Health Care

[Psy-Fi]

A thread for health care conversation, articles, & personal experiences with the health care system where you live.

[innerspaceboy]

The most frustrating thing about health care for me (in NY state), is that every time I lose my job, I have to find an entire new network of psychologists, psychiatrists, PCPs, talk therapists, and counselors who accept Medicaid. It's gotten to the point where I've prepared a full dossier with a summary of 40+ years of trauma history, the dates and offices of all my mental health diagnoses, hospitalizations, and prescription information. I forward those documents in advance to all new offices. I've just started going through the entire process over again for the fourth time in the last few years.

I've received letters from insurance as far as a year after the date of service stating that they've elected not to cover a teletherapy appointment from 2023 so I am now responsible for $90 out of pocket for the 10-minute call. And prescriptions which should have been $1 to fill cost me over $300 because the doctor writing the script doesn't accept Medicaid.

It took a team of lawyers eight months to get Medicaid to cover an emergency hospitalization which would otherwise have made me lose my home.

[Psy-Fi]

The most frustrating thing about health care for me (in NY state), is that every time I lose my job, I have to find an entire new network of psychologists, psychiatrists, PCPs, talk therapists, and counselors who accept Medicaid. It's gotten to the point where I've prepared a full dossier with a summary of 40+ years of trauma history, the dates and offices of all my mental health diagnoses, hospitalizations, and prescription information. I forward those documents in advance to all new offices. I've just started going through the entire process over again for the fourth time in the last few years.

I've received letters from insurance as far as a year after the date of service stating that they've elected not to cover a teletherapy appointment from 2023 so I am now responsible for $90 out of pocket for the 10-minute call. And prescriptions which should have been $1 to fill cost me over $300 because the doctor writing the script doesn't accept Medicaid.

It took a team of lawyers eight months to get Medicaid to cover an emergency hospitalization which would otherwise have made me lose my home.

Sorry to hear about your nightmarish dealings with the U.S. health care system. It seems like it's one of the most dysfunctional and definitely the most grotesquely greed-driven health care system in the world.

5 years ago, my Dad was hospitalized for 7 days and luckily his insurance covered everything while he was there. After he was released, he received an itemized invoice showing the exact charges for everything during his stay. The one expense which is seared into my mind was for the hospital room which he shared with another patient, as the rooms all had two beds and a shared bathroom. The cost per day for the room was $6,500.00 (USD). That's not a typo. SIX THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS per day for 7 days. $45,500.00 for the week. Appalling beyond belief!
And that amount didn't include any of the tests or procedures or medications he was given during that time. Just the cost of the room.

[Psy-Fi]

A recent article about health care costs in America...


'Making peoples' lives hell': When he couldn't pay for cancer treatment, the hospital sued

Medical debt is a "problem that is uniquely American," said Berneta Haynes, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit organization, and an expert on the topic. "Even if you have insurance, if you have chronic health conditions that require you to interface more often with the health care system, you are putting yourself at greater risk for medical debt every single time you make" an appointment.

[Guybrush]

Holy shit, @Psy-Fi. Why would the rooms be so expensive? 😱

We get free health care and just had our boy (who's blind on one eye) for a checkup at the hospital today. I've no complaints.

[Psy-Fi]

Holy shit, @Psy-Fi. Why would the rooms be so expensive? 😱

Shameless, rapacious, money-grubbing combined with corruption?

The American health care system is dysfunctional beyond belief.

If it had been a hotel room, for what it was, I wouldn't expect it to be more than 1/100th of that price.

[Psy-Fi]

Here's an article I posted in another thread a while ago but it fits in here, as well...


Ozempic maker defends high U.S. price: It's 'helping' reduce the cost of obesity

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told NBC News in June that he plans to ask Jørgensen why Novo Nordisk charges up to 10 to 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy in the U.S. than it does in other countries. It charges around $1,300 a month for Wegovy in the U.S., according to a HELP Committee report, while the drug can be purchased for $186 a month in Denmark, $137 in Germany and $92 in the United Kingdom.

"It is clear that Novo Nordisk is ripping off the American people," Sanders said.

[Psy-Fi]

Here's a video that touches on the cost of health care in America today. The video isn't entirely about health care, and mostly is about the cost of living in general, and the cost of living in California in particular, but the part about health care applies to all 50 states. The health care portion is mentioned at the beginning of the video around the 3 minute mark. I'll put it in quotes below...

Retired and Living in America on Social Security, can you Survive?

For health insurance, for 3 of them, him, his wife, & his child, $2,200.00 per month.
And his health insurance doesn't cover eye or dental. And he has a 20% deductible.
2 years ago, when his child was born, his wife had to have a C-Section. She had to stay in hospital for 3 days.
With the operation and the time in hospital, their bill was $88,000.00 and they were responsible for 20% of that.
So he had to pay $18,000.00 out of his own pocket.

I had open heart surgery 5 years ago. Triple Bypass for which I stayed in hospital for 9 days.
After my 8 hour surgery and spending 9 days in the hospital, the total cost was $225,000.00 and by health insurance covered 80%
So I had to pay $45,000.00 out of my own pocket.

This is crazy. In today's America, 80% of all the bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

[Psy-Fi]

Harris backs slashing medical debt. Trump's "concepts" worry advocates.

[Guybrush]

It is absolutely crazy. In Norway, we have "free" healthcare which is obviously a misnomer as it's tax funded and I pay taxes. However, ChatGPT estimates that from the roughly 240 000 kroner (21 950 USD) yearly tax I pay, just a little over a 10th of that goes to health services. So that 2200 USD that this family pays for insurance is what I pay for a year. My wife pays roughly the same, but our kids get health services for free.

So unless my math is stupid, that still means this family pays like 6 times more than we do for health services, plus there's the 20% deductible and the insane prices for medical services..

Yep, bonkers.

[Psy-Fi]

How Trump and Harris' health care stances and policy plans compare for the 2024 election