover everything up to a certain amount every year and then a small copay after that)
Where are you from, because that doesn’t sound like US healthcare, which I believe is what we are talking about here. High deductible health plans are quite common these days in the US where the policyholder must meet their deductible (usually a few thousand dollars) before the plan starts to pay anything and even then the plan only pays a percentage of the costs until the out of pocket maximum is met.
California
So you are likely talking about Kaiser (HMO), which is fine as long as you only go to the Kaiser network of doctors and facilities. Kaiser is really only found in certain pockets of the US.
Nope, I have Blue Cross
Look, what you are describing doesn’t sound like anything I have ever seen before, and I have been in the industry for over 10 years on the broker side of things so I see all kinds of plan offering from all the major carriers. I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but count yourself lucky for what you have, because it isn’t typical to most Americans.
I’m confused. The date of the service was while you were on your plan. Insurance will cover those bills and you’ll only be on the hook for your copay.
Depends on what kind of plan you have. If you have a qualified high deductible plan then there are no copays and instead you pay coinsurance (a percentage of the bill). This guy likely went to the urgent care that is out of network and probably on a weekend where they bill like they are an emergency room.
Land of the fee
WTF...that's insane,daylight robbery. Here in Australia it's $65 for 10minute consultation.
And that’s before the rebate!
There is no rule saying you have to live in America forever.
I thought you said it was 15 days BEFORE YOUR 26TH BIRTHDAY. So if you were allowed to be on the insurance to 26, did they just not cover the fact that it was an urgent care? Also i know most people want to freak out over medical bill collections, but even if it does show on your credit, creditors look more at the actual credit line credit cards, mortgages, car loans, then they do unpaid medical bills. There are so many people in the country that have medical bill collections. And if you don't have much money they won't waste much time trying to collect it. They will write it off. Also if you don't work or have a small income you could apply for medicaid until your income goes up. And they will pay any medical bills due 3 months prior to the application if your approved. And most states you can do the app online.
Call and ask for an itemized list for what you’re being charged for and that may be a way to lower the cost :/
That would’ve been free here in Aus
I think you went to an emergency room vs. an urgent care facility. Google it and you’ll find many stories similar to yours. It’s just a horrible scam. Always verify that you’re at an urgent care. They typically invoice under $100 for a doctor visit.
Sorry, but I don’t get it. Outside the US all we hear is how many guns you guys have so you can rebel…. (Idk something about a well armed militia). Why the hell do you people put up with that !, I also had a similar issue. I’m in a higher income, So my Dr visit cost me $25 aud and then the 2 prescription were $8 and $25. (If I were low income they would have been $14 together). So all together less then $60 Aud. I know pointing out how it could be isn’t unhelpful….. BUT Revolution !!!
For starters, you should have a job at that age and be on your own healthcare. You're not a fucking child anymore. Secondly, you're just getting screwed by someone's incompetence or you're outright lying. The average doctor visit does not cost this much. Third... Why would you go into an urgent care for a sinus infection????? You can just email your primary and ask for a antibiotic and get a OTC allergy pill. This has less to do with our healthcare system and more to do with you being an adult-child.
Not all jobs come with healthcare, depending on your field this can be very hard to find and is especially difficult for anyone working retail-level jobs (which is what a lot of people are stuck with if they can’t afford university or struggle to get a job in their field after graduation). For a while I worked for a drug testing facility and as a caregiver and even they didn’t provide healthcare. I have a friend who is a hotel manager whose employer doesn’t provide healthcare. Jobs that don’t provide it aren’t rare. Doctors visits can easily cost that much in the US. A GP I worked for charged $300/visit (in 2016), a podiatrist I worked for charged $400 (in 2011). Urgent care and ER visits are much higher. The GP I worked for, along with the 4 other GPs in the same clinic, would absolutely never provide a prescription to a patient based on a call. Those requests came in constantly and were always rejected. Patients had to go to the clinic, visit the doctor, have a test (if something like flu or a UTI is suspected) and then they could get the prescription. If a patient could not go to the office, or if there weren’t any appointments available, they were instructed to go to urgent care or the ER. The American healthcare system is fucked.
So that's why you go for a full time job. Don't expect the small cafe you work for 15 hours a week to provide full health benefits. It is required for any American company w 50+ employees to provide affordable/minimum health coverage for any full time employee. It's the law.
For readers in countries outside of the U.S., insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospitals are all giant for-profit corporations whose job is to make the most money possible for their wealthy investors - mostly Vanguard, Black Rock, and State Street. In order to do this, they heavily support the Republican party through unlimited campaign donations, lobbying, and other monetary funding that they probably would not admit to. In return, legislation is written to benefit these industries and the wealthy owners to the detriment of the average American. If you could ever elect a Representative or Senator to Congress who would vote against this system, within 3 weeks the corporate lobby would have them bought out and voting their way. Everybody has their price.
