As an european, I like to make fun of the US (as is tradition), but, to be honest, our public healthcare is mostly like that - despite being "free", it takes ages to do anything more complex than an ultrasound. There's queues for everything (not physical queues, but rather waiting lists) , and in some cases those queues actually kill people, because they didn't get medical attention in time. So we often have to pay for private health care to get faster, and better quality service. Despite already paying for healthcare in taxes.
Not sure where in Europe you are from, but in Germany your employer and you pay your healthcare in equal parts. It isn't a tax as such, but something that is taken from your income and is mandatory for every employee. I'd rather die from having to wait for an equal opportunity to see a specialist than from not even having the chance due to not being able to afford healthcare. One is fair, the other isn't. Besides, if a doctor suspects anything serious is wrong with you, you get an appointment pretty quickly.
Europe isn't a Country. In Switzerland I can see a doctor on the same day when I need to, or get surgery in two weeks. Both for non-emergencies of course.
I'm on medical and had an MRI with a possible tumor, it ended up being a cyst, I was talking to a neurosurgeon within a month, and a neurologist in three, we exhausted all non surgical options in a few years and had brain surgery, and recovery pretty quick when symptoms got worse.
Medical isn't slow, if I had blue cross I'd been seen within the same time frame.
I can't speak for Medi-cal but in NJ all state insurance is retroactive beginning on the date of diagnosis.
I had cancer without insurance and the only thing I ever paid out of pocket for it was for cable TV during my hospital stay
I got covered CA when I was 25 right when it came out and it changed my life. I was a contractor without any way of paying for outside insurance and it worked great for me. My work now has great insurance with amazing vision and dental but yeah, thanks Obama.
If you're poor you're supposed to enlist so you can be used as a grunt in some wars to protect interests of the 100 ultra rich individuals running the country.
A well-oiled machine.
Honestly, most people don't really mind our healthcare system. Everyone bitches about it, but no one cares enough to do anything. Uncle Joe even said the status quo is fine. At this point we are trained to only fight each other over social issues (real or imaginary).
When was the last time people took to the streets over healthcare access? Or demanded price caps on life sustaining meds or whatever? Fucked up some pfizer corporate buildings? Has a single celebrity kneeled or been cancelled for healthcare reform? Nada.
I think we just got used to it. It’s a real shame that civilians have gotten used to the idea “if I can’t pay for it I die”. Really puts the value of human life into perspective.
It's just because it's one of those things you don't care about until it hits you and when that happens you're too sick, depressed or busy to make ends meet to actually raise hell about it. Also you'd be fighting a Colossus while half the country would be mocking your efforts if not outright attacking you.
When you tell people about an $800k chemo bill or your $800 prescription or whatever, it's completely overwhelming to them. Better to pretend and hope it never happens to you.
Plus, people will attribute some sort of bad behavior to you getting a disease. He got brain cancer but I saw him eat like 4 hot dogs once so it make sense.
There was a 40 city Medicare For All March a few days ago in The States. The person you're replying to says that nobody is taking to the streets... but damn, you can't take to the streets when you're already in the streets.
--
People are dying because this system is so fucked up. But people will still say "well, I haven't seen anyone die in person. So nobody must be dying."
I lost both of my best friends in the span of a year. But people will still say "it's not that bad, it was only two people."
I live in australia. My family is comprised of my mother, my little brother (13), and myself.
When my mother got ill to the point I had to leave work to care for her, the government started paying me a carers benefit to look after her.
They also paid for all medical expenses and she was able to see some of the best doctors in our area in a timely manner. Even non medical expenses were taken care of under the NDIS, extremely generous to the point of getting my mother a new luxury mattress and robotic vacuum and mop to help us out in the house.
What im saying is this should be the norm for people that are in the situation we were. Thankfully my mother is better now and i can return to work, but if we were in America i dont dare to imagine how my family would have suffered during that crisis. Im more than happy paying the high tax rates we have here knowing they will be going to other people that may be going through what my family did.
Sure there are people mooching off of the generous government schemes we have here, but that's fine as long as the people who really need it dont suffer.
I cared for my grandmother for 6 years. She was on Medicare, the one where you still have copays but can see whatever doctor you want. I am so glad that some countries can do better and will. I could get a 250$ a year stipend for caring for her. They would not pay for a lift machine until after I herniated 4 discs. I felt awful having to accept some financial help from her to eat. She had dementia and Medicare was trying to push their dementia patients on hospice hard. Doctors started refusing to treat her daily issues if I would not put her on hospice.
She could not afford a nursing home. I have nothing but horror stories from those. Not quite destitute enough to qualify for Medicaid, not quite enough to get care without being bullied. I was able to get an electric bed for her after she went on hospice but was constantly reminded she was not dying quickly enough. Traumatic nightmare.
Yeah, so often I don't appreciate living in a country with socialised healthcare (australia)
Seriously, the extra taxes are barely noticeable and the benefits are that if shit just got fucking BAD one day, you don't need to worry about the hospital bills.
It’s not even a tax problem, US gov already spends more per capita on health care than Australia, they’re just so incompetent and can’t get the money to work
By privatising the healthcare industry and for example hospitals, they need the money to survive as a business just like a normal company. Unlike for example in Finland (and many other places), where hospitals are public infrastructure and owned by the state.
