US Doctor Shares How US Health Insurance Companies Shamelessly Screw People Over
Interview With Author
Health insurance is a sore topic for many Americans. It’s an issue that’s been particularly prominent in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and is unlikely to be solved any time soon.
The frustration over the sometimes-inhumane system, complicated rules, and the huge costs for the average American has reached the boiling point for some, including for Dr. Andrew Carroll. The Arizona-based doctor shared how he broke down crying when an “insurance company denied a CT Chest on a young woman with post-Covid syndrome.” Other Americans, healthcare professionals and ordinary folks alike, are also opening about their negative experiences with health insurance and it is heartbreaking to read.
Dr. Carroll told Bored Panda that “unfortunately in the US, since the insurance company is the payer for a patient’s care, they are heavily involved in the provision of that care. Their job is not to pay for healthcare but avoid paying for healthcare. It is a terrible system.”
More info: Twitter | DrCarroll.com
Dr. Carroll opened up about how he was brought to tears while talking to a health insurance company
Image credits: drcarroll
“We are trained very early, almost like soldiers, to work hard and long hours, deal with extremely stressful conditions, and work through the emotional turmoil of death, debility, and the effect those things have on the patient and their families,” Dr. Carroll revealed the type of stress that healthcare workers are taught to deal with on a daily basis.
“I love what I do because I could not see myself doing anything else. I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was 5, since I myself had a major medical issue. I remember the care and compassion my doctors when I was that age showed me, and helped me get through my very tough time. I wanted to do that for others, and so far I think I have done so. Insurance companies make it difficult though, and nearly force cold, inhumane, and compassionless rules on patients when they are most vulnerable,” the doctor shared what keeps him passionate about helping others despite the challenges the job presents.
Dr. Carroll also pointed out that he and his colleagues are starting to see more and more cases of post-Covid syndrome. “We are only beginning to understand these post-infectious manifestations. Post-Covid encephalopathy (‘Brain Fog’) is only just beginning to be understood. Cardiomyopathy (heart disease) is being seen in many younger people. My guess is that because if it is experienced by an older person, it probably kills them in the course of the illness.”
Higher costs don’t always lead to better care
The fact remains that the US spends a huge amount of money on its healthcare, however, the prices remain high for Americans because around a quarter of the costs are administrative. Meanwhile, the complexity of the system leads to further increased costs because of how inefficient things are. The system needs to change. Fast.
Furthermore, according to Investopedia, American hospitals are consolidated which leads to a lack of competition.
But change won’t happen quickly. Changes to such massive systems take years—if not decades—of slow overhaul that first and foremost requires having the political clout to convince the top players that change needs to happen. What incentives (aside from the ethical ones, of course) do insurance companies have to change the rules of the game?
After somebody shared the doctor’s tweet on Facebook, people started talking about their own experiences
Dr. Carroll’s Twitter thread reached a lot of people. At the time of writing, his post was retweeted around 20k times and received more than 101k likes. But the biggest victory was getting people to open up and share their stories. Some of them hit you so hard, you start wondering why patients are being treated less like human beings (or even customers) and more like inconveniences.
The World Health Organization ranks the US healthcare system as the 37th best in the world. A far cry from the desire to be the best at everything, wouldn’t you say? While the US is home to wonderful doctors, specialists, and treatment facilities, not everyone is privy to high-quality treatment just because they pay high prices.
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation explains that the US spends a larger part of its national income on healthcare than any other OECD country. While healthcare spending stayed at around 8.6 percent of developed nations’ GDP last decade, spending in the US rose from 16.3 to 17 percent of its GDP.
There’s also a huge gap between healthcare spending per person. In the US in 2019, healthcare costs were around 11k dollars per person. In second place among OECD countries was Switzerland with 7.7k dollars per person. Germany is in third place with 6.6k dollars; whereas the wealthy country average was around 5.5k dollars.
Think about the kind of care you get in Switzerland and Germany and if many doctors would have to cry while on the phone with insurance companies there. Clearly, throwing more money at a sector doesn’t always lead to better outcomes.
Meanwhile, here’s what professionals and ordinary Americans alike said on Twitter
Image credits: DrDooleyMD
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Image credits: drcarroll
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Unfortunately, no matter how much we repeat that all Americans should be equal doesn’t change the fact that they aren’t equal (far from it!) in the eyes of the healthcare system. The Center for American Progress points out that where you live affects the average wait times to see a doctor. What’s more, the type of insurance coverage you have—whether private or public—also affects wait times.
The New York Times mentions how a study found that around 20 to 25 percent of all US healthcare spending was wasteful. That amounts to 760 billion dollars that are lost each year. And the saddest part is—this can be avoided. Even though you’ll never have a ‘perfectly’ efficient system without any waste, you can cut back to reduce it. A quarter of funds going to waste is heart-rending.