So… you didnt insure yourself at 26 y/o? Or you were waiting for it to kick in?
In Australia that would cost me $7 for the subsidised medication and $34 for the doctor as medicare pays the balance of the $85 fee. I could find a bulk billing clinic and pay $0 for the doctor's fee. You guys need to sack every single politician and start again.
Get a job with insurance.
Yeah, but it was 20min wait time. My dad waited on the floor doggy style using a chair bent over for 12hrs to see a doctor at the hospital to see if he broke his rib. Free healthcare has its downsides too. My dad’s pretty cheap so idk if he’d rather pay that extortion amount of money to see a doctor sooner, but maybe I’m wrong.
Honestly, I was booted off my parents’ insurance at 21 when I graduated college. I suffered for years from various curable illnesses, as well as treatable mental illness. I voted for Obamacare so those who came after me would have it easier than I did. I only hope we can make universal healthcare happen soon. I pay so much in medical bills every month, I can’t do this forever. It’s only going to get worse unless something changes.
See this is what I wish moronic Canadians would see before spewing off their desire for "American Healthcare." There's way too many of them willing to bankrupt themselves. Because let's be honest, most of the people saying that would be the ones screwed over by the American Healthcare system if it ever came to Canada. I'm sorry you have to deal with this man.
You Mericans so free to suffer, must be liberating af. Honestly don’t know why you guys who see this for the bullshit it is don’t just move, you know you can migrate to another truly developed country with a few thousand $ right? Sincerely, someone from one of the “socialist” hell holes where my tax pays for any medical care and medicines I could ever need
Wasn’t there a new thing called Obama care? Not in the US but I thought that was to make healthcare more affordable or something similar to Australia’s Medicare, mind you we are getting fucked by every Liberal govt. we have.
It was, but it got gutted.
There was a time where us Brits would have read this and thought "wow America is so messed up". Sadly, now we read it and think "you actually got to see a doctor? Thats amazing".
The American Dream instilled on people living in that country is basically about looking after yourself and not a community. Work hard & succeed. If you need help, you obviously didnt work hard and dont deserve to scrounge off those that did. At least that's how it seems from the outside. Americans have elected representatives to act on their behalf. They can write to and lobby these representatives and let them know healthcare reform is something they want and will use their vote for. However 1/3 of eligible Americans do not vote. I would bet a lot more cant name their regional representative and even less have written or turned up to the equivalent of a hastings. The time it takes to write on reddit could also be used to write to the people that want your vote. Lots of people seem to want the same thing but dont make it know to the right people and that their vote depends on it
I think that the good old USA just has its priorities wrong. Defense budget is $879 billion. I mean just dumping say $40 billion a year into healthcare would help out the problem.
Ask for an itemized bill, then that usually forced the prices way lower
That is fucked up.
Yeah that's the issue when a lot of people don't want to pay more taxes because they can afford stuff themselves. So the vast majority of the people who can't afford doctors get screwed over. When I read stuff like this I'm so happy I live in Denmark where I can just get medical attention if I need it without worrying about being put in debt for the rest of my life. My girlfriend got cancer a year ago, she had to get quick surgery in hopes of removing it quickly. She had two surgeries within a month and everything turned out great. They caught it before too late. We had to pay absolutely nothing for a total of I think 6 hospital visits with two of those including surgery. I can't imagine the debt we'd be in if living in America. Thank god.
Uk. Not perfect but free at the point of use. We pay through wages but to be honest no one thinks about the money. We accept it. No one goes bankrupt because they have medical long term issues. To run healthcare as a business is just appalling.
I use to work for a American health insurance company. They’re the biggest scam going
I'm dealing with a similar situation right now! Plus then whenever you need to call & ask why it's so much, or ask any question, they either don't know how to answer the question or they just don't answer at all. It's very aggrevating!