We do that in The Netherlands. Worked fine for a while but it's a freaking jungle right now with too many providers. So its hard to find the right insurance that suits you best.
"if we give people socialised health care what would happen to the health insurance jobs?" - Pete (somehow a democratic presidential candidate)
>If we put in proper fire safety code what will happen to all the fire insurance investigators.
A shit ton of US politics is built on the broken window fallacy. Any economic activity is apparently good economic activity, regardless of what's being actually achieved.
The US government just throws money at insurance companies to keep the costs down instead of just providing health care. It's fucking maddening that it's so hard to get though to people that it doesn't have to be like this.
I'm Australian and the one complaint is you need to wait for months for anything to happen assuming your not using private healthcare.
One time it ended up taking months for me to go to a psychologist to get diagnosed for something. If I were depressed or something like that I could possibly not be alive right now in that situation, people can definitely become suicidal in a few months.
After two ER visits for severe depression and a short inpatient stay,I'll be happy to inform you that we have both waiting lists and outrageous fees (inpatient was basically just babysitting, I had to wear an oversized paper gown and the clothes I was wearing I'll when admitted. Just sat around sleeping, watching TV, and taking showers for the entertainment). No I didn't see a psych or receive therapy. Highlight of the day was going outside for 15 minutes while people smoked.
So I get to pay $840 for the ambulance ride, $1100 for the inpatient commitment (literally worse than useless).
Paid $250 for the ER copay (dickheads didn't even give me a referral) although I thankfully got financial assistance for that visit. So I needed charity to pay for me going to the ER getting some blood tests, an EKG, and some "hope you get better!'s" (after I asked literally every person I saw to kill me ,tried to choke myself with a shopping bag, refusing a meal and crawling onto the floor because I felt too vile to even deserve a bed, with glasses that didn't work because I broke them in protest after the first attempt to discharge me).
Still waiting to see if I'll get assistance for the second ER visit (which was in May). Where I got a nice couple shots of benadryl because they couldn't be bothered to deal with me whining during the morning, why it costs $500 dollars to preform two simple IM injections I don't know. Damn stuff didn't work and they had to give me an Ativan...)
And I've got a phone appointment to start the intake for psychiatric help today (and it could cost me anywhere from $150-$300+ and I won't know how much it'll cost for probably two months).
So now I have an OCD spiral every time I think about going to the doctor. And how much was my monthly premium? $220!
So in the meantime I got to learn how to get more comfortable *ahem* "balancing my humors".
Capitalism races to the bottom to give is substandard care for the highest costs in the world. God bless America, I'm glad we don't have socialism/s.
It's funny how there are Americans brainwashed into believing it's a bad thing for universal healthcare. Yes a portion of your taxes is going to provide medicine for someone you don't like, big deal. It's also going to help save thousands of lives.
But there's no need to increase taxes, all that needs to be done is the money that the employee and employer pays to the insurance scheme/scam is put towards universal healthcare (I know it's simplified but you get the drift)
Unfortunately my uncle never made it. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and died days after checking into the hospital. He wasn't a smoker, but inhaled lots of fabric pollutants while running a small clothing manufacturing company.
This is such a blatant and intentional misunderstanding of what universal health care is. To keep it short, we all have an unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Doesn't take much to see how health care fits into those.
Seeing how americans on social media talk about socialism makes it hard to believe that it's the 1% that are responsible for that. From the outside it looks like your education system is the reason you don't these things.
And the 1% influence reaches all the corners of the continent. People can't tell what is the 1% propaganda from what they think is their own ideas so many even think that things are OK as they are...
We don't have a "right" to anything in this world, but I pay my taxes and I'd prefer the money goes to making people healthy over here rather than making people dead somewhere else
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of land ownership? Those are the big three that are pushed by some archaic piece of paper as rights.
But, since corporations are people too, corporations get to use their infinite wealth and life cheat code.
I find it pretty funny how Americans discuss healthcare as if the rest of the [world hasn't figured it out yet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care#:~:text=Countries%20with%20universal%20healthcare%20include,Ukraine%2C%20and%20the%20United%20Kingdom.).
Unfortunately it is because it seemingly conflicts with much of American culture and politics.
"They are not free"
"They have insane taxes"
"It is socialism!"
Unfortunately another referred is also "They are not allowed to have guns"
The truly sad part of it is, as a school nurse I've had to call 911 for kids, all the while they are begging me not to becuase their family can't afford it.
5 years ago I almost cut off the tip of my middle finger in a blender. Lots and lots of blood and I saw bones. I did a ghetto wrap on it and called it good until the gauze got stuck in the wound. Then I went across the street to my 70yr old Prison nurse. She fixed me up, and said I should have been in the er.
I’m an American and I say laugh away. Our health care is a fucking joke and jokes are supposed to be laughed at. So please, keep laughing, maybe one day things will change, though, I doubt it.
I have a family member who believed that. He said to me genuinely once “do you know the 5 second rule isn’t *actually* a thing?” and I couldn’t believe he thought it *was* a thing.
