Full title: 92% of American adults aren’t going to a doctor because they cannot afford it. The health insurance industry must be dissolved & all of its executives criminally prosecuted for murder, conspiracy, and treason.
There are other reasons - one being that doctors aren’t really offering treatments, just finagling their way to defining a “solution” or excuse for the symptoms you’re exhibiting. Many people experiencing problems are out looking for their own solutions. I don’t blame poor medical training, just the squeezing of their metrics for maximum profit.
Even for me, with health insurance, one of the reasons I tend not to seek health care is due to the surprise and unpredictable costs. I’ve already fallen into that trap twice this year alone.
The very first thing I did when I was choosing a plan for this year was filter the list down to the ones I could afford which said they covered all my prescription meds and for which my current health providers were “in-network”. That left 2 options.
When I went to get my first round of refills, several months into the year, they said I had to have prior authorization for one of my meds. After going through that process several times, provider who writes the prescription has to jump through the hoops with insurance to get the authorization, the insurance finally came back and said “we don’t/won’t cover this prescription.” My provider was able to find a cheaper, older alternative that works, but I pay out of pocket 100% for it.
Then came my annual physical, which is free with insurance. Because of the meds I’m on, the nurse said they needed to do some blood tests to check for signs of problems. Never mentioned that those tests would cost me extra and obviously I did not know. Wouldn’t have mattered, because they wouldn’t have been able to tell me up front how much it would cost so that I could make a financial decision about it. In the end, that free annual visit cost me almost $400 that I was not anticipating. The bills started showing up months later, so it completely blindsided me.
Last year was even worse. I had one of the best insurance plans offered through the ACA. Then I had an accident that landed me in the hospital. The ambulance ride was not covered at all, the service was “out-of-network” so I had to pay 100% of that. The 2 tylenol I was given for pain management in the emergency room cost me $40 because insurance would not pay for them without prior authorization. I hesitated to even call for help, hoping I could stop the bleeding myself, because I knew it was going to be an expensive trip to the ER and boy was it ever. Not to mention the follow-up appointments and treatment that was required.
Same. I had to have a CT brainscan this year. The scan was ordered during my annual physical based on routine questioning so I thought nothing of it. Many moons ago I had to have a CT brainscan in the ER and it cost like $25 with insurance. I figured, surely this scan that is being scheduled would cost the same or possibly less, so nothing to worry about. Nope! $500 for the exact same procedure on the exact same machine with the same insurance plan.
The leadership of US medical of the last 25 years should be prosecuted, have their wealth taken from them, and their kin removed with them on a biblical scale.
The removal method? Guillotine
I have not had insurance my entire adult life, because it was too expensive, and the jobs I was able to work didnt offer it. So I only go once a year, when I’m forced to in order to get my meds for the next year… and any issues I have, I hope and pray linger until this appointment, because I cant afford to pay 200+ dollars every time i have an issue that i need a doctor for.
the only experience I’ve had with insurance, in my adult life, is handling an elderly relatives medical issues. They have medicare.
Medicare is fucking awesome. Anything they need, poof, its done. no delays, no awaiting approvals, just get it fucking done. Most of their drugs are free (at least until trump gets rid of part d…), and the one that isnt, is only like 5 dollars, for a 90 day supply (so 20 bucks a year for meds). They have had multiple major surgeries, and the copay was like 30 dollars each time.
Not once have they ever been told they cant have a treatment, or that they have to go through some bullshit process of trying 3 other things before they can get the treatment the doctor orders, nothing.
Medicare is fucking awesome and everyone should have it.
The experience with medicare is basically how it is for almost every person in Germany (public health insurance).
The only thing the doctor/hospital care about is that you have the card, you put it into a card reader and that’s it. There is also a small part that you have to pay of the price of drugs if you pick them up at a pharmacy.
My wife recently gave birth and the only costs we will have to pay are around 10€ per day for her stay and we had a family room for a few days, which means I could sleep and got food there too, which will cost 50€ per day or so. I don’t even know how much the insurance will have to pay to the hospital, it doesn’t affect me.
So with insurance it is really cheap and without insurance it would probably still be much cheaper than anything in the US.
I wish I lived in a civilized country.
There’s also those in the opposite situation: Stuck unemployed on Medicare because getting a job would make necessary healthcare too expensive. What a country
in another time, that would have a better chance of happening since we used to go after racketeers. now, we have them in the actual government so thats not even in consideration
Thinning the herd, just as Project 2025 planned.
I’ve been to the doctor twice in the last 20 years and one of them was an emergency. It has been longer for the dentist.
