*groan*
This afternoon I went to the drugstore and got to overhear a woman yell that she was going to “SUE” long’s drugs when her shoulder wouldn’t heal and she couldn’t dance anymore. I’m thinking “dance? Lady, physical injuries are an occupational hazard, and since when did the drugstore ever cause you the injury anyway?” But it did remind me how fucked up the US health care system is these days. So did the bill from Aetna for my holiday illness. $110 was the “negotiated” amount. Guess how much was the covered amount? Yes, that’s right: “Dr. Soandso may bill you $110.” Thanks, guys. Exactly why am I paying $750/month for your crappy health insurance?
In other news…. went out to lunch with Johnny. We went to an all-natural vegetarian Indian/Southeast Asian restaurant that he likes. It was good, but here it is 2 hours later and I’m hungry again. What gives! I’m going to have to go down to the kitchen and find an appropriate snack. Grump.
chaoticgoodnik wrote:
What’d you eat at the Indian place? Sounds like maybe you didn’t get enough protein.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
thewrongcrowd wrote:
Unfortunately (for you) without your $750/mo. policy (and it’s payor/provider negotiated amounts), Dr. Soandso would be billing you in the $300.00 range.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
Reminds me, I really need to arrange for some health insurance.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 4:50 pm | Permalink
chrisls wrote:
You know, I might not get paid shit, but at least I’ve got some awesome benefits. I think it comes with working for a company that is primarily composed of healthy young men. Besides, if I had to pay through the nose for health care, too, I couldn’t afford to work for them!
Speaking of which, I should look into making an eye appointment - I think it has been something like two years for me…
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 5:08 pm | Permalink
bluelighted wrote:
$750/mo????!!!
And what does that get you exactly?
That is just an insane premium I just can’t even comprehend.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 5:46 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Apparently, it gets me the right to have all my health care costs covered solely by me. I haven’t had a primary care physician since I turned 18.
To be fair, it was only $400 before I left my employer and went onto COBRA. Until I get another plan, I get to pay out the nose for a month or two.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 6:49 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Hmmm…. $300 for a single visit, compared to $750 a month for 12 months?
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 6:50 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Tofu and yams, brown rice, and gado gado, which is veggies in peanut sauce.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 6:50 pm | Permalink
thewrongcrowd wrote:
Yeah. Any month that you don’t have three doctors appointments, you come out ahead. If you can guarantee you’ll never get catastrophically ill, insurance doesn’t seem to pay. Big if.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 7:12 pm | Permalink
moonfire77 wrote:
Americans are addicted to litigation, which is awful. I’ve never really understood health insurance.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 8:00 pm | Permalink
slamlander wrote:
Good luck with that. As self-employed it’s difficult to get a decent plan, even if you pay through the nose.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 8:58 pm | Permalink
halfawake wrote:
Ah, COBRA, that explains it. I’ve heard that COBRA is hellishly expensive, but I didn’t realize it could be quite that expensive. Sounds like you’re being ripped off to me, unless you happen to have a several thousand dollar surgery or something sometime soon that they cover.
Posted on 30-Jan-06 at 9:43 pm | Permalink
wibbble wrote:
That’s terrifying. Our monthly rent is ~US$800, and that’s a quarter of our combined income.
So, because I’ve seen conflicting reports on this: what happens if you’re sick in the US, have no health insurance, and can’t afford to spend a few hundred dollars on medical care?
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 11:46 am | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
It depends on how sick you are.
If you are sick but not debilitated, then you self-medicate until you’re either better or too sick to walk anymore.
If you are too sick to walk, someone takes you to the hospital and racks up a few gazillion dollars for you, whether you want them to or not. If your condition is terminal, life support will be pulled after a set number of days, regardless of whether you begged them to wait or not. Oh, and if by some miracle you aren’t sick enough to die, you can be comforted by the fact that it’s now harder to declare bankruptcy to escape your growing medical bills.
If you are lucky, you can be poor enough to go into the state’s health system, in which case you can wait 6 months to see a doctor, but not have to pay for it. Most people who have a job of any type (even minimum wage with no benefits) aren’t poor enough for this.
In some communities, you may be able to get lower cost health care by going to a clinic, which is usually understaffed and low quality health care anyway. Certainly, you’re not going to see a prescription for any drug that doesn’t have a generic already available.
If you have a chronic illness and no job, you make the drugs last as long as they can, often underdosing yourself to get by, despite your doctor’s assurances that doing so will not help you. If your illness is chronic but not debilitating or you haven’t seen a doctor about it, you absolutely won’t see one at all, because if you do, the insurance companies will exclude your condition later on when and if you ever apply for health insurance. It’s one thing to lie a little and say you don’t have chronic back pain on the insurance application. It’s another thing to say it and have six visits to a chiropractor in the last month in your records.
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 12:21 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Privately, I can get basic health insurance with a moderately-high deductible for myself and John for about $200/month.
We secretly think my former employer was pocketing the difference. Certainly, we weren’t getting so much great health care that it was worth an extra couple hundred bucks a month.
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 12:24 pm | Permalink
wibbble wrote:
That’s about as bad as the worst that I’ve heard. Other people have told me that Medicare realistically covers people who can’t afford medical fees.
For someone who grew up in a country with a good (but not outstanding) public medical system, it’s really, really terrifying.
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 12:28 pm | Permalink
mortaine wrote:
Yeah, but there’s a gap between what Medicare (federal) and Medical (state) insurances cover, and that gap can be huge for those who can’t sfford health care.
Honestly, the US health care system is so fucked, it’s just not even funny. The political lines can be drawn around why we think it’s fucked, but pretty mcuh everyone agrees that health care is totally screwed in this country.
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 12:31 pm | Permalink
wibbble wrote:
There was one guy who had a huge argument with me on LJ over the UK health care system, based entirely on one article in the Telegraph (or possibly the Times - one of the national newspapers that started with a ‘T’).
He missed the point that while the NHS has its problems (like waiting lists, for example), anyone who can afford to can pay for private health cover can do that and essentially jump the queues.
I’m not sure how anyone could fix the US system now - it would need massive injections of cash, and no one votes for people who say they’re going to put up taxes, especially in the US where everyone seems to really hate any kind of money going to the government…
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 12:42 pm | Permalink
thedano wrote:
Longs drugs makes everyone agitated, just by walking in the front door.
My question is “Who’s SUE?”
Reminds me of the time that Home Depot almost killed a friend of mine. That was a lawsuit, as the store physically injured their customer. I don’t think that Longs is dropping rolls of carpet on people’s heads. Not unless you talk to the pharmacist first at least…
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
jencottrell wrote:
If you are a child you can get medicaid. This is a great insurance….if you are under 5 or 6. They pay for everything and will pay for drugs…It’s great.
Posted on 01-Feb-06 at 11:13 am | Permalink