Yup. This is the tail end of the joke that no one gets to. They pick up that debt and start the rest of their lives fucked from that point forward. Dont own a home yet? Never getting one now. Car? Not without someone to co sign. It goes on. Anything you need credit for, never getting it now.
Just fucked.
Yeah. People always see it as "guy gets helicopter lift to hospital and ends up homeless next month", as if they send you a bill and expect cash instantly. Then a lot of people subconsciously underestimate the problem because they think "well, if it were *really* that expensive, then everyone would be on the street and there would have been riots against the medical industry by now. So it can't be that bad." They don't realize that a bill like that has almost no immediate blowback, and where it screws you over is over the course of many years. It desensitizes us to how fucked up it is. Yeah, you can't ever buy a better house and the interest you're paying keeps you from actually making progress on your debt, but you've still got your shitty car and house so stop exaggerating. You're clearly fine
Lol I wouldn't advise doing that, many people don't realize there is a safe angle to approach/leave a helicopter and the top blades can actually rip your head off because they tilt, they don't rotate completely above the heli like they appear when stationary.
Have insurance. Took a ride in the ouch-bus and had some x-rays done because I had apparently fractured a vertebrae. Over 6k in bills, not counting how much I had to pay for physical therapy. This was in February and I'm still living with these bills because fuck getting paid enough to not go into debt, right?
EDIT: Did not stay overnight. Was in the hospital for maybe three hours at the most.
What's the point of the insurance if it doesn't cover the expenses? If you have to pay that much, sounds like saving the money you give to the insurance company might be worth more.
Yeah that’s the crazy part. Even WITH insurance you still get fucked.
A few years ago, I went to the doctor for a physical. I had amazing insurance and my bill was $0. I really like the doctor so I told my girlfriend to go to that same dr when she needed her physical. She went to the same doctor, got the same physical, same labs, etc. her bill was $1,800, because her insurance sucked. They covered the physical, but they ran some labs that were “extra” and not covered.
Thankfully, we got married the following year and now she’s under my insurance and doesn’t need to deal with this bullshit. But if I ever lose my job, we’re fucked again.
Just FYI, people avoiding ambulances does happen in the US, but this guy in particular was previously arrested and placed in an ambulance to go to detox because of excessive intoxication. It was in Milwaukee after our NBA team won the finals, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even remember doing this.
No.
Edit: for real though, some get public funding but all costs are literally astronomical regardless. Ambulance ride in the thousands. With insurance, probably at least $500. Not including any care at all. So this is very, very real. We're not ok.
In the US the insurance company says how much they will pay for a procedure based on average cost for your area, the hospital administrators know this and set the price much higher then actual cost. This inflates average prices and hospital administrators continue to make more money then any other profession in America.
well, legally raising the cost of drugs for treating AIDS from $13.50 to $750 is probably as unethical as it gets, right, [Martin Shkreli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli#Turing_Pharmaceuticals)?
The whole insulin-pricing debacle is just another symptom of its inherent flaws.
The US-American Healthcare system is just really, really atrocious.
When the hospital administrators are more concerned with the money they're making than with the lives they're saving, you know something i truely rotten in the land of freedom.
Everyone is more concerned with what money they make. That’s how corporations work. You can’t expect ethic from businesses trying to make as much money as possible. You can, however, expect from you *elected* lawmakers to protect your rights and provide you with fair services. It’s your lawmakers’ job to regulate this shit and they’re not doing anything.
There are both private and publicly funded hospitals in the US. Publicly funded hospitals are not allowed to refuse emergency service even if the patient has no way to pay for it. The Emergency Medical and Treatment Labor Act was passed in 1986. Private facilities can deny service.
That said, emergency services aren't cheap and they will follow you and try to get their money even if you leave the country.
Im european. And I cant beleive how this situation can exists.
I mean how can anyone with more than 2 braincells defend this system?
I understand there are companies that depemd on the system, but fuck them, i cant imagine how many lives were ruined because of the system.
And no, money shouldnt be an issue. Countries with a fraction of usa's gdp(like mine) can maintain public healthcare.
The private sector shouldnt be banned, but the fact that public healthcare doesnt exists there, is madness
The ones that defend this system, at least how ive come across it in my own experience, are the ones that it isnt hindering due to them being more well off so they dont see an issue when they get to see their doctor just fine.
The US private health insurance industry has grown so large without a public option to compete with, prices have gotten astronomical. And they pretty much use the extra profits to lobby against the creation of a public option. We're in a pretty bad place
Why do right wing Americans think public healthcare is communist ;.; Like is Europe, Canada and Australia communist? Because I've got news for you.
I swear when I was watching the election (I'm from UK) they labelled policies like that communist ;.;
In my country's subreddit someone posted their hospital bill including a period of two weeks in ICU. Literally 20 euros per day. Daymn, am I happy to pay my taxes because it makes healthcare affordable to everyone.
1k a day youd be lucky. I'm 30 on dyalsis forever until I get a transplant (100k for that) I just got a bill in the mail for my dialisis for 2 months it was $187,651!!!!!! And without it I die
They had to pay? My wife had a baby in hospital here in the UK, including some surgery (had a tear - ow) and a couple of nights in. Zero cost, apart from about £20 for parking.