It is cheaper to keep people healthy through preventive care than it is to treat illness. From a taxpayer point of view, a single payer system would save us money.
But people are so propagandized in this country that they seriously think private insurance is the better option.
All of the hospitals in my state were purchased by Atlantic Health.
My friend works for the hospital. The highlight of their quarterly meeting is how much profit the hospital now makes.
Why do hospitals need to make profit?!
Why are corporate owned hospitals even legal?!
I hate this timeline.
A lot of times, you just get a big bill without them doing anything useful for you.
Patient: “You misunderstand, the diagnosis isn’t behind a lock, the medicine is.”
Doctor: “Fair enough, I’ll permanently label you as ‘drug-seeking’ and this isn’t libel somehow.”
Which they have to keep an eye out for because doctors fell for drugmakers’ lies and overprescribed addictive opiates while claiming they aren’t addictive (which makes it even easier to get addicted).
Or they just use that as an excuse to not have to deal with an annoying case they can’t flash diagnose and then get offended if a patient decides to do their own research because the doctors they see can’t be bothered.
I always think back to the time my ex was trying to get a diagnosis for a rare condition that matched her weird symptoms very well. She got a new family doctor, a young new doctor, and he would always dismiss her when she brought up wanting a referral to a clinic that specialized in it so they could diagnose her or rule it out. One time I went with her, she brought it up again, he said he didn’t think she had it, and all I did was ask what made him think this wasn’t the case and he admitted he didn’t know much about it and would do some reading. On her next appointment, she didn’t even have to ask because it was as obvious to him that she probably had it as it had been to us, he just gave her the referral.
So his justification for dismissing her belief she might have that condition was jack shit, probably involving imagining House saying “it’s never lupus” or something like that. Like yeah, rare conditions are rare but some doctors treat that as if it’s impossible instead of rare and then don’t even bother learning how to tell.
The Dunning Kruger effect seems to be particularly strong in the medical field. Though to be fair, they do have to deal with their share of idiots and liars, but it makes them jaded rather than sharp.
This is why i stopped going.
People pay a fortune in premiums, then another fortune in deductibles, before they can even use their insurance. Most families never actually get to that point unless they are “lucky” enough to have a family member who gets sick or injured badly enough to meet the deductible. Then you can finally use your insurance for the rest of the year.
We paid for years, and got literally nothing out of it, until I fell off a roof and got a bad concussion, and a big enough bill that our deductible was met. That was in September, so for the next few months we went to every doctor we needed, got every test we’d been putting off, etc. It was the only time we got full use of our insurance, so we took advantage of it, after paying in tens of thousands of dollars for years.
Medicare 4 All would give us full use of our insurance on January 1 every year, without having to worry about any deductibles. It might cost a couple of hundred extra dollars in taxes, but you’ll save $600 month in health insurance premium, and $4500 per year in deductibles, so you’ll come out far ahead, and have actual health insurance.
Medicare for all will happen once enough Americans figure out that $2000/year in taxes is less than $8000/year in premiums/deductibles. So it could take awhile.
I didn’t even get to use my insurance.
We met our deductible for a baby. A month before birth our company switched insurance providers. Back to zero. I’m still paying hospital bills 7 months later.
As an outsider seeing the US from the internet, can I guess that you didnt get Medicare 4 All because people went :
“4 All? But like, not those people too, surely? Oh hell no. Something something socialism bad.”
No, we didn’t get it because our politicians are partly owned by the insurance companies.
The majority of people want Medicare for all and even more if you explain it without including the name.
We nearly had a public option in the Affordable Care Act, but then Democrats watered down their proposal before it ever went to up for an actual vote thanks to Lieberman. Which of course ended up making it a huge boon to the insurance companies, resulting in our current state of affairs.
The public option was never going to be in the final bill. It was there to be negotiated out for republican votes. When they refused to play ball, Lieberman had to play the part of the bad guy.
Lol, they had a super majority at the time. They never needed the Republican votes.
A large part of the democratic party identity at the time was bipartisanship. They used that as an excuse to water down any sort of public good legislation. It’s why they started with a republican health insurance reform bill instead of single payer and it’s why they ended up negotiating against themselves to drop the public option in the end.
I’m well aware. Still doesn’t change the fact that it was a self-inflicted wound, and that they took out a public option when they didn’t need to.
That’s the meme, but I think it’s more that insurance companies spend fortunes to
bribelobby for politicians to vote against it, not to mention fortunes in propaganda to push the narrative that universal healthcare is more expensive.Universal healthcare is actually a bipartisan issue among the people. But as you expect, one side is really good at reframing terms to make it sound like It benefits the “non-deserving”. The main “issue” over the decades is that everytime they try to creep this into making all insurance worse they get pushback.
