A couple of years ago, I did something stupid and illegal. I was manic, hallucinating, and in imminent danger of losing a limb.
Some friends found me and took me to a GP, who sent me to hospital. The hospital admitted me and kept me in for about a week.
Total bill for me to pay: $0.
A friend of mine works at a call center for an insurer. From what I’ve seen, hospitals & doctors try everything they can to get as much money from insurance companies as possible, and insurers push back as much as they can… and patients are usually caught in the middle of the shenanigans.
The one constant is that both caregivers and insurers genuinely do not want to screw patients over if at all possible. So when it’s down to a patient facing a massive bill, most doctors/hospitals will go out of their way to help patients negotiate a lower cost by telling them who to talk to and what words to say. It’s exactly like that scene in The Incredibles where Bob covertly tells a screwed-over woman what forms to file to avoid being screwed.
I’m pretty fortunate in that my employer reimburses for out of pocket healthcare expenses. I haven’t paid a dime for medical, dental, or vision coverage since 2007 when I started working here. The company funds an FSA that can even be used to purchase things like OTC medications, sunscreen, contact lens solution, bandages, condoms, etc… I think a lot of people don’t realize that their FSA can be used for these things and if you don’t use it, you lose it.
I’ve always wondered if the entire concept of Breaking Bad would seem utterly bizarre to anyone outside of the USA.
This shit drives me nuts. It’s quite similar to the ACA in the first place- everyone knew that the predictable problems it would have wouldn’t kick in until well after everyone one who voted for it had been comfortably re-elected. Just like then the long timeframe is ostensibly to give people time to prepare for change and yet, gosh, isn’t that just pretty darn convenient that it’s after the next election.
Accountability, how does it fucking work. Hard deadline my ass, it’s just to avoid bearing consequences.
I was a grad student at the time; these days I have a low-wage part-time casual job. Never had private health insurance at any time in my life.
Hooray for socialism.
If the opponents are working Americans, they probably have insurance through their employer, and they don’t even think about it, it’s part of their benefits package. They’re probably not 1099 employees and entrepreneurs who, prior to ACA, had to negotiate an expensive contract with an insurance company or broker, or choose to use walk-in clinics as primary health care and pray for no emergency room trips.
Just to be clear on this, my understanding is that if your employer provides you with cover and you lose your job, the cover ends - is that right?
There are some provisions available through COBRA to keep your coverage for a limited period of time under certain circumstances. However, the 50% to 100% that your employer paid for your plan (the generosity of employers varies) goes away, so the halfway-decent insurance coverage you enjoyed for maybe a couple hundred bucks max may suddenly start taking up a huge percentage of your (former) monthly income.
So basically anyone saying they don’t want some form of universally available healthcare because they don’t need it because they get it through work (and don’t want to pay for something they don’t need) is saying that they are 100% confident that they and their loved ones will always have work/be able to work?
What happens to retired people in the US? How do they fund their healthcare?
They have Medicare (single payer, but for olds only), and go about in the streets, voting Republican, and holding ironic “get the government out of my Medicare” signs (well, they don’t know they’re ironic…)
Well, if you’re 67 or older, you (generally) get Medicare, which is basically our “only old people deserve it” version of a government-operated single-payer insurance program. The age for eligibility used to be 65, but the government decided it would be better to take away people’s health security for an additional 2 years than to raise the taxes collected to pay for the program.
If you retired before you hit 67, though, it better have been because you became fabulously wealthy.
Hooray for socialism? so I suppose you’re happy that you weren’t forced on fear of medically-induced destitution to go out and spend 60 hours a week making widgets no one really wants, or making ads to convince people to buy said widgets, or making asset-backed financial tools that trade on society’s taste for widgets like, you know, a productive citizen. /s
Social Security is 67. Medicare is still 65 until Ryan gets his way.
Ack, you’re right. I got my “vital government program keeping the elderly from being homeless and destitute that is under threat from Republican wankherders” wires crossed.
To be fair though, Theresa May does see him a lot in the voting lobbies with all the Tories so it’s an easy mistake to make.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
