Is this a joke I am too not-American to understand?
American healthcare is a fucking joke.
I'm so lucky that I live in a country where it's covered and I don't have to worry if i get sick.
Yeah I'm about to lose my healthcare for 4 months I'm pretty nervous. Gunna get a physical and my teeth cleaned before it runs out but still a lot can go wrong. Wife's grandpa was telling me he's on a pill that's $10,000 a month if you don't have insurance
Thanks Martin Shkreli. (Idk how to embed links on this app yet. Kinda embarrassing.)
Edit: let’s see what happens
Thanks again! Wefwef(voyager) doesn’t have that nice little “?”
He should ask for an itemized bill. Then he might only owe 50 grand.......
Somebody should make a law to make itemized bills obligatory for hospitals, but I guess that counts as communism as well 🤷
And as we all know, if it isn't Randian Anarcho-capitalism, then it's Communism, baby!
And? That is still 50 grand too much.
1000% agree.
Just defeatist humor.
No big deal. You have until August. Just skip the avocado toast until then and you'll be fine.
Idk they might have to skip Starbucks for a day or 2 also and that's just not really fair, ya know?
Oooh, yeah, I didn't consider that.
Here's my American Healthcare story:
- snap finger bone, go to urgent care to get splint
- pay 50ish dollars that day
- 2 months later, get bill for 200 dollars
- ahah! everyone says to ask for an itemized bill! do that
- get itemized bill back that claims the 200 charge is for 'visiting with a doctor with knowledge of medical history' (paraphrasing)
- contest charge because I did not see a doctor, and splinting a snapped finger does not require any fucking context at all
- get runaround for 2 months, while being threatened with late fees
- finally they say they will adjust the bill
- get new bill for $201, 'for a visit that did not include a doctor' (no fucking joke)
welcome the USA, where healthcare operations are scams
(these are just 2 of the scams in my state, thanks to shell companies when one is shut, another opens)
edit: and in case anyone thinks I paid that shit, I didn't. I sent them a polite version of a 'fuck you' reply. Then covid hit and I never heard from them again.
Mine was when I cut the tip of my finger off... Bottle broke and sliced my middle finger from the middle of the nail down to the corner. Only thing holding it on was the nail itself. I go to urgent care because it's closer than the hospital. The doc soaks it in iodine and alcohol, checks for glass, then says he can stitch or glue it. He opts for glue. I get a wrap and splint to protect it, "keep it dry and unwrap it in a few weeks to make sure it took." Couple weeks go by and I get a bill. $8,000 for superglue and a bandage! A little less than 1/4 of what I made in a year at the time. Best part? "Payment in full is expected one month from receipt."
Fucking greedy bastards...
My mom called 911 a few years ago and got taken to a local hospital by the ambulance that showed up. Charged $2500 just for the ambulance ride. The hospital she went to had its own associated ambulance service, not the company that actually took her; my mom ended up getting another bill from this associated ambulance service for $2800 despite the fact that they literally did nothing at all. I almost had to tie my mom up in the basement to prevent her from paying this second bill out of pocket.
Heres mine:
Emergency root canal.
How much does this cost?
Idk.
What will my insurance cover?
Idk.
I need1500 now 1500 after.
Ok please make it stop.
3 months later get a bill already in collections for 3000.
Credit score goes up 30 points
Thats my favorite when the due date is always a few days before the letter arrived and its in collections the first time Ive seen it
Meanwhile, I was hospitalized due to covid and bronchitis combo, paid less than 20 dollars because Government covered all my ass.
And I am in a third world country.
Meanwhile in austria even the dentist is covered
The UK used to have that. This year, 98-99% of NHS dentists shut down or became private. Conservatives, eh?
St Jude’s is a charity hospital that does not charge patients or their families. They accept insurance payments only and the rest is covered as charity.
AKA the only way an American can afford to live.
what the hell is "other adjustments"?????
Free money!
Ticketmaster must have been involved in the processing.
I'd be dead in America.
Affording the treatment wouldn't have been an issue, because I wouldn't have been able to afford the diagnosis.
American health care is fucked. That said:
I watched a promo for St Jude a few years back. They cover all expenses for families so they can focus on their kids. You should donate. They're awesome.
I feel like it's a no win situation.
Here in Canada, my coworker has needed back surgery since last year in September. He just got into a specialist for a consultation last week to get surgery scheduled. He's been living for almost an entire year on light duty at work with back pain.
I feel over the past 10 years our Government has mismanaged their financials and our healthcare and education systems have taken the beating for it. Public services are only as good as the people who are trusted to safeguard them.
That's still better, cause if I needed back surgery I'd just suck it up because I know (see OP photo) is waiting for me if I do go
Unless I have money for good insurance.
Sounds like your coworker is getting healthcare.
In America he'd just suffer for the rest of his life and then off himself when he was too old to handle the pain and still work.
