U.S. Politics

[Badger]

You won't believe what happened to the price of healthcare between 2009 and 2013!

2011 will shock you!

[Pope]

Rant incoming:

I love our health care system. I work for a small business so I have to buy my coverage through Obamacare. Granted, it's not great, but I pay about $300 a month for myself as a healthy male in my late 20s.

I went to an in-coverage Gastroenterologist to figure out some internal issues. Paid my $75 copay. Had a 5 minute chat with the doctor after filling out paperwork for 30 min and getting my height/weight measured. He says I should get an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

Eh, fair enough, they tell me they will call my insurance to arrange finances. Insurance calls back and says they will cover exactly $0 and that I will have to pay out of pocket until I hit my $3,000 deductible, at which point I pay 50/50. I tell them freak that, I'll do without the procedures. I'm not going to spend potentially north of $5k out of pocket to MAYBE find something wrong.

Get a new bill in the mail for $300 for the doctor's consultation. The total was $500, insurance decided they can cover $200. I called to appeal because I literally sat there for 5 minutes with the doctor and answered a few questions. This before the insurance company said they cannot cover a penny of the in-network procedures. Who the freak knows what the result of that will be, and to put a nice cherry on top, my appeals call was cut short due to a freaking emergency fire drill at the insurance building.

All in all I've spent about $400 to find out nothing except to waste my own time.

I love our health care. Best in the world.

[Miamipuck]

Rant incoming:

I love our health care system. I work for a small business so I have to buy my coverage through Obamacare. Granted, it's not great, but I pay about $300 a month for myself as a healthy male in my late 20s.

I went to an in-coverage Gastroenterologist to figure out some internal issues. Paid my $75 copay. Had a 5 minute chat with the doctor after filling out paperwork for 30 min and getting my height/weight measured. He says I should get an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

Eh, fair enough, they tell me they will call my insurance to arrange finances. Insurance calls back and says they will cover exactly $0 and that I will have to pay out of pocket until I hit my $3,000 deductible, at which point I pay 50/50. I tell them freak that, I'll do without the procedures. I'm not going to spend potentially north of $5k out of pocket to MAYBE find something wrong.

Get a new bill in the mail for $300 for the doctor's consultation. The total was $500, insurance decided they can cover $200. I called to appeal because I literally sat there for 5 minutes with the doctor and answered a few questions. This before the insurance company said they cannot cover a penny of the in-network procedures. Who the freak knows what the result of that will be, and to put a nice cherry on top, my appeals call was cut short due to a freaking emergency fire drill at the insurance building.

All in all I've spent about $400 to find out nothing except to waste my own time.

I love our health care. Best in the world.

Pay Bojanglesman 50 bucks at the tailgate and he will do a colonoscopy for you. It will save you thousands.

[Johnny English]

By way of comparison, my 63 year old Mum was having some trouble eating at Christmas time. She went to her GP, who referred her to a specialist. Took a couple of weeks to get that appointment. Mid Jan, the specialist tells her that he thinks she has a tumour, but he wants to do a laporoscopic inspection. Another two weeks. Late Jan, she has the check and a couple of weeks after that, after several specialists conferred, they told her that she had a large cancerous tumour at the junction of her oesophagus and stomach and they were going to have to treat her pretty aggressively.

Within a month she had met with an oncologist and started a three month course of chemotherapy. At the end of the chemo she had another laporoscopic inspection, and was scheduled for operation in early June. On June 9th she was opened up by one of Europe's leading gastro surgeons (I'm sure there's a proper term for that but I don't know what it is) who removed her entire stomach, and attached her small intestine directly to her oesophagus. Two days in Critical Care with a dedicated nurse sitting at the end of the bad at all times monitoring the various machines, then a week on the recovery ward. Yesterday she had a follow up appointment with the surgeon who said that they had done extensive tissue tests, the surgery couldn't have gone any better and they believe that she is completely cancer free.

Total bill: $0. And we're constantly told that the downside of that system is the extensive waiting time and poor quality of care, but I can tell you that at no point have either of those things been even remotely in evidence.

[Badger]

Rant incoming:

I love our health care system. I work for a small business so I have to buy my coverage through Obamacare. Granted, it's not great, but I pay about $300 a month for myself as a healthy male in my late 20s.

I went to an in-coverage Gastroenterologist to figure out some internal issues. Paid my $75 copay. Had a 5 minute chat with the doctor after filling out paperwork for 30 min and getting my height/weight measured. He says I should get an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

Eh, fair enough, they tell me they will call my insurance to arrange finances. Insurance calls back and says they will cover exactly $0 and that I will have to pay out of pocket until I hit my $3,000 deductible, at which point I pay 50/50. I tell them freak that, I'll do without the procedures. I'm not going to spend potentially north of $5k out of pocket to MAYBE find something wrong.

Get a new bill in the mail for $300 for the doctor's consultation. The total was $500, insurance decided they can cover $200. I called to appeal because I literally sat there for 5 minutes with the doctor and answered a few questions. This before the insurance company said they cannot cover a penny of the in-network procedures. Who the freak knows what the result of that will be, and to put a nice cherry on top, my appeals call was cut short due to a freaking emergency fire drill at the insurance building.

All in all I've spent about $400 to find out nothing except to waste my own time.

I love our health care. Best in the world.

Now consider that as a single young man you have it easier than pretty much every other demo when it comes to health care expenses.

[Pope]

Now consider that as a single young man you have it easier than pretty much every other demo when it comes to health care expenses.