In an earlier interview with Bored Panda, Tumblr user Avilociraptor opened up about their thoughts on the healthcare system; even though they had a ‘top-tier’ insurance plan, they were subject to very long waiting times to see a doctor. They explained how it’s not just the patients but also the doctors and nurses who are feeling the brunt of the inefficient, inhumane system.
According to them, the private insurance model has “destroyed the doctor-patient relationship by strangling the autonomy of both patients and providers.” They said: “Nurses are overworked and underpaid, and yet we demonize them when they strike to provide safer conditions for themselves and their patients.”
Avilociraptor suggested that real change will only happen if they “regularly write” to their government representatives, sharing their stories and demanding change. In other words, appealing to elected officials is your best bet to affect the entire system.
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As long as politicians keep pushing their idiotic beliefs that universal healthcare is not sustainable and bad and socialist and basically the final step to communism, nothing will change in the US. The healthcare system is founded on greed and profit, instead of care. That's why insurers, instead of doctors, decide what treatment patients get. And as a result people die because they get the necessary treatment too late or not at all.
Pre pandemic I would fly to the US weekly as a flight attendant from Australia. The hotel manager in Dallas had terminal cancer and had to continue working to get her insurance benefits!! What?? Meanwhile, I have a colonoscopy scheduled next week and will not have to pay a cent. My sick leave will cover my wage and my taxes will cover my hospital bill. Zero stress.
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let me see how much USA put in their military funding again? i guess it,s cheaper to send poor people to get kill far away than treated them correctly.
The money to cover adequate health insurance is already being paid into the private health insurance industry by US workers and their employers. It's not like the US government would even have to take away from the exorbitant military spending to cover it. Since we essentially have legalized political bribery in the US, the insurance companies and other large healthcare corporations are allowed to rake in obscene profits by denying us care. The government actually comes out a loser on this, too. The private insurance companies get our money throughout our working lives, then when we're older or disabled (and generally at our most expensive0, Medicare (our government program) has to pay out, rather than having us pay out whole lives into one risk pool. It's all a giveaway to the powerful corporations that can afford to buy politicians. Our per capita health care costs are twice that of similar industrialized countries with national health care. That money is not going into our care.
Load More Replies... Is there still anyone denying that the interplay of healthcare and insurance in the US is broken?
Yes. Many many people. My mother is STILL angry that she could keep her doctor with the ACA. HER DOCTOR MOVED TO CONCIERGE MEDICINE. It is exhausting. I'm dreading seeing her when I finally get vaccinated because she has had 1 full year of being fed lies with no push back from my sister or me.
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Not being from the US it seems insane that doctors have to be calling for approval and all of this before they can save you. Or you are left with massive bills for the rest of your life. Maybe there is no easy solution there since many of Americans still don't think universal healthcare is going to help. Where I am, you go to the hospital, they do anything to help without fear of costs or approvals, you leave and that's it. No bills, no invoices, no collectors calling.
Its amazing how much Americans will take before anything gets changed. We've been getting screwed since the 70's, yet nothing has really changed. We know what needs to be done, yet we won't do it. This applies to almost every issue from homelessness to healthcare to wages (and pretty much everything else). When will we finally hit "Enough is Enough"?
I hit mine in 1984. Reagan re-election. I wasn't even old enough to drive. It's been a long lonely life saying, "Do NOT fall for the rhetoric! Put down your beer, think it through, connect the dots!"... Environment, workplace, healthcare, wage stability, education.... Only a very very few profit, and inveitably such a system must collapse, leaving no one to profit.
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the simple reason this is the case is because half the country are morons who don't live in reality - and their votes show it
and this is the country that TRUMP made great again. Yes let the poor die so me and my cronies can skim the profits. Lets hope that he goes bankrupt again and can see it from the other side. The only part of America that was made great again was his and his cronies bill fold
America's system is beyond broken. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. 2 months after diagnosis, my dad was laid off from his job. The supplemental insurance my dad got from being laid off kept denying my mother healthcare because they claimed her cancer was a preexisting condition. She stopped going to chemo because without my dad working, they couldn't afford the $14,000 a month for her treatments. She died 3 months later. Healthcare should be a right. Not a f*cking privelege!
I am so, so sorry about this tragedy! This is borderline dystopian crimes against humanity regime...
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Sorry folks, but YOU KEEP ELECTING the sociopaths that suck the c***s that spew the HC lobby money. There is no ethical, moral, CHRISTIAN, or sane reason you should be enduring that bullshit in the richest country on the planet
Christian? You want to ask the Christian community what we should do about health care? They'll pray for you and continue to elect republicans.
