Can Americans explain their healthcare costs to me?On one hand we hear the usual 5min ambulance trip for a sprained ankle costing $9,000 + $2,500 for the ambulance + tax + tipOn the other hand I hear numerous instances of people having notable treatments but paying in total only a couple hundred bucks at most.So what’s the deal? Does it all depend on hospital or state?
>>545149033>On the other hand I hear numerous instances of people having notable treatments but paying in total only a couple hundred bucks at most.they're lying. if you have insurance AND it's a covered procedure you pay up to the annual deductible. it's between $2k and $6k a year depending on the plan and if you have a family. if it's not a covered procedure you're fucked, you pay the full amount. if you don't have insurance you also pay the full amount.>DUDE IM DA MASTA NEGOTIATOR I NEGOTIATED THE GETTING MY DADS DICK REMOVED FROM MY ASS SURGERY DOWN FROM $999K TO $3 AND THE HOSPITAL CEO PERSONALLY SHOOK MY HAND AND SAID, "wow.... WOW......"
>>545149033There are a lot of ways for medical debt to be written off, the prices are so inflated and there are so many random subsidies and grants that can step in that unpaid or underpaid debt just... goes away sometimes.The real fucked up part is that if you don't have insurance at all, the price they give you is a single digit percentage of the price they would have sent the insurance company. Often it's less than the deductible an insurance plan will demand you pay. But only if they really think you don't have insurance. If you have insurance and just don't want to use it (because why would you when the out of pocket expense is that much less), they won't let you.
tldr both private insurance money and government injections like Medicare/Medicaid pump the shit out of costs because just bill it lol.
>>545149033it basically depends on if you have Medicare or not. I think Medicare kicks in around 65 or so. Oldies on that program pay damn near nothing, especially if they have a "medigap" supplemental insurance policy. My mom had an ablation procedure done to her heart when she was 78 to fix her afib problem. The bill was $80,000 but Medicare paid like 98% of it. If you don't have Medicare then yes.. ambulance ride + sprained ankle is like $7000 with no insurance. I am 56 and retired and pay about $600 per month for Obamacare, but that is because I make enough income so I get no subsides. Obamacare can be decent for poor people. It was kind of made for poor people.. the subsidies can be amazing (thanks taxpayers). But you do have to pay the monthly premium. The whole healthcare thing here is kind of a racket, that's why you see Doctors and even nurses driving 911's. Fuck I even know a CNA who drives a fucking Benz G450.
Both are half-truths at best.Here's how it works:Without insurance in 2026:>If scheduled event/procedure>Get Good Faith Estimate>Have procedure>Get bill>If bill is more than $400 over the estimate, immediately send a complaint along with $25 to the government and get it talked down.>Hospital says "pay cash right now for a 40% discoount or full amount in a monthly payment plan of some kind">You have basically no bargaining power at this point.Or, for an emergency/unscheduled appointment>Here's a bill for 2x your annual salary>You are now a debt slave with no recourseAnd with insurance:>Pay insurer $1000+/month>Scheduled medical procedure>No estimate provided to the patient, even if you ask>Bill sent to insurer. Way higher than what said estimate would have said.>Wave magic wand and drop price to a reasonable pre-agreed value>Insurer pretends they did something and you pay the balance in full, probably more than the uninsured value would have been, up to your deductible/out-of-pocket maximum for the yearOr>Go to emergency room>Hospital makes up a dozen gigantic charges>Insurer says fuck it all and the resulting bill is your out-of-pocket max for the year>You pay up and everything else for the year is free except premiums Or:You opt for the $2000/month plan>Go to ER>Pay $50 copay >Have full MRI, emergency open heart surgery, and a knee replacement for good measure in the same afternoon>No additional charges>But you still end up worse off due to the huge insurance premium price
Also the costs are insane because "not for profit" (lmao) hospitals have to take nigger gunshot victims and try to repair them and then they put the bill on everyone else. Tyrone does not have to pay a dime ("I be not got nuthin bro!") But not for profit hospitals here apparently have the $$ to pay the hopsital CEO and top staff many millions per year. The lobby to not change our healthcare scam/racket is immense. Huge amounts of lobbiest money is thrown at this to keep the system as it is.
>>545149484>No estimate provided to the patient, even if you askthis is always hilarious.. if you ask any doctor, nurse.. fucking anyone in the building or network for an estimate they get pissed and say "it depends on a lot of things and it takes time to determine the final cost". Then you get a bill 2000% higher than you were expecting.
>>545149033who in the fuck calls an ambulance for a aprained ankle? why would you even go to the doctor for a sprained ankle? the doctor will just say take advil and dont walk on it, maybe tell you to get an ankle brace.
>>545149033Americans are the problem for tolerating this shit. It's like going to the rough part of town and wearing a sandwich board with 'rape me' painted on it. Most of us haven't even left our home state and just think we deserve to be gaped by billionaires. Everyone is starting to wake up to how fucked it is though but we're still a while out from making it anything resembling functional.To get by you basically have to lie about your income for an ACA plan and never need the hospital. If you do, you have to shell out 5k to the hospital and the 10 other companies with their fingers in the pie but you can negotiate and if you have a balance of 500$ or less with each of them, let them charge it off because it won't show up on your credit report.>>t. spent 10k on hospital bills in the past year
if you ever get a serious cancer or some other fucked up malady the best is to just choose that early exit with a charcoal grill in the bathroom ad some sleeping pills.