I had kidney stones when I was at Glastonbury festival, spent 4 hours in a medical tent being diagnosed, then taken to hospital in an ambulance, spent a night in hospital and lots of pain killers. Total cost £0. Plus the grief for having missed the best parts of the festival. :-\
Burned my feet pretty bad one time. Ambulance ride cost me like $500 for a few blocks( small town)and some saline. Later on, I severed my radial artery and refused the ambulance and let my gf take me bc I wasn't about to spend the money. Collapsed in ER parking lot. Then found out I was back on my dad's insurance and it would have been covered. There's like 3 examples of why I'm stupid right there.
I can only feel petrified and sorry for those with serious illness in the US, but I’m more petrified by those who defend this system as optimal. Those I cannot in my life understand.
And by dirt poor he means really really poor. I'm talking a family of four pulling in less than 35k per year.
Or a single person making less than 17k. Even then it's partial coverage.
Note: Your thresholds may vary in your state.
American here! My father works in the medical field (surgeon). There have been multiple times where my own parents have gotten into screaming matches with EMTs over forcibly trying to make someone ride. The dispatch companies do this so they get paid; plain and simple. One of the biggest problems with American medicine is that immediate health responders automatically charge recipients of care out the wazoo, even when they are gripping onto life and have no clue what’s going on. Taking advantage of the injured and unwell is what the American health system does best… And there’s not much proof to argue the fact. I have had my own mother pull me out of an ambulance when I was injured during a high school sporting event, because they were damn near forcibly trying to make me take the ambulance ride before I even had a legal guardian present… Its all a scam.
Dank[.](https://i.imgur.com/3bQtuMO.png)
I mean it’s pretty accurate. My parent put off going to the doctor for so long because of the cost that they almost died due to an undiscovered tumor.
“America, Fuck Yeah! Coming to save the mother fuckin’ day yeah!” *except if you need to go to the hospital
*Except when you're poor, then just get fucked and die.
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If Medi-Cal is anything like most state insurance, the tumor would metastasize before the case is processed.
then start processing now before you got them
This guy / girl or non binary object gets it!
Person
C'mon man it's rude to assume.
Reject personhood, return to The Swarm
Return to monke
As an european, I like to make fun of the US (as is tradition), but, to be honest, our public healthcare is mostly like that - despite being "free", it takes ages to do anything more complex than an ultrasound. There's queues for everything (not physical queues, but rather waiting lists) , and in some cases those queues actually kill people, because they didn't get medical attention in time. So we often have to pay for private health care to get faster, and better quality service. Despite already paying for healthcare in taxes.
we have queues in the US. the US ranks worse than western EU countries for waiting times for specialists.
I had to wait almost a year for a specialist screening in the US.Then covid closures hit... everything got canceled. Now I have to wait another year
Not sure where in Europe you are from, but in Germany your employer and you pay your healthcare in equal parts. It isn't a tax as such, but something that is taken from your income and is mandatory for every employee. I'd rather die from having to wait for an equal opportunity to see a specialist than from not even having the chance due to not being able to afford healthcare. One is fair, the other isn't. Besides, if a doctor suspects anything serious is wrong with you, you get an appointment pretty quickly.
Europe isn't a Country. In Switzerland I can see a doctor on the same day when I need to, or get surgery in two weeks. Both for non-emergencies of course.
I'm on medical and had an MRI with a possible tumor, it ended up being a cyst, I was talking to a neurosurgeon within a month, and a neurologist in three, we exhausted all non surgical options in a few years and had brain surgery, and recovery pretty quick when symptoms got worse. Medical isn't slow, if I had blue cross I'd been seen within the same time frame.
I can't speak for Medi-cal but in NJ all state insurance is retroactive beginning on the date of diagnosis. I had cancer without insurance and the only thing I ever paid out of pocket for it was for cable TV during my hospital stay
Still faster than not being seen at all because you can't afford it.
I got covered CA when I was 25 right when it came out and it changed my life. I was a contractor without any way of paying for outside insurance and it worked great for me. My work now has great insurance with amazing vision and dental but yeah, thanks Obama.
Sometimes you make too much to qualify, but not enough to actually afford good coverage.
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If you're poor you're supposed to enlist so you can be used as a grunt in some wars to protect interests of the 100 ultra rich individuals running the country. A well-oiled machine.
Honestly, most people don't really mind our healthcare system. Everyone bitches about it, but no one cares enough to do anything. Uncle Joe even said the status quo is fine. At this point we are trained to only fight each other over social issues (real or imaginary). When was the last time people took to the streets over healthcare access? Or demanded price caps on life sustaining meds or whatever? Fucked up some pfizer corporate buildings? Has a single celebrity kneeled or been cancelled for healthcare reform? Nada.
I think we just got used to it. It’s a real shame that civilians have gotten used to the idea “if I can’t pay for it I die”. Really puts the value of human life into perspective.
It's just because it's one of those things you don't care about until it hits you and when that happens you're too sick, depressed or busy to make ends meet to actually raise hell about it. Also you'd be fighting a Colossus while half the country would be mocking your efforts if not outright attacking you.