Load More Replies... I'm in the UK, I can honestly say I am quite simply horrified reading stories like this, I studied the welfare rights and benefits system of the uk and it us something to be proud of that it was begun in the first place. The lack of humanity in your system is just bizarre, in this day and age. Hopefully this can change in the future.
You forget that the US has become a huge shithole in the last 20-30 years. You have the largest unemployment rate ever, you die on the streets or in the front of your hospitals, you f**k up the environment, you went so far with the racism crap that now white people are discriminated against (you don't know what balance means) , you have the worst education system in the world, you don't own anything except the clothes on your backs (most of your possessions are property of the banks), you sue everybody for any imbecile reason like falling down cuz you are an idiot that doesn't know that ice or water makes the floor/road slippery, you are all in a TON of debt, your "country" has the largest external debt from all over the world, you pay electric bills of hundreds of thousands in Texas because everything is dictated by corporations. You have the largest army budget while you sold your freedom and your life quality (most of the country is overweight and on antidepressants)... You are nothing more then a methhead indoctrinated bully, living in a trailer park. Remember when everybody looked up to you?? Well, it's LOOOONG GONE. I can honestly tell you that no other country in the world has all of these issues. Consider that Texas, now, is in the same situation as some countries in Africa...with no electricity, drinkable water, and the rest standing issues. No other country in the world takes it up the ass so good as you do from the corporations that run the country. Congrats Murica!!!
Have you seen Myanmar lately? Just asking. BTW, idiots and horrors exist in many places, but do please bash the US with enthusiasm and vitriol. It's what Americans did 40 years ago. Karma, eh?
Load More Replies... Health insurance is really too expensive to justify when you just end up paying huge medical bills anyway. If I get sick I’m going “on vacation” somewhere else. It’s all pointless until we get actual universal healthcare, and we probably never will unless the red states secede. Republicans like red because it represents the blood on their hands! 💫
A couple structural things that lie at the root of a lot of this: Legalized bribery. Our election system allows corporate money to flow to our elected representatives through PACs. Then our constitution contains various anti-democratic systems originally put in to placate the slave states and allow for their disproportionate representation. The electoral college and giving every state two senate votes regardless of population are a couple of them. We also don't have national standards for things like districting and how we run elections. Our population, has become more centered in the cities. It's the way of a modern economy. However, the rural states have the ability to outweigh our votes. The Republican party has been very canny at drawing election districts to ensure they stay in power even though they are the minority, and to make it harder for people in urban areas to vote. They keep stoking culture war and fear to keep the rural voters on their side.
Load More Replies... The deliberate inhumanity of the US health-less system is mind-boggling.
I thoroughly enjoyed the irony of using the government stimulus money to pay the medical bills the government insurance refused to pay in the first place. I've been on private insurance and now have state medical due to disability. It doesn't matter what insurance you have, you'll still be asked to gain prior approval before even dying is allowed. It sucks and leaves many of us in debt and/or trying to cope with treatable issues/symptoms just bc insurance said no. Ugh.
My sister is on disability bc of epilepsy, and she just told me their medical assistance will be expiring in July. Idk what to do, she’s unemployable, they have no other resources.
Load More Replies... Blame the same old life long politicians you all keep reelecting... Oh wait you keep voting for them
Remember when healthcare reform was being debated and the retarded conservatives said that under the proposed reforms, "death panels" would decide people's health care? They were (and still are) too stupid to understand that we have that right now, it's just that the "death panels" are run by insurance companies trying to make a profit. Much better, isn't it? Republicans are underhanded, corporate-ball-licking, evil f***s, and poor people who vote for them are dumb as a box of rocks.
Must admit I thought 'oh here we go again' when I saw this post. Time to bash US health care again. Is it more than once a week? Feels like it. I feel tremendous sympathy for those suffering under this system, I really do, we know it's bad. Does this help though? If it was part of a campaign for change I'd be absolutely behind it but this feels like it's just about scoring points.
Especially since this is a Lithuanian site, not an American one.
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I've had plenty Americans slag the UK NHS off telling me their healthcare is the best in the world. Yeah OK mate, I paid ten quid for tablets my mate paid 500 dollars for, I got sick pay, he didn't.
So you pay for health insurance and when the time comes when you need to use it, the actual reason for it its denied what the f**k is that? How is this happening I don't get it
Sad to say, but you hit the nail on the head. It should be our motto.
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I am just kind of over the us healthcare issue. Been hearing it for years. Nothing changes. Amerika simply is NOT a first world country as long as it has healthcare this bad.
I really try to understand this nonsense. What the f**k does it even mean that the doctor orders some examination and insurance company says NO. Unbelievable. Insane. I am from Italy, we have basic, free healthcare and though there are things we have to pay for but the biggest sum I ever had to pay was 36 euros!!!! Land of freedom?!
