In the U.S., these emotions have reached a boiling point duringthe ongoing trial of Luigi Mangione, who is being accused of killing the CEO of the health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare.
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Had a precancerous lump growing in my chest, my health insurance said it wasn’t developed enough to be covered and would be considered cosmetic unless it became larger…. so i had to pay for the entire procedure myself in order to prevent a possibly cancerous lump from growing.F*****g jerkoffs.
According toIris Gorfinkel, M.D.who is a general practitioner, medical researcher, and the founder ofPrimeHealth Family Practice and Clinical Research, a well-functioning healthcare system needs to have multiple features, namely, it has to be accessible and affordable.“Healthcare needs to be placed where people actually live and it should also be affordable so that nobody is penalized for preventing tomorrow’s problems right now,” Dr. Gorfinkel toldBored Panda.“So, the ideal system invests heavily into prevention, not just treatment,” she explained. “The system should screen people for cancer, it should provide them with vaccines, test for diabetes and h**h blood pressure, not to mention addictions and mental health issues — these things should also be addressed early in their development to prevent patients from becoming suicidal, or even worse.”
According toIris Gorfinkel, M.D.who is a general practitioner, medical researcher, and the founder ofPrimeHealth Family Practice and Clinical Research, a well-functioning healthcare system needs to have multiple features, namely, it has to be accessible and affordable.
“Healthcare needs to be placed where people actually live and it should also be affordable so that nobody is penalized for preventing tomorrow’s problems right now,” Dr. Gorfinkel toldBored Panda.
“So, the ideal system invests heavily into prevention, not just treatment,” she explained. “The system should screen people for cancer, it should provide them with vaccines, test for diabetes and h**h blood pressure, not to mention addictions and mental health issues — these things should also be addressed early in their development to prevent patients from becoming suicidal, or even worse.”
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I work in healthcare, I see the worst things almost every day. The amount of wasted resources trying to get an insurance company to pay for a normal service for a patient is mind boggling. Knowing it doesn’t have to be this way, but because so many people have the attitude that business can do no wrong, I just shake my head.We could spend so much less money and help so many more people, but the prevailing “I’ve got mine, f**k you!” Attitude continues to hold us back as a nation from being something great.
Went into an ER for a possible miscarriage. I told them I’d had losses before and that I’d like an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. I’d had these cramps before with my loss before that one.They refused to check and make sure everything was ok, only did a d******k pregnancy test, even though I told them I was pregnant. And then they wouldn’t listen when I said I had no UTI, that I was going to lose my child. THEY TESTED FOR A UTI ANYWAY. (It came back negative like I said it would.)They also decided to have the nurses press and squish my uterus to see if I was actually pregnant. I was roughly 8 weeks my uterus isn’t even big enough to feel in my abdomen.They sent me home said I was fine and there was nothing wrong with me even though I insisted.Why did they not listen you ask??? I wasn’t established with a doctor at that hospital, didn’t look to be in pain, and was texting my husband and I’s roommate.I ended up in another ER on the fourth of July (two days later) from heavy heavy bleeding and lost my second child.( I will forever be holding a grudge against that ER. V-day was my due date and my husband’s birthday. I should have a child right now.).
Sadly, there’s a gap between reality and the ideal—Americans' opinion of the quality of healthcare in the country is now at its lowest point since 2001, Gallupfound.
Between 2001 and 2020, the share of people who viewed it positively ranged between 52% and 62%. However, the majority—54%—now describe it negatively as fair (38%) or poor (16%).
Going to the pharmacy (CVS) and being told my generic medication that I am paying cash for is $216. When I say I can get it at Costco for $7 (true), they say hold on, just a minute, then come back and tell me ok, it will be $9.99. Wait, so you’re making more than $200 profit on this generic medication? That’s sick.
I was in a horrible place mentally. I was s**cidal and having anxiety attacks for the first time in my life.Acting on the advice of my mother, I walked my broke a*s into the nearest hospital and checked myself in. Keep in mind I have no money and no health insurance.2 hours laying in a hospital bed and a xanax or two later I was released. The next month I received a bill for over $7,000. I was in shock. How could a 2 hour stay at the hospital amount to that much? Especially when it felt like I could get better accommodations at a Motel 6. To this day, I am still in debt. It disgusts me.
Trying to afford Epi-pens. Nothing like a few hundred bucks for a one time use device that is necessary to stop anaphylaxis.
As has been the case throughout the 24-year period, Americans rate healthcare coverage in the U.S. even more negatively than they rate quality. Nowadays, just 28% believe it is excellent or good, four points lower than the average since 2001 and well below the 41% h**h point in 2012.Additionally, less than one in five Americans—19%—say they are satisfied with how much healthcare costs.
