this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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[–] POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 89 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Health Insurance that covers next to nothing but costs a fortune anyway.

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 42 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

☝️ recently got a covid test that based on all my research beforehand, it should have been covered except for $10 I would pay.

Jokes on me, it actually cost me $200 they charged to my credit card two weeks later. I didn't even get to know the price at the time I needed medical care.

Sometimes other countries make fun of America for things they don't understand. Not on this one, America deserves every bit of mocking it gets for it's medical coverage atrocity.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

You can get free rapid covid test kits from the US government with a valid mailing address.

https://special.usps.com/testkits

[–] d00ery@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)
[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Nose swab into a piece of lab equipment about the size of a bread toaster. They put the swab into the thing right in front of me but I didn't note any further details about the equipment.

I went in for strep testing (which is what it ended up being). They advised covid test too due to local outbreak, I predicted that they might so had done some prep research and thought I could expect a much lower bill.

Lesson learned, avoid getting tested for covid πŸ˜‚

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah man that and the cheese are just unforgivable

[–] Random123@fedia.io 1 points 2 weeks ago

Americans stupidity is another one that they get correct but there’s plenty of things to laugh about America as there is to laugh about 3rd world countries.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's a developing country. You will catch up.

Also we guys in western Europe are happy we are not ruled by Russia or China, and that's because of the USA I think.

I kind of like the US culture, but it's ridiculous how they treat human beings when money and power is on the line.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's a developing country. You will catch up.

It isn't and we won't. The US is a post-developed country backsliding.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, gallows humor!

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

I'm in the middle of trying to get a fairly expensive surgery.

If I had insurance, I would need to pay about $15,000 (between premiums, copays, annual deductible, coinsurance, and out of pocket maximums) with the only insurance available to me through my workplace before anything would be covered. So it's not really worthwhile, right? Well, the surgery I need--around here--gets quotes of as much as $89,000. The most recent quote that I have is around $18,000. Keep in mind that the surgery takes about an hour, is a surgeon, one OR nurse assisting, and an anesthesiologist. The fee for the surgeon and nurse is about $5000, and the facility takes about $10,000. In the case of surgery in a hospital--rather than an ambulatory surgical center (ACS0---it's even worse. With the same surgeon and OR nurse at an ACS, I had a quote of $16,300; at a hospital the quote was $49,000. The surgeon and nurse get the same fee regardless, which means that the hospital charged >$30,000.

...And good fucking luck getting a lot of places to give you prices at all, even though DHHS has mandated pricing transparency. Even if you know exactly what CPT billing codes are going to be used, it can be days of back and forth before you can get a price. If you need shit fixed NOW, you're just going to be stuck with whatever they charge.