"she'll have to take that risk"...??? Ok but if I die ghost me will sue you. Jeez how awful.
Health care: excellent. Ability to afford it: nonexistent. Common sense of this situation: nonexistent. Healthy people learn better, work better, live longer, which is a better economy. But if we figure out how to put it as "National Security" maybe someone in DC will listen. Or not. I've been trying for so long that I think they just see my return address and file it in the trash. *sigh*
I saw, as a young would-be practitioner, kids blind, brain-damaged, permanently damaged from MEASLES in the US in the 1990s. Why? The HMO didn't cover measles-related complications b/c you're not supopsed to have measles, so the doctor must be wrong, and we all know measles never makes bad things happen, right? WRONG. Optic neuritis is very bad, but b/c a simple few boosts ot the immune system (IgG) couldn't be approved... Because a high-fever-patient wasn't admitted BEFORE the seizures.... And that's what broke me and sent me running from clinical practice. Freely admitted. The kids. Suffering b/c some a-hole wanted stock-holders to be happy, instead of people to be healthy.
US is crazy! I can find no other explanation. In Norway we pay for everything through taxes - and we earn enough to be wealthy still. Maybe because we don't need health insurance? At all? I birthed our baby, stayed in hospital a week. For free. She goes to school. For free. University has a symbolic fee, and she will need to buy her own books... covid treatment? Vaccine? Tests? Wanna guess the price tag? What we need we can afford. The end.
I don't have insurance, Even through my employer. It would cost me $180 a month for insurance (that is $2160 a year). And then BEFORE INSURNACE KICKS IN I would have to pay $3000 deductible. So before my insurance would even kick in to help me, I would be paying roughly $5,000 for 1 year. I don't go to the doctor enough to make the insurance worth having.
That plan makes sense, as long as you can predict that you will be in good health and not suffer any accidents over the course of that year. A couple of years ago I suffered an inguinal hernia. Nobody could have predicted that. When it was all said and done I was responsible for a bill of roughly $7k. Without my insurance, it would have been almost $22k. I only take one medication regularly, which with insurance is $10, and without is $185. Health insurance may seem like an unnecessary expense but so is any other sort of insurance... until you get into an accident.
Load More Replies... health insurance companies only look for their own benefits. They will try to not giving any coverage if possible, and find even a small unreasonable reason. Most of the times, it's just a waste of time & money. Regards, GBWhatsApp APK
THIS is the fukkeduppest system I ever got to know. One of the wealthiest nations, and the only country among the further developed that denies its citizens medical care, regardless if it puts their life in danger or even is, in effect, a death sentence. Seriously, this needs to be fixed! Get your stuff together, and ... although it won't solve all problems the US have, it takes out a lot of distress and fear, which currently threatens millions of people. I hate that notion of freedom being a mere lack of economic obligations, to serve the rich and them alone. This literally proves this nation being among the poorest, with the little difference that it, in fact, isn't. It's just poor regarding humanism and justice - and its citizens have a severe lack of understanding what freedom means. As long as an AR15 is easier to get your hands on than access to essential treatment or drugs, there is no way to call this any else than a system of nationwide ripoffery, of the most evil kind!
Nixon's privatization of health insurance was the worst thing he did. Making it a for profit game, you may as well buy Life Insurance for your family for after your death. It's actually 1/25th the price of monthly health premiums.
America is messed up why is there war and no free health care in the UK we're pretty much free and only pet for dentist appointments and medication (if not prescribed) I'm 11 and have braces for free. I've needed several health care checks and medicine for free I was born 2 months early and with extra fingers why won't somebody sort America out
It seems much-much cheaper to travel and get treatment than get it in US. I'm curious if people consider it. A lot of people travel to Armenia for instance to get various dental jobs, makes sense to me.
This is all true. We got screwed and suckered into paying upfront for my pregnancy care due to a glitch. Was supposed to have insurance but due to their error it didnt go through. Caused a lot of stress and we found out later it was illegal what they did. Oh and they missed a dangerous complicated too.
Unfortunately until the movement really focuses on Insurance companies as the enemies of universal healthcare we're not going to get anywhere in the US with incremental measures in regards to healthcare. Richer people will get all pearl clutching about having to get allegedly worst care (Which if you think the health care that regular people get is poor, then you've admitted there's an actual problem) and the companies themselves are going to lobby hard against it. I think we have to be uniform in the basic idea that the insurance industry has to die or else we're just circling the drain.
This post was bonkers. I live in Canada and LOVE universal health care. I am happy to pay taxes to ensure everyone gets access to quality medical care!