As has been the case throughout the 24-year period, Americans rate healthcare coverage in the U.S. even more negatively than they rate quality. Nowadays, just 28% believe it is excellent or good, four points lower than the average since 2001 and well below the 41% h**h point in 2012.
Additionally, less than one in five Americans—19%—say they are satisfied with how much healthcare costs.
Dr. Gorfinkel said the healthcare system shouldn’t look at a person’s gender, race, or the contents of their wallet, either. “You can be rich or poor, it doesn’t matter, you should still be guaranteed quality care.“The doctor added that we should also be able to access and share our medical records with others if we choose to do so. “That way, clinicians can always learn what has been done to the patient in the past and what’s worked for them, and the potential mistakes to avoid, whether it’s a drug intolerance, or, say, a life-threatening allergy.“Hopefully, with time, stories such as the ones we found within the thread will become more and more rare.
Dr. Gorfinkel said the healthcare system shouldn’t look at a person’s gender, race, or the contents of their wallet, either. “You can be rich or poor, it doesn’t matter, you should still be guaranteed quality care.”
The doctor added that we should also be able to access and share our medical records with others if we choose to do so. “That way, clinicians can always learn what has been done to the patient in the past and what’s worked for them, and the potential mistakes to avoid, whether it’s a drug intolerance, or, say, a life-threatening allergy.”
Hopefully, with time, stories such as the ones we found within the thread will become more and more rare.
Working in a sy as pharmacy and having to witness people die inside when they discover the price of the their ds.Seriously, just two more years and I’m out of this.
I’ve got gum recession on my molars. My dentist told me I’d need to get it fixed surgically or eventually my teeth would fall out (not to mention the pain of having the roots slowly expose themselves).As this was a necessary procedure, the dentist and surgeon assumed my insurance would cover it. What actually happened was that, since my teeth weren’t already falling out, the surgery was classified as elective. Aetna Dental and Aetna Medical passed the buck back and forth between them until eventually telling me to go f**k myself and pay the ~$1500 out of pocket. Good thing I opted to stay awake during the surgery! That would have cost me another two grand.The thing that really grinds my gears about this is that my insurance company is basically saying that the correct thing to do would have been to spend another year or so in pain until my mouth was really f****d up, and then they would have considered the procedure necessary enough to help. How is it even in their best interest to discourage people from solving small problems before they turn into huge and more expensive problems?
Paying $550 / month at age 31 for healthcare that literally covers nothing until I hit my $8500 deductible.
Aetna, in a word. They low-balled on all bills, refused to pay ambulance and ER Doc bills, and told me “well, we don’t think you owe the hospital anything”. Plus the hospital had a very aggressive collections policy (not for profit, my a*s), threatened to turn it over to collection agency, etc. I wrote 4 complaints to the state department of insurance that year, Aetna had to pay bills on 3 of them. F**k them.
My mom got cataracts at age 50 and insurance said she was too young to have them so didn’t want to cover them.
Getting a bill from a hospital for a procedure that I never had, for several thousand dollars. Call the hospital, talk to the billing department, they realize it of course could not have been me having this procedure because the person who had it was 30 years older than me, and they will correct the bill. Only to get another notice the next month. Call the hospital again, problem will be corrected. Then a late noticed the following month. Call the hospital again, told the problem will be corrected. Then get another bill the next month, rinse, repeat for 18 months.
I had back issues and it was radiating down my arm even. So I had to get an MRI. Turns out they ordered the MRI for my middle back (where I felt the pain) but in reality it was coming from my neck. So I had to get another one. I’m fully insured but found out each of those scans cost $800. Oh also the results were I have some minor slipped disks. Rest and stretching is really all I can do. So yea I had to pay $1600 for them to confirm I have a reason that my back hurts… well no s**t.Bonus:Last year I dislocated my arm. couldn’t get it back in so I went to the ER. It was pretty busy so I had to wait a while. I went outside and layed on a bench and popped it back in myself. I went back in and told them I no longer needed a doctor. I received a $170 bill…
I paid $800 for two bags of saline, after insurance, when I was hospitalized for dehydration.
Went to the hospital when I thought I broke my ankle a few months ago. I’m in that fun income gap where I make too much for assistance but not enough to afford insurance through my employer or on my own. They checked my ankle, made sure it wasn’t broken, put an ace bandage on it, and sent me home. Got the bill a few weeks later and it was $4500. No idea how I’m going to pay it.