In America, similar wait times for specialists/surgeries are common as well. You just also have to pay for them. My grandma's husband has been waiting years for a hip replacement which keeps getting rescheduled. My husband is scheduled for a colonoscopy 2 months from now. It normally would be free/low cost under insurance, since it is "preventative," but in his case it is a follow up check for a health problem which he has to get done every three years as a man in his 30's, so insurance no longer considers it "preventative." Therefore it will cost about $2500 after insurance (which he also pays for.) It's just ridiculous. Also the $2500 is only a ballpark figure based on the last time he had this done; there is no way to get anyone to tell you exactly how much a procedure will cost. They bill you afterwards, and it will change based on different "variables." It's sometimes difficult to even get them to tell you how much an office visit will cost. They do this so that you cannot shop around. Usually you will get several different bills at different times, for things like labs, fees, etc. Nobody in the process makes it transparent how many bills you will get. Some places are shadier than others, and will add fees that you shouldn't have even incurred, and you then have to call and ask for an itemized list to fight it, which is not normally provided. Most people don't bother to call, and end up owing thousands that go to collections, messing up their credit.
Pretty much, UK here and the NHS is also such a mismanaged joke at this point that private health insurance is looking a lot better for me. I've had a friend of mine whose dad succumbed to cancer because the NHS didn't get to him soon enough before it went terminal and then they proceeded to blame him for not coming sooner. This was before the COVID pandemic but these stories only increased afterwards.
Yes and no. They are awesome but they suck up so much money from other Children’s hospitals that do the same things. That and that have literally billions in reserves and don’t cover much of the other expenses that come with having a very very sick child (travel expenses, food while away from home, lodging while away from home). That and 30% of what they collect is used for fundraising expenses.
I am very lucky that I dont live in America
It doesn't have to be this way
But no one will seriously confront it until there's competition from other parties, you can't have real competition for votes in a 2 party system.
More parties can be viable if the USA can shake off FPTP voting. Some states have already.
The existing 2 parties have entrenched themselves like ticks. Here's just 1 example of how they are dug in https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2251&context=caselrev
That's why I vote single issue for better representation. Whatever other issues we think are important simply will not happen until FPTP is gone. Without better representation, any progress we make on other issues will simply be undone.
We have a ton of problems. This not being a democracy is the problem.
In America, it must.
It is when I see this that I am grateful for having been born in a country with 100% public and universal health
Privatized healthcare is immoral.
I had a medical emergency yesterday that may me realize how lucky I am to live in Canada.
I'm getting weekly immunotherapy allergy shots (which are also covered by the free healthcare here) and I had a bad reaction to a shot. They needed to give me 2 epipens and some ventilator drug and stretchered me in an ambulance to the hospital where I waited about 5-10 min (I was stable at this point) for a private room. They kept me there for like 4 hours with IV drip and prescribed me another EpiPen.
Total cost was 0 with no questions asked. I know for non life threatening injuries like broken bones you might be waiting a few hours to get in, but I'd rather it be like that then have the possibility of going in massive debt.
As an American I never understood the "you have to wait longer in Canada" argument. My sibling almost cut off a few of their fingers and was bleeding profusely and had to wait with a rag around their fingers for almost 4 hours in the ER before they got seen. This is in the US. I've had past partners waiting in large amounts of pain for upwards of 10 hours in the ER too (thankfully I brought some bugles to snack on). It's a problem in general, I'd rather it at least be free
For sure, it's definitely not perfect here, for example I'm on a year long waitlist for surgery for a deviated septum. But from what I've heard they get you in fast if it's life threatening. I think in my case anaphylaxis can be life threatening so they got me in fast even though I was stable. We also have the option of paying for surgeries privately anyway if we don't want to wait.
I know for non life threatening injuries like broken bones you might be waiting a few hours to get in, but I'd rather it be like that then have the possibility of going in massive debt.
It's not as if waiting times here in the US are any better. (In fact, they can be worse, since the profit motive has e.g. been causing rural ERs to close entirely.)
Make no mistake: us here in the States aren't choosing to pay more to get better healthcare; we're being forced to pay more to get absolutely fuck-all in return except for the unjust enrichment of insurance industry middlemen.
Interesting, I never realized it was also that slow to get in for the States. To be fair it's not perfect here, surgery wait times can be really bad. I'm on a year long waitlist for deviated septum surgery and my dad waited quite a long time for a hip replacement and he was in a ton of pain everyday. But the thing is we also have the option to pay to get it done privately.
When I was 19 I had thought I had appendicitis. I went to the emergency room. Once there I waited 3 hours to see a doctor while in pain. They see me, do a MRI scan, find nothing but want me to stay overnight to ensure nothing happens. The pain subsided and I left the following day.
It turned out I wasn't on my Dad's insurance anymore and I was billed. At 19, 1.5 years out of the house. I had 15k in debt.
Welcome to America.
For anybody who was confused like me, this is a Nathan J Robinson parody account, not the actual Current Affairs owner.
110$ is a lot
Do they accept Zimbabwe dollars?
What are other adjustments?