Personally, I feel people should never go bankrupt getting healthcare or an education. In that vein, I think healthcare and education must never be for-profit. If these are not sustainable, then the government is failing the people.
Had a stomach bug for days and couldn't stop throwing up. Started to feel faint because I couldn't even keep water down so I went to the ER for IV fluids and anti nausea med. was in the room for less than an hour, received 3/4 of a bag of saline and left with a $1100 bill. They refused to lower it or work with me on it. My entire stimulus check went to pay it. Still upset about it. Well I'm sorry, I guess I should have just passed out of dehydration and gone into shock.
I’m constantly congested so my dr recommended a ct scan, I made an appt and was told it was >$300, and I told them I couldn’t afford that but that their website quoted a lower price for uninsured patients, so I asked for that price, they said they couldn’t give that to me since I did have insurance. I walked away and just take decongestants now.
Has severe nausea with my last pregnancy. Got anti-nausea pills. Insurance would only approve 30 pills every 3 weeks or something like that....of a med that you're supposed to take every 4 hours as needed 😑. They also would only cover a portion of the ambulance bill when I got transferred to a bigger hospital for heavy bleeding in the same pregnancy because it wasn't their approved company 🤨 leaving us almost $500 to pay on that. But the covered all hospital bills while I stayed for a month and then baby was in nicu for a month. 🤷♀️ go figure.
UGH! I haven't had any major health problems but this PISSES me OFF!!! I have seen my husband go through stuff like this with his back. We need more people's people educating themselves on law and how to get policies changed. Everyone should do their part even if just a little. Educate yourself on the legal climate and policies on anything you do: home buying, renting, your career (esp. if you're a creative) health conditions in your family, heck even which countries you can get residency in if needed. We can't do s * * * if all we do is complain on social media. All of our ignorance has led to the gridlocks we're fighting with big businesses now. I know we should have been able to trust in such people to work for our good but that is not reality and we have to respond. I'm SICK of this
Y'know, that's one big broken system there. In Maldives, we have "aasandha" which works like an insurance: it lowers costs and sometimes cuts costs for medication, prescription, etc.
Why can people not believe how expensive health care is when every single illegal person that crosses the border gets free everything. The United States is so f****d up, nothing surprises me.
The "funny" thing is that from where I live, The Netherlands, people with special medical cases want to/can/will go to the US for treatment. Lots of times our (mandatory) health insurance will pay for these treatments. Not always, I'll admit that, but if the treatment is not too experimental, if there are benefits that are scientifically proven, and if the treatment will improve the life span/quality of life of the patient notably, most of the medical costs will be (co)paid.
Universal healthcare works in like every developed nation. Rather than even try to give it a shot you're willing to just deal with the drain on your money and the constant calls from collectors. "I became almost suicidal" should have given you a change of perspective.
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As long as politicians keep pushing their idiotic beliefs that universal healthcare is not sustainable and bad and socialist and basically the final step to communism, nothing will change in the US. The healthcare system is founded on greed and profit, instead of care. That's why insurers, instead of doctors, decide what treatment patients get. And as a result people die because they get the necessary treatment too late or not at all.
Pre pandemic I would fly to the US weekly as a flight attendant from Australia. The hotel manager in Dallas had terminal cancer and had to continue working to get her insurance benefits!! What?? Meanwhile, I have a colonoscopy scheduled next week and will not have to pay a cent. My sick leave will cover my wage and my taxes will cover my hospital bill. Zero stress.
Load More Replies... let me see how much USA put in their military funding again? i guess it,s cheaper to send poor people to get kill far away than treated them correctly.
The money to cover adequate health insurance is already being paid into the private health insurance industry by US workers and their employers. It's not like the US government would even have to take away from the exorbitant military spending to cover it. Since we essentially have legalized political bribery in the US, the insurance companies and other large healthcare corporations are allowed to rake in obscene profits by denying us care. The government actually comes out a loser on this, too. The private insurance companies get our money throughout our working lives, then when we're older or disabled (and generally at our most expensive0, Medicare (our government program) has to pay out, rather than having us pay out whole lives into one risk pool. It's all a giveaway to the powerful corporations that can afford to buy politicians. Our per capita health care costs are twice that of similar industrialized countries with national health care. That money is not going into our care.
Load More Replies... Is there still anyone denying that the interplay of healthcare and insurance in the US is broken?
Yes. Many many people. My mother is STILL angry that she could keep her doctor with the ACA. HER DOCTOR MOVED TO CONCIERGE MEDICINE. It is exhausting. I'm dreading seeing her when I finally get vaccinated because she has had 1 full year of being fed lies with no push back from my sister or me.