Dad wasn’t on blood pressure meds because of no insurance and couldn’t afford the doctor and meds. Wound up having a stroke. Hospital pressured me for a couple weeks to get him out of the hospital and into a nursing home, but a couple of them wanted $10k-15k up front which we didn’t have. Most nursing homes didn’t even know how much they charged uninsured patients or just wouldn’t even talk to us. Eventually the blood clot in his brain broke up enough that he was able to do a little bit on his own so he could just stay with a friend who was a nurse until he had enough rehab to live on his own.Eventually got a bill from the hospital for several hundred thousand dollars for his 3 week stay. When he told them he had no insurance and couldn’t afford it, they dropped it to about $65k as if the first bill was just a wild guess seeing if we’d pay it. He’ll be paying it out of his retirement savings until he goes broke or dies.
I’ve had type one diabetes since I was 7 years old. When I was 13 I elected to start using an insulin pump instead of injections with hopes of better control. My endocrinologist was happy with where my numbers were, but it was a huge pain to keep them there. My a1c was around 7 at the time, and my insurance company decided that unless my a1c was over 8 I didn’t need a pump. So we actually backed off on my care and let my blood sugars run higher for a few months until I hit an acceptable a1c for insurance.
I have known two separate people who both refused to marry the loves of their lives, not because of an aversion to commitment or anything like that, but because they knew they’d die first and they didn’t want their loves to inherit their crushing medical debts. (One had terminal cancer, the other chronic heart problems.).
Got an absurd bill from our pediatrician. We have pretty good insurance so I called to see what was up. Turns out, or pediatrician was covered under our plan 100%, but the office where we saw him was not—so all the vaccines and materials from that visit (from the pharmacy of said office) were “out of network” so we were responsible for 100% of those.The biggest kicker? Our pediatrician also practices out of a different clinic ACROSS THE STREET that would have been fully covered under our insurance plan. We just didn’t know at the time, and because there was a delay in billing we made another visit to the non-covered office before we found out.
My boyfriend (36) needed an amputation because he had a blood and bone infection, the bone was softening up like a marshmallow. The doctor stressed how time sensitive it was to have it removed but in the next breath told us she wouldn’t be able to perform the surgery if we didn’t have 25% down. We spent 2 months of our rent money trying to get his surgery taken care of. She tried to reschedule when we were $100 short. Our insurance doesn’t cover preexisting conditions, which they claimed his condition was.
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The bill.
Skin cancer runs in my family so I have to go in for full body checks at the dermatologist every six months. My insurance considers it cosmetic and will pay nothing towards biopsies when my dermatologist needs to shave a mole off. As if I’m going to get my lips Botoxed or something. When in reality all I’m trying to do is prevent my death.
$700 bill for a doctor to tell me that blood in my urine ”isn’t an infection, might be bladder cancer - but don’t worry-it’s very treatable“ and see a urologist if it happens again.
I needed some dental work done after breaking my jaw and my insurance company refused to pay for any of it because “the damage wasn’t extensive enough” to need the work done. I had two teeth that were out of place, and half a molar missing.Luckily, I have an awesome dentist who wrote letters to, and called my insurance company telling them that the dental work was most definitely needed. Insurance company ended up covering only $300, but it’s better than nothing, right?I’ve also been dealing with some chronic pain issues for the last 4 years, but won’t get it checked out because I’m worried about the cost. It’s sad that this is something people have to worry about.
I cut open my finger. Bled profusely. Wrapped it up hoping it would stop. Checked it a few hours later and still bleeding. Decided to sleep on it. Woke up and still bleeding when the bandage came off. Went to the ER and was told they dont treat a cut if it’s over 12hrs untreated because of possible infection that would fall on them if they were to touch it. So they gave me a bandaid. Month later got a bill for $500. For a fucken bandaid!
I have had (nearly) daily headaches and overall health issues (nerve pain, fogs, dissociative episodes, panic attacks, bowel issues, trouble sleeping) for 15 years and so far, no answer. I have been to tons of doctors and most of them seem to think I’m faking for pills. Even when I say I can’t take narcotics with my heart condition.
Went to the ER for an infection in my neck, they put me on antibiotics which in turn starting affecting my kidneys. 4 days later the bill for $84000 shows up and is quickly deposited into the trash for filling.