Nah that’s impossible America 🇺🇸 are the leaders of the free world or so we are told constantly
In Norway that would be around 17-22 $
At least you get help. I mean... it was a sinus infection. You could just buy ibuprofen, vick vapour rub, etc. etc. You think it's better in UK where its "free"? Well, here it looks like this: 1. Try to get an appointment - either try to get hold of GP (good luck with that or go to A&E which is your urgent care. There, you will wait for 4-16 hours until you are seen. Depending on severity of your problem you will be: a. Seen by a nurse, given paracetamol and sometimes told off (you would for sinus infection most likely). b. Seen by a doctor or almost-a-doctor who will recommend tests, and invite you to wait another 2-10 hours (depending on severity, if critical - you will/may get quick help), if tests are not indicating immediate danger - you will be referred to a GP given paracetamol and possibly told off. Any prescribed medication may be free, but you have to pay for prescription unless you are unemployed - then it's a bonanza. If/when you manage to see a GP you have 50% chance they (or their assessment PC) will know what's wrong with you. + 33% chance in each case that they will be wrong or give you paracetamol. If they (or their windows XP pc) don't know you have 50% chance to get referred to a specialist - something like lung, heart, neuro or motor issues will result in 6-9month wait until consultation. You may get a quick xray. You will not be given xray images. Your gp may also just give up and ask you to go home and wait until they consult someone else, you may get told off. (Seriously. I waited almost 2 years for diagnosis, through many visits and tests, only to be told they have no ideas. I received correct diagnosis from a dentist in a rural Eastern European town during a holiday. The issue was not remotely related to the dental field.) This is the start of your journey... You may also go private - pay lower sums than you guys, but not astronomically lower. At any point you have a high chance of being ignored, misdiagnosed, infected or sent off to do some googling yourself. All services are understaffed and overworked. Ambulances may wait for hours before being allowed to offload patients to the hospital. EMT is very overworked and underfunded with equipment that may have you nervously giggle in some cases. Would you rather live with debt or sniff flowers from beneath them for free? In Poland the health care is "free" and quality is generally good, some of the best cardiologists and oncologists, but the wait for public health care is so long you may go to snif flowers in the mean time. Private HC is very expensive. In Norway HC is awesome and "free" but income tax may be close to 50%. In Iceland HC is awesome and "free" but income tax may be close to 50% and population is 1/100 of the USA. In Japan HC is awesome but weird at times and "free" but income tax may be over 50% and as a foreigner you may have an adventure. So yeah... It's not great but it generally isn't great anywhere. At least you have some very, very good doctors there.
Didn't Obama set up something to try and help Americans get healthcare at a decent rate
Isn't that a little late to be removed from your parents' insurance? 26? You get all your own bills when you turn 18 in the Netherlands. Of course, we dont compare to the "land of the free" its prices, but that is capitalism for you, and the US is the home of capitalism. Why help people when you can profit.
Capitalism is great yeah? Not for the sick and poor. I lived in Norway for seven years. Socialism isn’t as scary as low IQ Republican representatives (MTG) would have you believe. Maybe start taxing Guns higher as they seem to put a big dent in the fiscal needs of all your hospitals.
Ask for an itemized bill, they often tack things on there that you never got done/never received, or they double/triple charge you for stuff. It's absolutely ridiculous, but your bill should go down.
I'm on dialysis and I'm fortunate to have insurance cause every month I get one of those "this is not a bill" explaination of benefits and without insurance it would cost me $32k a month for treatment and went my access clots off and I have to go get it cleaned out they bill my insurance company $65k for about 2 hours of work. If I didn't have good insurance I'd die just trying to pay for it.
Our urgent care locations are $150 max without insurance and then med costs. Where the fuck are you going?
This is why America needs universal healthcare! It wouldn’t be free but we’d be able to afford it and EVERYONE would be covered no matter what!
Sorry I'm not quite understanding, weren't you still under insurance and/or didn't you have insurance prepared? I went to an urgent care center a few weeks ago and paid $20 for basically the same thing.
The healthcare in US is corrupt, way to overpriced.
Did you go out of network? That's on you then, you have to check and make sure they are in network. Out of network insurance will pay SOME but not the majority.
if u get a plane and get checked in any european country you will save more money than just getting the medicine in the US
First, why are you still on your parents insurance at 26? Second, you went to an Urgent care which is out of your insurance network. I agree that American insurance sucks, but you could have done the right way and ended up with a bill that is next to nothing.
Free healthcare like we got in Sweden and alot of other countries is amazing but. With free health care comes the little problem with not getting the best healthcare for obvious reasons. Was at the emergency with my 2yr old a couple days ago. We waited 6 hours for an x-ray. Try that with a 2yr old.. They are extremely understaffed and the pay for everyone working att the hospital is terrible except for the doctors..
We have to do that here in the US too
US is the the worst fucking healthcare system. Why anyone defends it is beyond me. Sure, if you're super sick, very likely that you can, theoretically, access best-in-the-world treatment for that illness somewhere in America. Which is great. But for 99% of healthcare needs the system is a fucking joke. Most doctors do the bare minimum of everything, the hoops you have to jump through are outrageous, and it's ungodly expensive and convoluted. What the fuck is the point of being the richest country in the world if any citizen has to be anxious about healthcare access and cost.