Load More Replies... Not being from the US it seems insane that doctors have to be calling for approval and all of this before they can save you. Or you are left with massive bills for the rest of your life. Maybe there is no easy solution there since many of Americans still don't think universal healthcare is going to help. Where I am, you go to the hospital, they do anything to help without fear of costs or approvals, you leave and that's it. No bills, no invoices, no collectors calling.
Its amazing how much Americans will take before anything gets changed. We've been getting screwed since the 70's, yet nothing has really changed. We know what needs to be done, yet we won't do it. This applies to almost every issue from homelessness to healthcare to wages (and pretty much everything else). When will we finally hit "Enough is Enough"?
I hit mine in 1984. Reagan re-election. I wasn't even old enough to drive. It's been a long lonely life saying, "Do NOT fall for the rhetoric! Put down your beer, think it through, connect the dots!"... Environment, workplace, healthcare, wage stability, education.... Only a very very few profit, and inveitably such a system must collapse, leaving no one to profit.
Load More Replies... the simple reason this is the case is because half the country are morons who don't live in reality - and their votes show it
and this is the country that TRUMP made great again. Yes let the poor die so me and my cronies can skim the profits. Lets hope that he goes bankrupt again and can see it from the other side. The only part of America that was made great again was his and his cronies bill fold
America's system is beyond broken. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. 2 months after diagnosis, my dad was laid off from his job. The supplemental insurance my dad got from being laid off kept denying my mother healthcare because they claimed her cancer was a preexisting condition. She stopped going to chemo because without my dad working, they couldn't afford the $14,000 a month for her treatments. She died 3 months later. Healthcare should be a right. Not a f*cking privelege!
I am so, so sorry about this tragedy! This is borderline dystopian crimes against humanity regime...
Load More Replies... Sorry folks, but YOU KEEP ELECTING the sociopaths that suck the c***s that spew the HC lobby money. There is no ethical, moral, CHRISTIAN, or sane reason you should be enduring that bullshit in the richest country on the planet
Christian? You want to ask the Christian community what we should do about health care? They'll pray for you and continue to elect republicans.
Load More Replies... I'm in the UK, I can honestly say I am quite simply horrified reading stories like this, I studied the welfare rights and benefits system of the uk and it us something to be proud of that it was begun in the first place. The lack of humanity in your system is just bizarre, in this day and age. Hopefully this can change in the future.
You forget that the US has become a huge shithole in the last 20-30 years. You have the largest unemployment rate ever, you die on the streets or in the front of your hospitals, you f**k up the environment, you went so far with the racism crap that now white people are discriminated against (you don't know what balance means) , you have the worst education system in the world, you don't own anything except the clothes on your backs (most of your possessions are property of the banks), you sue everybody for any imbecile reason like falling down cuz you are an idiot that doesn't know that ice or water makes the floor/road slippery, you are all in a TON of debt, your "country" has the largest external debt from all over the world, you pay electric bills of hundreds of thousands in Texas because everything is dictated by corporations. You have the largest army budget while you sold your freedom and your life quality (most of the country is overweight and on antidepressants)... You are nothing more then a methhead indoctrinated bully, living in a trailer park. Remember when everybody looked up to you?? Well, it's LOOOONG GONE. I can honestly tell you that no other country in the world has all of these issues. Consider that Texas, now, is in the same situation as some countries in Africa...with no electricity, drinkable water, and the rest standing issues. No other country in the world takes it up the ass so good as you do from the corporations that run the country. Congrats Murica!!!
Have you seen Myanmar lately? Just asking. BTW, idiots and horrors exist in many places, but do please bash the US with enthusiasm and vitriol. It's what Americans did 40 years ago. Karma, eh?
Load More Replies... Health insurance is really too expensive to justify when you just end up paying huge medical bills anyway. If I get sick I’m going “on vacation” somewhere else. It’s all pointless until we get actual universal healthcare, and we probably never will unless the red states secede. Republicans like red because it represents the blood on their hands! 💫
A couple structural things that lie at the root of a lot of this: Legalized bribery. Our election system allows corporate money to flow to our elected representatives through PACs. Then our constitution contains various anti-democratic systems originally put in to placate the slave states and allow for their disproportionate representation. The electoral college and giving every state two senate votes regardless of population are a couple of them. We also don't have national standards for things like districting and how we run elections. Our population, has become more centered in the cities. It's the way of a modern economy. However, the rural states have the ability to outweigh our votes. The Republican party has been very canny at drawing election districts to ensure they stay in power even though they are the minority, and to make it harder for people in urban areas to vote. They keep stoking culture war and fear to keep the rural voters on their side.
Load More Replies... The deliberate inhumanity of the US health-less system is mind-boggling.