I used to have public health insurance, then i cancelled it in favor of my workplace insurance when i got a job. Three years later, i get a referral to see a surgeon using my private insurance and the surgeon won’t see me because the state never bothered deleting me from their system, and the surgeon only accepts private insurance. So, i call the state and allegedly have it resolved. I get another referral, this time marked urgent. The issue had not been resolved. I call the state again and actually go into the office of public health to have it resolved. Still didn’t work, when the surgeon looks up my social it shows I have public insurance. Three months had elapsed. I asked my doctor for a referral to someone who takes the public insurance, but they won’t accept me because my public insurance is inactive and i have private insurance. In the time it took me to deal with insurance issues, my workplace stopped approving my disability because “there were no new notes on my case” because i hadn’t been able to take the next step of my care plan. They fired me, thanks to my social worker from three years ago not completing their paperwork. Ironically, since i got fired for my illness I’m back on state insurance now. I moved back to my parents to for support with surgery and the state takes two months to process my change in county. It’s now been 7 months since my doctor and physical therapist told me I need to see a surgeon, and not a single surgeon has accepted my appointment.
I was in ER waiting room for hours with a massive kidney stone, writhing with pain, because multiple people were ahead of me with sprains.They finally fast tracked me when I threw up in front of them from the pain.
I have a 6 year autistic son. It originally took about 8 months to get him into see a doctor to diagnose him officially. After that it has been a constant battle between me and the insurance company to get him the hours he needs at his ABA center after school, which they don’t want to cover as it is out of network but the closest one for at least 40 miles. Had to file paperwork for an exemption due to hardship for him to be able to go to the center, that included a phone interview where they tried to convince me it would be easy for him to be driven an hour away every day after school instead of 15 minutes. Ended up saying that it is ridiculous to think any of us including my son could handle that, it would be wasting valuable time and resources and the center we wanted has a staff of amazing people. We argued for 3 months until it was finally settled and he started going there.He’s been there for just over 2 years and his progress is astounding, and I still have to fight with the insurance company who are looking for any reason to say he does not need to ABA therapy anymore. It’s completely insane and I f***g hate it, but I will always endure any s*******m for my kid. My son was able to tell me exactly what he wanted to do today using full sentences, was vocal about how he wanted to do things, made idle conversation, played with his brother, is fully potty trained, just able to sleep on his own in his own bed, and is currently working hard learning to read and write. It’s extremely hard to teach him things as he learns in a very different way than most children, but once you make the connections he keeps learning until he’s perfected everything about it.Amazing kid, I love him, but fk the American health system, it sucks and if it were not for the ineptitude of the system he would be much further along. One of the things that really saved him mentally during the whole mess with getting him diagnosed and fighting the insurance company was raising him to be bilingual because it taught him to multitask and have critical thinking skills inherited from being able to think and speak in 2 different languages.Edit: before he started to go to ABA therapy, he was going to a learning disabled district school for preschool and to a daycare. He had severe confidence issues and had learned to stop trying and would have constant meltdowns out of pure frustration from not being able to understand things but also from being almost nonverbal. Once he started his ABA therapy we started noticing vast improvements. So he started from a nonverbal screaming child not wanting to try new things to a kid who accepts new things and ideas all the time that is trying his best every day. Also, his learning day starts when he gets on the bus at 7:30 a.m. when he leaves for the district school until 7 p.m when he gets out of his ABA center along with 4 hours at the ABA center on Saturdays. Before anyone says that is too much, he is super happy every day, unlike the few times we have had to drive past his old daycare which makes him scared and panicked saying things like “I want to learn at the ABA center, please take me there, don’t go to the daycare”.
+3000 USD from urgent care to get ear wax out of my ear. No surgery. Just had a build up of ear wax that they took out of my ear. And yes I had insurance. When I called to ask the clinic why the facility and doctor billed me separate huge bills they dropped it down to about 1/2.The US healthcare system is an embarrassment to humanity showing how evil and corrupt unchecked capitalism can be. The most sickening part is how many Americans are ok with it as long as they are doing ok. The justice system and politics suffer from the same stupid, arrogant, short sighted greed. Hope the younger generation does something better. Hope they vote.
Not having it. Had to take an emergency trip to the e.r. Where they did one x ray, gave me ibuprofen and 1 Gatorade. Now I’m over six thousand dollars in debt.
Paying so much for physical therapy. You can literally look up these exercises on the internet and do them at home.
I went to a hospital because I had bronchitis and didnt have a primary care. I told them it was bronchitis (because I’ve had it before.) And just asked for a quick diagnosis and the antibiotics. They said they needed an x-ray, several swabs for flu, bloodwork, and 5 minutes of listening to me breathing.I offered to give them my insurance card, they said no need and gave me the prescriptions.2 months later I have a $5,000 bill for f*****g bronchitis and my insurance lapsed because I lost my job. I still get calls from debt collectors because they immediately sold it off, before I even got the bill.
I was 2. Literally dying because I could hardly breathe at 2 AM but the whole ER was held up because some Karen decided to take her kid to the ER at 2 AM because they had a sore throat. Their diagnosis was they cried too hard that night.
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