Microblog Memes

In my 50s, I pay $25/week for private health insurance, that covers 100%, non urgent surgery in weeks, gourmet food etc. If I didn't pay for private insurance it would be terrible - I might have to wait months for elected surgery, and the food would not be gourmet. It would still be 100% free though. I live in a first world country though, not USA.

Fuck that. Im not paying Dwayne Johnson shit.

You forgot that if you don't have a good job you are deemed not worthy of netflix and have to pay more atevery single step listed.

Maybe we should try voting harder for representatives that are owned by the corrupt insurance companies and their shareholders

He got me at "Imagine paying for Netflix"

I have been painfully aware of how expensive and convoluted this system in the USA is since childhood. Growing up in a household that hovered right around the poverty line meant we didn't qualify for the free stuff but also could not afford to actually go to the doctor, so outside of emergencies, we didn't. Friends at school would talk about going to the doctor for a sore throat or ear infection to get antibiotics or leave school early for a "physical" and that was all such a foreign concept to me.

But as everyone here is probably already aware and heard, it's bad bad bad.

As luck would have it (bad luck is still a type of luck after all), I had a major health incident earlier this year. I had insurance, not even anywhere near the worst mind you, and it costs me around $10,000 USD a year.

The $1,000 ambulance ride was not covered. The ambulance company is out of network.

The $500 ER doctor, who I did not ever see or speak to, was not covered. He, too, was out of network.

The 2 ibuprofen I was given cost $40. They were not covered by insurance because it is considered non-essential and I did not get pre-approval. Also, my partner had to buy a drink from the vending machine to wash the pills down.

My overall out of pocket cost was over $3,000. Tough pill to swallow considering I'm unemployed. The bills didn't even start coming until about 2 months after and took 5 months until I saw the last of them (I think & I hope). The ambulance company sent a bill, the doctor sent a bill, the hospital sent a bill, but then each little thing that happened at the hospital was a separate bill -- one from radiology, one from the pharmacy, two different doctors, etc. One incident involving one emergency room visit was at least 8 or 9 separate bills, maybe more. And this doesn't even include the follow-up care & costs.

And then having to send emails back and forth for months talking to several people, taking days off work and spending hours on the phone for clearance to watch stranger things and having it be denied because of some obscure reason that is going to take you several more days off work to try to get clearance to watch the show again

What amazes me is Americans doing this to themselves. Literally acting against their own best interests, putting their lives and wellbeing in the hands of companies only concerned about profit.

American health insurance? That's not how it works in other countries

But hey, my doctor gets to brag about the multiple properties he owns while he barely pays attention to what I'm talking to him about. It's a great system for doctors.

That last one doesn't happen any more. It's called Surprise Medical Billing. Used to be that some providers would be out of network (thus requiring a separate bill) but now the law is that if an encounter is in network, the whole bill is in network.

I'm too lazy to do hyphens right now