I thoroughly enjoyed the irony of using the government stimulus money to pay the medical bills the government insurance refused to pay in the first place. I've been on private insurance and now have state medical due to disability. It doesn't matter what insurance you have, you'll still be asked to gain prior approval before even dying is allowed. It sucks and leaves many of us in debt and/or trying to cope with treatable issues/symptoms just bc insurance said no. Ugh.
My sister is on disability bc of epilepsy, and she just told me their medical assistance will be expiring in July. Idk what to do, she’s unemployable, they have no other resources.
Load More Replies... Blame the same old life long politicians you all keep reelecting... Oh wait you keep voting for them
Remember when healthcare reform was being debated and the retarded conservatives said that under the proposed reforms, "death panels" would decide people's health care? They were (and still are) too stupid to understand that we have that right now, it's just that the "death panels" are run by insurance companies trying to make a profit. Much better, isn't it? Republicans are underhanded, corporate-ball-licking, evil f***s, and poor people who vote for them are dumb as a box of rocks.
Must admit I thought 'oh here we go again' when I saw this post. Time to bash US health care again. Is it more than once a week? Feels like it. I feel tremendous sympathy for those suffering under this system, I really do, we know it's bad. Does this help though? If it was part of a campaign for change I'd be absolutely behind it but this feels like it's just about scoring points.
Especially since this is a Lithuanian site, not an American one.
Load More Replies... I've had plenty Americans slag the UK NHS off telling me their healthcare is the best in the world. Yeah OK mate, I paid ten quid for tablets my mate paid 500 dollars for, I got sick pay, he didn't.
So you pay for health insurance and when the time comes when you need to use it, the actual reason for it its denied what the f**k is that? How is this happening I don't get it
Sad to say, but you hit the nail on the head. It should be our motto.
Load More Replies... I am just kind of over the us healthcare issue. Been hearing it for years. Nothing changes. Amerika simply is NOT a first world country as long as it has healthcare this bad.
I really try to understand this nonsense. What the f**k does it even mean that the doctor orders some examination and insurance company says NO. Unbelievable. Insane. I am from Italy, we have basic, free healthcare and though there are things we have to pay for but the biggest sum I ever had to pay was 36 euros!!!! Land of freedom?!
"she'll have to take that risk"...??? Ok but if I die ghost me will sue you. Jeez how awful.
Health care: excellent. Ability to afford it: nonexistent. Common sense of this situation: nonexistent. Healthy people learn better, work better, live longer, which is a better economy. But if we figure out how to put it as "National Security" maybe someone in DC will listen. Or not. I've been trying for so long that I think they just see my return address and file it in the trash. *sigh*
I saw, as a young would-be practitioner, kids blind, brain-damaged, permanently damaged from MEASLES in the US in the 1990s. Why? The HMO didn't cover measles-related complications b/c you're not supopsed to have measles, so the doctor must be wrong, and we all know measles never makes bad things happen, right? WRONG. Optic neuritis is very bad, but b/c a simple few boosts ot the immune system (IgG) couldn't be approved... Because a high-fever-patient wasn't admitted BEFORE the seizures.... And that's what broke me and sent me running from clinical practice. Freely admitted. The kids. Suffering b/c some a-hole wanted stock-holders to be happy, instead of people to be healthy.
US is crazy! I can find no other explanation. In Norway we pay for everything through taxes - and we earn enough to be wealthy still. Maybe because we don't need health insurance? At all? I birthed our baby, stayed in hospital a week. For free. She goes to school. For free. University has a symbolic fee, and she will need to buy her own books... covid treatment? Vaccine? Tests? Wanna guess the price tag? What we need we can afford. The end.
I don't have insurance, Even through my employer. It would cost me $180 a month for insurance (that is $2160 a year). And then BEFORE INSURNACE KICKS IN I would have to pay $3000 deductible. So before my insurance would even kick in to help me, I would be paying roughly $5,000 for 1 year. I don't go to the doctor enough to make the insurance worth having.
That plan makes sense, as long as you can predict that you will be in good health and not suffer any accidents over the course of that year. A couple of years ago I suffered an inguinal hernia. Nobody could have predicted that. When it was all said and done I was responsible for a bill of roughly $7k. Without my insurance, it would have been almost $22k. I only take one medication regularly, which with insurance is $10, and without is $185. Health insurance may seem like an unnecessary expense but so is any other sort of insurance... until you get into an accident.