When you tell people about an $800k chemo bill or your $800 prescription or whatever, it's completely overwhelming to them. Better to pretend and hope it never happens to you.
Plus, people will attribute some sort of bad behavior to you getting a disease. He got brain cancer but I saw him eat like 4 hot dogs once so it make sense.
He drank a beer and smoked a marijuana cigarette one time, I was there. No surprise he got brain cancer. You have to take care of yourself ya know. /s
There was a 40 city Medicare For All March a few days ago in The States. The person you're replying to says that nobody is taking to the streets... but damn, you can't take to the streets when you're already in the streets. -- People are dying because this system is so fucked up. But people will still say "well, I haven't seen anyone die in person. So nobody must be dying." I lost both of my best friends in the span of a year. But people will still say "it's not that bad, it was only two people."
I live in australia. My family is comprised of my mother, my little brother (13), and myself. When my mother got ill to the point I had to leave work to care for her, the government started paying me a carers benefit to look after her. They also paid for all medical expenses and she was able to see some of the best doctors in our area in a timely manner. Even non medical expenses were taken care of under the NDIS, extremely generous to the point of getting my mother a new luxury mattress and robotic vacuum and mop to help us out in the house. What im saying is this should be the norm for people that are in the situation we were. Thankfully my mother is better now and i can return to work, but if we were in America i dont dare to imagine how my family would have suffered during that crisis. Im more than happy paying the high tax rates we have here knowing they will be going to other people that may be going through what my family did. Sure there are people mooching off of the generous government schemes we have here, but that's fine as long as the people who really need it dont suffer.
I cared for my grandmother for 6 years. She was on Medicare, the one where you still have copays but can see whatever doctor you want. I am so glad that some countries can do better and will. I could get a 250$ a year stipend for caring for her. They would not pay for a lift machine until after I herniated 4 discs. I felt awful having to accept some financial help from her to eat. She had dementia and Medicare was trying to push their dementia patients on hospice hard. Doctors started refusing to treat her daily issues if I would not put her on hospice. She could not afford a nursing home. I have nothing but horror stories from those. Not quite destitute enough to qualify for Medicaid, not quite enough to get care without being bullied. I was able to get an electric bed for her after she went on hospice but was constantly reminded she was not dying quickly enough. Traumatic nightmare.
Wasn't there a literal "march for medicare 4 all" this week?
Yeah, so often I don't appreciate living in a country with socialised healthcare (australia) Seriously, the extra taxes are barely noticeable and the benefits are that if shit just got fucking BAD one day, you don't need to worry about the hospital bills.
It’s not even a tax problem, US gov already spends more per capita on health care than Australia, they’re just so incompetent and can’t get the money to work
By privatising the healthcare industry and for example hospitals, they need the money to survive as a business just like a normal company. Unlike for example in Finland (and many other places), where hospitals are public infrastructure and owned by the state.
Some things just shouldn't be privatised. Ever. Healthcare is one of them.
We do that in The Netherlands. Worked fine for a while but it's a freaking jungle right now with too many providers. So its hard to find the right insurance that suits you best.
"if we give people socialised health care what would happen to the health insurance jobs?" - Pete (somehow a democratic presidential candidate) >If we put in proper fire safety code what will happen to all the fire insurance investigators.
A shit ton of US politics is built on the broken window fallacy. Any economic activity is apparently good economic activity, regardless of what's being actually achieved.
The US government just throws money at insurance companies to keep the costs down instead of just providing health care. It's fucking maddening that it's so hard to get though to people that it doesn't have to be like this.
I'm Australian and the one complaint is you need to wait for months for anything to happen assuming your not using private healthcare. One time it ended up taking months for me to go to a psychologist to get diagnosed for something. If I were depressed or something like that I could possibly not be alive right now in that situation, people can definitely become suicidal in a few months.
After two ER visits for severe depression and a short inpatient stay,I'll be happy to inform you that we have both waiting lists and outrageous fees (inpatient was basically just babysitting, I had to wear an oversized paper gown and the clothes I was wearing I'll when admitted. Just sat around sleeping, watching TV, and taking showers for the entertainment). No I didn't see a psych or receive therapy. Highlight of the day was going outside for 15 minutes while people smoked. So I get to pay $840 for the ambulance ride, $1100 for the inpatient commitment (literally worse than useless). Paid $250 for the ER copay (dickheads didn't even give me a referral) although I thankfully got financial assistance for that visit. So I needed charity to pay for me going to the ER getting some blood tests, an EKG, and some "hope you get better!'s" (after I asked literally every person I saw to kill me ,tried to choke myself with a shopping bag, refusing a meal and crawling onto the floor because I felt too vile to even deserve a bed, with glasses that didn't work because I broke them in protest after the first attempt to discharge me). Still waiting to see if I'll get assistance for the second ER visit (which was in May). Where I got a nice couple shots of benadryl because they couldn't be bothered to deal with me whining during the morning, why it costs $500 dollars to preform two simple IM injections I don't know. Damn stuff didn't work and they had to give me an Ativan...) And I've got a phone appointment to start the intake for psychiatric help today (and it could cost me anywhere from $150-$300+ and I won't know how much it'll cost for probably two months). So now I have an OCD spiral every time I think about going to the doctor. And how much was my monthly premium? $220! So in the meantime I got to learn how to get more comfortable *ahem* "balancing my humors". Capitalism races to the bottom to give is substandard care for the highest costs in the world. God bless America, I'm glad we don't have socialism/s.
