I met a stroke survivor at the doctors office today, he had had a stroke at work. By sheer, stupid coincidence, an ambulance was parked right outside and he got the best care possible virtually immediately.
He still spent 6 weeks in the hospital, and when it came time for release, they wouldn’t let him go home immediately, he would have to spend time in assisted living, which his insurance would not pay for.
He spent $10,000 a month out of pocket for assisted living. He lost his house.
Me? I had a heart attack 3 days after Thanksgiving, 2018. 4 weeks into a 6 week open heart surgery recovery, my company got bought by one of the biggest technology companies in the world, my insurance changed, I lost my doctors, my hospital, and had to start over in a new medical system while complications were doing their best to kill me.
I just had a conversation at work that would cover assisted living or in home care… $330 a month beyond what I already pay for health insurance. Oh, but it covers NOTHING for the first 12 weeks. 90 days of nothing. Hope you have saved that $30,000…
While we were trading these war stories, the Muzak in the doctor’s office started playing this song.
https://youtu.be/qOfkpu6749w#t=58s
Not… even… kidding. Yeah, Aint that America…
Where the quality of your health care, and really whether you live or die, depends on who you work for and what insurance they deign to carry.
Universal healthcare is the only answer. We pay the most per person of any developed nation for healthcare and receive the least amount of care. Decoupled from employment and available to all who need it would not only save many lives and much hardship but also prevent small conditions from becoming unmanageable by catching it early and treating it when it’s easy.
But hey, at least the line went up and the shareholders were happy.
No no no. You don’t get it. Suffering is a feature, not a bug! If you’re not rich enough to just have a few hundred thousand dollars in between your couch cushions, then what are you even DOING in life worthy of living???
The system exists as it should! Punishing the middle class for not being rich, and prices are set to syphon all your money away. Your house, your car, hour health, custody of your kids, everything. You pay that to rich people now, who wouldn’t even notice the bump in their wealth from taking your lifes savings.
Isn’t life in America great? (again)
In Canada they are trying to move us to the american system. The idea of tying the insurance to employment sounds good to conservatives who think people who aren’t covered by an employer are immediately junkies.
It’s likely going to work too, the potential profits are too great for these politicians to let it pass.
Cannot stand that word. Profit and unfettered growth still reign supreme in a collapsing world, like a cancer. Every aspect of modern life feels more and more like being stuck in a pyramid scheme.
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If you know anyone up there who needs a spokesman against employer based insurance, have them hit me up! Happy to help however I can!
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What a ridiculous thing to say. Co-pay, out of pocket maximums, in network only care/medicine are not choice in healthcare lmao.
Best healthcare in the world. If you can afford it.
It’s literally not though. Never has been. Not even since the early 2000s. https://www.who.int/news/item/07-02-2000-world-health-organization-assesses-the-world’s-health-systems
I was being sarcastic.
Sarcasm doesn’t come through text, Gotta add /s if you want it to come across.
Well, it kind of does, if you understand the context. Not trying to be a condescending dick, but if you’re an American, you would get it right away.
I literally am American (Iowa) and no, you wouldn’t get it right away lol. I’ve talked to a lot of people locally who genuinely believe that the high costs are because our Healthcare is so much better. 🥲
My sister-in-law was in the hospital for a month. The bill was $3.2m. I guess my brother-in-law got lucky he didn’t have to pay it. She died.
I’m not even making that up.
I have a friend in the ICU right now. We joke that her bill will cost over a million dollars, and we will call her the bionic woman.
She has been in there for about seven weeks.
Another tech company just bought the company I work for. That means all our insurance will reset, the deductibles will start over, and we will lose our FSA money for some reason.
Luckily tech has good insurance, so fingers crossed nothing else will change for our insurance. Someone said they have a marriage penalty, which was common after the ACA. So the spouse and each kid are an additional couple of hundred a month to be covered. I am not married so I have not looked into that part yet.
I would be happy if we could just break the employer insurance situation that we currently have. It is such a weird system.