Healthcare workers are overpaid it's just another form of welfare for women and niggers.
>>545149803you would be surprised.. so many pussies these days. Even if you strain your back really bad (lower back sprains can hurt like fucking hell for 3-4 days..on a pain scale 9/10).. this will usually heal at home in a few days. People go to the doctor demanding immeidate relief. In the olden days like 15 years ago the MD would prescribe you Oxycontin for a mild headache and you could get high as fuck but also risk the hell of a massive addiction problem. Now they just say.. take some Aleve and deal with it for a few days.
>>545149033>Governments make the healthcare industry a monopoly via regulations, barriers to entry, subsidies and grants, etc.>Companies can charge whatever they want because there’s no competition in the market>Healthcare is stupid expensiveSince we live in a world where the “intellectual” class is plagued by Marxism, the solution is always to have the government regulate even harder by setting prices and forcing taxpayers to pay into their inefficient, shitty system rather than just letting it be a free market, which is the real solution.
>>545149889Healthcare makework jobs/admins are overpayed.The people actually doing the care and maintaining the facilities are underpaid.
>>545149033It's going to make even less sense when they explain it, OP. You have to really twist your logic like a pretzel to justify a private healthcare system that uses more taxpayer money to fund than a public healthcare system.
an unexpected ER trip can unironically bankrupt you
>>545149033some people got shot for thatbut far from enough
>>545150257it can.. is best to limp to the urgent care place closeby or get an uber to get there. I was charged $300 for 5 minutes of "bowel movement advice" at our local urgent care when I had a problem
>>545149033If you are employed:>employer pays for health insurance >go to hospital >pay only co pay (usually $50-100)>insurance covers the restif you are retired:>you get medicare>go to hospital >pay nothing >medicare covers everythingIf you are poor>you are given medicaid>go to hospital >pay nothing>medicaid covers everythingif you are self employed >have to buy your own insurance or pay a $500/yr fine>go to hospital >pay up to what your deductible is $500-8000 before insurance kicks in based on your monthly payment (cheaper monthly payment = higher deductible)>insurance covers restEvery single American has insurance as required by obamacare like 20 years ago or they have to pay a fine (you can get insurance for as little as $30/month so its cheaper than the fine)
>>545150244>private healthcare systemIt’s not private at all, and this is the semantic game that socialists play to justify their shitty economic ideas. >Call an industry “private”>Said industry is already heavily regulated and subsidized by the government, and shares are publicly owned (you know, the opposite of private)>So industry is already socialized, just not socialized enough by Marxist standards>Marxists present even harder socialization as the solution.If the industry was actually private and operated within the free market then there wouldn’t be an issue to begin with.
It is so backwards to me that the US doesn't have a universal health care. They have at least 4 of the top 10 hospitals in the world and generally a very high level of care. It means that the largest cause of bankruptcy in the USA is from medical debt. At 9x the population of Canada and geographically a smaller area they should be able to offer free health care without that much increase in income tax.
>>545150244From a different perspective, this is an incredible accomplishment by the greedy jewy healthcare executives. Must be pretty fucking based to have gotten away with this, it's like the ultimate heist x100 and legally sanctioned
>>545150826>Every single American has insurance as required by obamacare like 20 years ago or they have to pay a finelmao, i have never filled any obama care shit out and havent had insurance either and theyve literally done nothing to me. never once been fined
>>545149033if you're rich: it doesn't matter. you don't need health insurance.if you're poor: pay health insurance monthly and still get screwed over in costs.
>>545151134this... if you are rich you can just pay cash... even $350,000 heart surgery is like a joke and like McD value meal. Fuck you will even give them a 20% tip for good service.
>>545151043you must be a neet that has never paid/filed taxes or you lied on your tax forms, in which case, if they find out, youll go to jail
>>545149033I pay $350/month for my insurance. I make $130k/year (approx). I have a $1000 deductible. So earlier this year i was in a car accident and broke my nose, cheek, tore my quad in half and had lacerations all over. An ambulance came an got me at the scene. I stayed in the hospital overnight they did 3 CT scans, 1 MRI and 4 xrays. I had stitches as well. I had to see an ENT, orthopedic dr and go to months of PT. I paid $1000 for that treatment on top of my premiums. I never needed approval or waited for appointments. There i explained it.
basically the answer to all the healthcare questions and observations in this thread is:DON'T GET SICK AND IF YOU DO, FIGURE OUT TO HEAL THYSELF NIGGER
>>545151244i dont e file because you have to pay, i always print it out and mail it in. i just throw all the obama forms away
>>545150826>Every single American has insurance as required by obamacare like 20 years ago or they have to pay a finethis isn't true. the penalty for not having insurance was eliminated over a decade ago.theres so much misinformation in this thread. im not going to try to set it all straight. but since no one has mentioned it, I'll add that we also have a VA system for military.