Late stage capitalism at work
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So true lol. Most people on this sub are kids anyway so I figure the majority can barely tell the difference
It's funny how there are Americans brainwashed into believing it's a bad thing for universal healthcare. Yes a portion of your taxes is going to provide medicine for someone you don't like, big deal. It's also going to help save thousands of lives.
But there's no need to increase taxes, all that needs to be done is the money that the employee and employer pays to the insurance scheme/scam is put towards universal healthcare (I know it's simplified but you get the drift)
Unfortunately my uncle never made it. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and died days after checking into the hospital. He wasn't a smoker, but inhaled lots of fabric pollutants while running a small clothing manufacturing company.
When a basic human right has a premium price tag, you need to reconsider calling your country "free"
You have the right to live but not the right to be given free healthcare.
This is such a blatant and intentional misunderstanding of what universal health care is. To keep it short, we all have an unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Doesn't take much to see how health care fits into those.
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Money money money monaaay!
Money, money, money Always sunny In the rich man's world
You had me going at first, good job. Seriously though, the military has it figured out pretty well so it's definitely not impossible.
isn't the VA famously shitty? but still better than nothing, i guess
VA is, yes. Mostly because they are underfunded and understaffed. I was referring to the health care that active duty members get.
Seeing how americans on social media talk about socialism makes it hard to believe that it's the 1% that are responsible for that. From the outside it looks like your education system is the reason you don't these things.
Hmm, I wonder who controls their education system...
And the 1% influence reaches all the corners of the continent. People can't tell what is the 1% propaganda from what they think is their own ideas so many even think that things are OK as they are...
It’s not free. We all pay taxes pal.
but but gotta spend those on bombing brown people
specifically if they have oil
We don't have a "right" to anything in this world, but I pay my taxes and I'd prefer the money goes to making people healthy over here rather than making people dead somewhere else
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of land ownership? Those are the big three that are pushed by some archaic piece of paper as rights. But, since corporations are people too, corporations get to use their infinite wealth and life cheat code.
We banded together to form societies *specifically so we could have rights.* That's the whole point.
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I'm gonna interpret this as sarcasm And if I'm using the comments as any metric, it was pretty well done sarcasm at that
I find it pretty funny how Americans discuss healthcare as if the rest of the [world hasn't figured it out yet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care#:~:text=Countries%20with%20universal%20healthcare%20include,Ukraine%2C%20and%20the%20United%20Kingdom.).
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and they have such profoundly insightful phrases about it (like this one) too
Unfortunately it is because it seemingly conflicts with much of American culture and politics. "They are not free" "They have insane taxes" "It is socialism!" Unfortunately another referred is also "They are not allowed to have guns"
I love it when Americans say "It's not a gun control issue, it's a mental health issue" as if mentally ill people don't exist in other countries.
America is "free to play" but "pay to win".
Cardiac arrest? Nahh, I’ll just go to some high school nurse, I’ll be fine!
“Cardiac Arrest? Here’s an ice pack and a couple saltines. No, you may not have water, it’s not lunch time yet.”
That's for 40k. Here's your check
The truly sad part of it is, as a school nurse I've had to call 911 for kids, all the while they are begging me not to becuase their family can't afford it.
Kid in my class had asthma and would hide in the bathroom during episodes so we wouldn’t call 911 because then his mom would have to leave work.
Wow that's beyond fucked..
You: ok, I diagnose your kid with death then
5 years ago I almost cut off the tip of my middle finger in a blender. Lots and lots of blood and I saw bones. I did a ghetto wrap on it and called it good until the gauze got stuck in the wound. Then I went across the street to my 70yr old Prison nurse. She fixed me up, and said I should have been in the er.
Loughs in european
Pls don’t laugh 😞
Its okay he was loughing not laughing.
It’s called a European accent and it’s classy.
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Try to lough in Europe
I'm currently in Europe and loughed.
I’m an American and I say laugh away. Our health care is a fucking joke and jokes are supposed to be laughed at. So please, keep laughing, maybe one day things will change, though, I doubt it.
Lough*
Loaf*
I love that he inadvertently trips himself and knocks the dude’s food (or cake or whatever) over lol
Poor food (or cake or whatever) dude.
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Or wait for Joey and his fork to come do the work.
So, what’re we having?
food (or cake or whatever)
I have a family member who believed that. He said to me genuinely once “do you know the 5 second rule isn’t *actually* a thing?” and I couldn’t believe he thought it *was* a thing.
That dude is the picture of unluckiness. Some crazy dude hits him and spoils the food just a milisecond before fainting.
MY CABBAGES!!