Load More Replies... health insurance companies only look for their own benefits. They will try to not giving any coverage if possible, and find even a small unreasonable reason. Most of the times, it's just a waste of time & money. Regards, GBWhatsApp APK
THIS is the fukkeduppest system I ever got to know. One of the wealthiest nations, and the only country among the further developed that denies its citizens medical care, regardless if it puts their life in danger or even is, in effect, a death sentence. Seriously, this needs to be fixed! Get your stuff together, and ... although it won't solve all problems the US have, it takes out a lot of distress and fear, which currently threatens millions of people. I hate that notion of freedom being a mere lack of economic obligations, to serve the rich and them alone. This literally proves this nation being among the poorest, with the little difference that it, in fact, isn't. It's just poor regarding humanism and justice - and its citizens have a severe lack of understanding what freedom means. As long as an AR15 is easier to get your hands on than access to essential treatment or drugs, there is no way to call this any else than a system of nationwide ripoffery, of the most evil kind!
Nixon's privatization of health insurance was the worst thing he did. Making it a for profit game, you may as well buy Life Insurance for your family for after your death. It's actually 1/25th the price of monthly health premiums.
America is messed up why is there war and no free health care in the UK we're pretty much free and only pet for dentist appointments and medication (if not prescribed) I'm 11 and have braces for free. I've needed several health care checks and medicine for free I was born 2 months early and with extra fingers why won't somebody sort America out
It seems much-much cheaper to travel and get treatment than get it in US. I'm curious if people consider it. A lot of people travel to Armenia for instance to get various dental jobs, makes sense to me.
This is all true. We got screwed and suckered into paying upfront for my pregnancy care due to a glitch. Was supposed to have insurance but due to their error it didnt go through. Caused a lot of stress and we found out later it was illegal what they did. Oh and they missed a dangerous complicated too.
Unfortunately until the movement really focuses on Insurance companies as the enemies of universal healthcare we're not going to get anywhere in the US with incremental measures in regards to healthcare. Richer people will get all pearl clutching about having to get allegedly worst care (Which if you think the health care that regular people get is poor, then you've admitted there's an actual problem) and the companies themselves are going to lobby hard against it. I think we have to be uniform in the basic idea that the insurance industry has to die or else we're just circling the drain.
This post was bonkers. I live in Canada and LOVE universal health care. I am happy to pay taxes to ensure everyone gets access to quality medical care!
Personally, I feel people should never go bankrupt getting healthcare or an education. In that vein, I think healthcare and education must never be for-profit. If these are not sustainable, then the government is failing the people.
Had a stomach bug for days and couldn't stop throwing up. Started to feel faint because I couldn't even keep water down so I went to the ER for IV fluids and anti nausea med. was in the room for less than an hour, received 3/4 of a bag of saline and left with a $1100 bill. They refused to lower it or work with me on it. My entire stimulus check went to pay it. Still upset about it. Well I'm sorry, I guess I should have just passed out of dehydration and gone into shock.
I’m constantly congested so my dr recommended a ct scan, I made an appt and was told it was >$300, and I told them I couldn’t afford that but that their website quoted a lower price for uninsured patients, so I asked for that price, they said they couldn’t give that to me since I did have insurance. I walked away and just take decongestants now.
Has severe nausea with my last pregnancy. Got anti-nausea pills. Insurance would only approve 30 pills every 3 weeks or something like that....of a med that you're supposed to take every 4 hours as needed 😑. They also would only cover a portion of the ambulance bill when I got transferred to a bigger hospital for heavy bleeding in the same pregnancy because it wasn't their approved company 🤨 leaving us almost $500 to pay on that. But the covered all hospital bills while I stayed for a month and then baby was in nicu for a month. 🤷♀️ go figure.
UGH! I haven't had any major health problems but this PISSES me OFF!!! I have seen my husband go through stuff like this with his back. We need more people's people educating themselves on law and how to get policies changed. Everyone should do their part even if just a little. Educate yourself on the legal climate and policies on anything you do: home buying, renting, your career (esp. if you're a creative) health conditions in your family, heck even which countries you can get residency in if needed. We can't do s * * * if all we do is complain on social media. All of our ignorance has led to the gridlocks we're fighting with big businesses now. I know we should have been able to trust in such people to work for our good but that is not reality and we have to respond. I'm SICK of this
Y'know, that's one big broken system there. In Maldives, we have "aasandha" which works like an insurance: it lowers costs and sometimes cuts costs for medication, prescription, etc.
Why can people not believe how expensive health care is when every single illegal person that crosses the border gets free everything. The United States is so f****d up, nothing surprises me.
The "funny" thing is that from where I live, The Netherlands, people with special medical cases want to/can/will go to the US for treatment. Lots of times our (mandatory) health insurance will pay for these treatments. Not always, I'll admit that, but if the treatment is not too experimental, if there are benefits that are scientifically proven, and if the treatment will improve the life span/quality of life of the patient notably, most of the medical costs will be (co)paid.
Universal healthcare works in like every developed nation. Rather than even try to give it a shot you're willing to just deal with the drain on your money and the constant calls from collectors. "I became almost suicidal" should have given you a change of perspective.
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