So, kinda.
How did you see a doctor if you didn’t make an appointment before September? It takes 4-5 months to see a doctor where I live. This country is such shit
How do you know you’ll need a doctor in 4 months??!? How do the other people booking that far out know they’ll need one? When you need a doctor, you need one soon, preferably today. Do you just book an appointment per week and cancel if you don’t need it?
It helps if you tell them that you e met your deductible, which means you are now a bottomless pit of health insurance money, and want to schedule all the tests you’ve been putting off. They’ll find room in the schedule.
If it’s an emergency - the er. If it’s not an emergency - an “Urgent Care” type place. But not your actual Dr unless you plan months in advance.
Are we talking “no, sorry I can’t get a chest infection right now, I need to schedule an appointment with the doctor firat, but I should be able to fit you in in 4 months or so”? I ask because I know the US healthcare system is bad, but I have difficulty judging how bad.
If you have an urgent problem you go to urgent care. I had one, I went to urgent care after work, I got seen, got the prescription, and went home and got my pills.
If you say “hey I have this problem where my back hurts sometimes” then they’ll schedule you for the next available appointment. Depending on how busy they are, yes that could be months out. You might try a different doctor if you can.
I feel like I answered this question in the post you are responding to?
It would be better if it actually was an open market like Japans medical system. They cap the profits on materials and treatment. They also have to list prices so you can actually compare and contrast the costs of treatment. Insurance companies are now the backbone of the US medical system, even owning and operating entire medical providers. Their business model is to maximize profits and deny care wherever possible. It’ll be difficult to dismantle that relationship now.
This is the exact set up for a Black Plague event. I know people tend to hold a grudge over the Covid Lockdown, but do we really need to see bodies topple on the street before realisation is made?
This makes every zombie movie way more realistic than it has any right to be.
People have alway been stupid.
100 years ago during the spanish flu we had the exact same shit we had today. idiots spewing pseudoscience, idiots saying its just a cold, idiots saying masks are worse for your health than a “minor” infection, etc etc.
and I imagine you’d run into the same kind of sentiments no matter how far you go back in history.
Because people are stupid. People are myopic.
Individuals may be empathic and genuinely care and do everything they can, but the majority are just mouth breathing plague carrying idiots whose greatest achievement in life is not drowning in the rain.
A zombie movie realized would be so stupid…it sucks we’re in the stupid timeline. ._.
Can we please gets some socialism up in this bitch already?!
They will never give it to you.
You will have to take it by force.
Actually the Luigi way. Trust me a couple or 10 dead easy to put some strain. They’re not in fear of their mortality.
You should read about the birth of fascism in Italy
I’ll keep it in mind not to try to rebuild the Roman empire while I advocate for extreme social reform.
Which has nothing to do with this
If you followed my advice you’d realize it does
Fascism in Italy had a lot more to do with nationalism than leftism, ultimately it wasn’t really a leftist movement at all. I’m not sure if you’re aware of the current state of the US but we already have an ethno-nationalism problem here, and it’s exactly the thing we’re trying to fight against.
Ok since y’all want to pick fights without trying to understand: fascism was a reaction to the growing leftist movements. It’s called reactionism because that’s what it does. Killing a few assholes won’t solve anything except give rise to some variation of this.
The foundation for change like this is a cultural shift, otherwise all you’ll get is some more repression.
If facism is fuck the rich no one would complain about facism. But clearly its not.
Go take it? Aren’t you Americans supposed to have it in your blood to combat tyranny?
They also have the biggest and most well equipped military in the world. I dont see it going well for the average citizen there. You’re going to need a LOT of help for any type of resistance too. I don’t think the average american has access to things like tanks or armored vehicles either. Maybe drone warfare would happen? Not a good outlook.
Now if you could somehow convince them all to stop working and make the economy come to a halt, that might make the elite class worried and be forced into reaching a resolution without violence. Doubt it could ever be that easy or simple though, and is just a pipe dream at this point. Americans might be screwed forever if they can’t work together or agree on anything at all.
The Iranians fucked up that big equipped military.
It was to combat English, not tyranny.
HA! What a load of shit that all was.
Now it is just some weird brand of freedomtm mixed with warm ideas of misplaced superiority.
Don’t forget the racism and refusal to acknowledge that 'Murica was founded in genocide
Biggest load of horse shit ever uttered by man. Fuck America and Americans