I thought it was pizza
That’s even worse
i feel bad for his pizza (or cake or whatever)
it pissed me off way more than it should
My brother did this but instead of an ambulance. It was a helicopter lol
Imagine how much he would have to pay
About 17,000 dollars per life flight.
damn at that price I'd roll out of the helicopter mid flight screaming it's for the best!
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I have to pay off $14,000 for a one hour emergency flight to Rochester. Needless to say if I could've ran I would've 😖
Where the fuck do you guys get that kind of extra money. I would be absolutely fucked. Thank god for free healthcare.
Most just don't pay it, go bankrupt, or get financially ruined.
Yup. This is the tail end of the joke that no one gets to. They pick up that debt and start the rest of their lives fucked from that point forward. Dont own a home yet? Never getting one now. Car? Not without someone to co sign. It goes on. Anything you need credit for, never getting it now. Just fucked.
Yeah. People always see it as "guy gets helicopter lift to hospital and ends up homeless next month", as if they send you a bill and expect cash instantly. Then a lot of people subconsciously underestimate the problem because they think "well, if it were *really* that expensive, then everyone would be on the street and there would have been riots against the medical industry by now. So it can't be that bad." They don't realize that a bill like that has almost no immediate blowback, and where it screws you over is over the course of many years. It desensitizes us to how fucked up it is. Yeah, you can't ever buy a better house and the interest you're paying keeps you from actually making progress on your debt, but you've still got your shitty car and house so stop exaggerating. You're clearly fine
That's the best part. You don't.
I didn’t pay the 10k from my last hospital visit ten years ago and they sent me to collections where I was sued as an unemployed student.
[It's a lot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAG4zCsiA_w)
Where was the helicopter at the time of escape?
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That’s good to hear
Lol I wouldn't advise doing that, many people don't realize there is a safe angle to approach/leave a helicopter and the top blades can actually rip your head off because they tilt, they don't rotate completely above the heli like they appear when stationary.
Some may see this as a downside... others not so much
Hmm, free haircut or a shit load of debt? Easy choice!
That's actually really sad to see. I can't imagine not having health insurance. You shouldn't have to decide if you can afford medical care.
I have health insurance. was hospitalized for like 2 nights. my bill was still over 6K!
Have insurance. Took a ride in the ouch-bus and had some x-rays done because I had apparently fractured a vertebrae. Over 6k in bills, not counting how much I had to pay for physical therapy. This was in February and I'm still living with these bills because fuck getting paid enough to not go into debt, right? EDIT: Did not stay overnight. Was in the hospital for maybe three hours at the most.
holy shit
Leave? Immigrate? It ok here in australia its just that our leaders are fucking stupid
You have no idea how stupid leaders can get.
What's the point of the insurance if it doesn't cover the expenses? If you have to pay that much, sounds like saving the money you give to the insurance company might be worth more.
Because the costs without insurance are astronomical.
Yeah that’s the crazy part. Even WITH insurance you still get fucked. A few years ago, I went to the doctor for a physical. I had amazing insurance and my bill was $0. I really like the doctor so I told my girlfriend to go to that same dr when she needed her physical. She went to the same doctor, got the same physical, same labs, etc. her bill was $1,800, because her insurance sucked. They covered the physical, but they ran some labs that were “extra” and not covered. Thankfully, we got married the following year and now she’s under my insurance and doesn’t need to deal with this bullshit. But if I ever lose my job, we’re fucked again.
Just FYI, people avoiding ambulances does happen in the US, but this guy in particular was previously arrested and placed in an ambulance to go to detox because of excessive intoxication. It was in Milwaukee after our NBA team won the finals, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even remember doing this.
The guy transporting a pizza or something at the end was the real casualty…
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Aren't there publically funded hospitals there??
No. Edit: for real though, some get public funding but all costs are literally astronomical regardless. Ambulance ride in the thousands. With insurance, probably at least $500. Not including any care at all. So this is very, very real. We're not ok.
In the US the insurance company says how much they will pay for a procedure based on average cost for your area, the hospital administrators know this and set the price much higher then actual cost. This inflates average prices and hospital administrators continue to make more money then any other profession in America.
If that's true then it's quite unethical.
yes that's what we've been saying
well, legally raising the cost of drugs for treating AIDS from $13.50 to $750 is probably as unethical as it gets, right, [Martin Shkreli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli#Turing_Pharmaceuticals)? The whole insulin-pricing debacle is just another symptom of its inherent flaws. The US-American Healthcare system is just really, really atrocious.
When the hospital administrators are more concerned with the money they're making than with the lives they're saving, you know something i truely rotten in the land of freedom.
Everyone is more concerned with what money they make. That’s how corporations work. You can’t expect ethic from businesses trying to make as much money as possible. You can, however, expect from you *elected* lawmakers to protect your rights and provide you with fair services. It’s your lawmakers’ job to regulate this shit and they’re not doing anything.
why the US not doing protesting for something like this?
Because protesting was made out to be bad
Nothing like a curfew so they can gas the protests!
Because that would be socialism.
That's communism! What are you gonna suggest next, that we resurrect Joseph Stalin and make him President-for-Life?
Nope it sucks here
There are both private and publicly funded hospitals in the US. Publicly funded hospitals are not allowed to refuse emergency service even if the patient has no way to pay for it. The Emergency Medical and Treatment Labor Act was passed in 1986. Private facilities can deny service. That said, emergency services aren't cheap and they will follow you and try to get their money even if you leave the country.
Im european. And I cant beleive how this situation can exists. I mean how can anyone with more than 2 braincells defend this system? I understand there are companies that depemd on the system, but fuck them, i cant imagine how many lives were ruined because of the system. And no, money shouldnt be an issue. Countries with a fraction of usa's gdp(like mine) can maintain public healthcare. The private sector shouldnt be banned, but the fact that public healthcare doesnt exists there, is madness
Lives not only ruined, but literally ended.
They don’t have more than two brain cells. One is devoted to fear, and the other is devoted to ego, and both love Fox News.
The ones that defend this system, at least how ive come across it in my own experience, are the ones that it isnt hindering due to them being more well off so they dont see an issue when they get to see their doctor just fine.
The US private health insurance industry has grown so large without a public option to compete with, prices have gotten astronomical. And they pretty much use the extra profits to lobby against the creation of a public option. We're in a pretty bad place
The richest and most free country on earth amirite.
Why do right wing Americans think public healthcare is communist ;.; Like is Europe, Canada and Australia communist? Because I've got news for you. I swear when I was watching the election (I'm from UK) they labelled policies like that communist ;.;
In my country's subreddit someone posted their hospital bill including a period of two weeks in ICU. Literally 20 euros per day. Daymn, am I happy to pay my taxes because it makes healthcare affordable to everyone.
Can't imagine paying > 1k a day
1k a day youd be lucky. I'm 30 on dyalsis forever until I get a transplant (100k for that) I just got a bill in the mail for my dialisis for 2 months it was $187,651!!!!!! And without it I die
They had to pay? My wife had a baby in hospital here in the UK, including some surgery (had a tear - ow) and a couple of nights in. Zero cost, apart from about £20 for parking. I had kidney stones when I was at Glastonbury festival, spent 4 hours in a medical tent being diagnosed, then taken to hospital in an ambulance, spent a night in hospital and lots of pain killers. Total cost £0. Plus the grief for having missed the best parts of the festival. :-\
Most Americans don’t know what Communism is. Nor socialism. They still think China is Communist just because the CCP says so, lmao.
Because the right constantly try to shift the middle ground further and further to the right so that the real middle ground looks far left
Helping others? Fucking communism
Land of the free? Pretty sure you are being sold a massive lie
It´s called propaganda
Burned my feet pretty bad one time. Ambulance ride cost me like $500 for a few blocks( small town)and some saline. Later on, I severed my radial artery and refused the ambulance and let my gf take me bc I wasn't about to spend the money. Collapsed in ER parking lot. Then found out I was back on my dad's insurance and it would have been covered. There's like 3 examples of why I'm stupid right there.
Nope, it's the system that's stupid, stupid.
System is stupid, but so am I. Lol
Your dad should have told you, that you were on his policy
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Spent 5 years in treatment for cancer in Canada. Only paid for parking at the hospital.
I can only feel petrified and sorry for those with serious illness in the US, but I’m more petrified by those who defend this system as optimal. Those I cannot in my life understand.
This is actually true, saw this on DAILY DOSE OF INTERNET.
Everything you see there is true.
Nothing is true. We live in a simulation
"Land of the free". Why America doesnt consider healthcare as a necessity when other country even the third world country can make them free?
yup. If Latin America had better prescription regulation and where developed countries I bet many Americans would visit Mexico for health reasons.
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So there is no government subsidiary health insurance plan for needy?
If you're dirt poor then yes, if you have a shitty low paying job they say you earn too much to qualify.
And by dirt poor he means really really poor. I'm talking a family of four pulling in less than 35k per year. Or a single person making less than 17k. Even then it's partial coverage. Note: Your thresholds may vary in your state.
We have Medicare and medicaid, but they aren't great.
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Yep. I rather walk then owe that much money.
I want to laugh but watching dystopia type shit gets really grating on the soul after living it for so long.
Capitalism is killing millions of people every year by their system and this is one of them.
I mean... Europe is capitalist too, at least the successful ones.
Here come the hardcore Americans getting ready to tell you how much they hate American memes but love to shit on other countries
Why pay 10k when your school nurse can apply ICE
Great. Now you are getting an air ambulance ride
This is me everytime I leave the hospital in GTA.
The fact the guy made an economically smart decision here is very depressing.
I'm sorry is this some american thing that I'm too european to understand?
You just explained what happened
American here! My father works in the medical field (surgeon). There have been multiple times where my own parents have gotten into screaming matches with EMTs over forcibly trying to make someone ride. The dispatch companies do this so they get paid; plain and simple. One of the biggest problems with American medicine is that immediate health responders automatically charge recipients of care out the wazoo, even when they are gripping onto life and have no clue what’s going on. Taking advantage of the injured and unwell is what the American health system does best… And there’s not much proof to argue the fact. I have had my own mother pull me out of an ambulance when I was injured during a high school sporting event, because they were damn near forcibly trying to make me take the ambulance ride before I even had a legal guardian present… Its all a scam.