Exactly.. I couldn't imagine if I had a pregnant spouse or terminal condition

[Jumbo]

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-gov-brown-signs-six-gun-control-bills-1467394282-htmlstory.html

[ukilledkenny]

Yeah, as a fellow healthy young man I never realized how fucked all this excrement was until dealing with pregnancy stuff. You just do whatever they say because you want mom and baby to be taken care of and just hope the bill isn't out of control. We had a preterm labor scare that was a few days hospital stay, the birth, and then our daughter got RSV which is basically just a cold but at two weeks old is a major deal. 3 hospital stays all came with a decent bill and she's actually got very good insurance compared to most people.

Whole thing is fucked because Americans would rather do this excrement than pay a slightly higher tax rate. Everyone will need quality healthcare at some point in their life and not needing to worry about a bill makes it so much easier to focus on doing the right thing medically instead of counting pennies.

[bojanglesman]

Yeah, as a fellow healthy young man I never realized how fucked all this excrement was until dealing with pregnancy stuff. You just do whatever they say because you want mom and baby to be taken care of and just hope the bill isn't out of control. We had a preterm labor scare that was a few days hospital stay, the birth, and then our daughter got RSV which is basically just a cold but at two weeks old is a major deal. 3 hospital stays all came with a decent bill and she's actually got very good insurance compared to most people.

Whole thing is fucked because Americans would rather do this excrement than pay a slightly higher tax rate. Everyone will need quality healthcare at some point in their life and not needing to worry about a bill makes it so much easier to focus on doing the right thing medically instead of counting pennies.

There are arguments both ways.  Who knows what is the best.  The argument supporting what is done in the US is that, regardless of the cost, you can get done what needs to be done quickly.  Like you said, people seem to like the idea that they can get "fixed" quickly and deal with the fallout financially later.  Who knows if that is true anymore and costs (what is paid by insurance and the patient) are ridiculous.  That being said, I have no idea how universal healthcare would look in the US.  The concern most have is that you would potentially have to wait forever to have treatments/diagnostics done because you have less control over the situation.  Again, I have no experience with universal health care, so who knows.  Plus, many would argue that putting our government 100% in charge of anything is a terrible idea.  Many Americans imagine massively crowded doctor's offices, ERs, and hospitals with huge lines and no hope of being seen within 6 months for any condition from diarrhea all the way to cancer.  I know that is stupid, but it's what 'muricans think. 

Bottom line, as shitty as our current system is and how badly it needs to be fixed, I still don't know for sure that universal health care as administered by a US government would be better.  Full disclosure, I have insurance through my wife's employer (state of Virginia, because my employer's plan is really expensive) and it is outstanding.  Never once had to get anything approved first.  Virtually no limitation on who I can see.  Rates are low because the state pays a huge chunk of it as an employee benefit.  I am fully aware that this is not the norm and I thank my lucky stars. 

[bojanglesman]

Honest question for you Canadians, British, etc.  In places where there is universal health care, is there a thriving business for doctors on retainer that you can pay out of pocket and be seen on demand outside of the healthcare system?  I assume there are no regulations against something like this.  Are there also hospitals where you can pay full price outside of the healthcare system for the ability to be seen ASAP and control your medical decisions?  I would figure rich people would be willing to pay for something like this to insure they can be seen ASAP for any fart, sniffle, tumor and STD they might acquire along the way.  Can you imagine Donald Trump waiting in a public ER to be treated for strep throat?

[dcm1602]

Rant incoming:

I love our health care system. I work for a small business so I have to buy my coverage through Obamacare. Granted, it's not great, but I pay about $300 a month for myself as a healthy male in my late 20s.

I went to an in-coverage Gastroenterologist to figure out some internal issues. Paid my $75 copay. Had a 5 minute chat with the doctor after filling out paperwork for 30 min and getting my height/weight measured. He says I should get an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

Eh, fair enough, they tell me they will call my insurance to arrange finances. Insurance calls back and says they will cover exactly $0 and that I will have to pay out of pocket until I hit my $3,000 deductible, at which point I pay 50/50. I tell them freak that, I'll do without the procedures. I'm not going to spend potentially north of $5k out of pocket to MAYBE find something wrong.

Get a new bill in the mail for $300 for the doctor's consultation. The total was $500, insurance decided they can cover $200. I called to appeal because I literally sat there for 5 minutes with the doctor and answered a few questions. This before the insurance company said they cannot cover a penny of the in-network procedures. Who the freak knows what the result of that will be, and to put a nice cherry on top, my appeals call was cut short due to a freaking emergency fire drill at the insurance building.

All in all I've spent about $400 to find out nothing except to waste my own time.

I love our health care. Best in the world.

Obamacare really is complete excrement. I'm not sure what the purpose was, to say that they "gave"  everyone healthcare?

So many of the Obamacare plans are basically high deductible plans. You get a somewhat reasonable monthly payment,  then have like a 3-6k annual deductible you need to hit first before the insurance even kicks in.

To make matters worse it sounds like the care you're seeking could possibly even  be preventative in nature.

That said I guess high deductible plans make sense for young healthy people since they tend to generally not need them.

But at the same time why even have health insurance if it won't kick in until you spent North of 7,000$.

For all intents and purposes most of these Obamacare plans are basically akin to catastrophic insurance plans

[Johnny English]

Honest question for you Canadians, British, etc.  In places where there is universal health care, is there a thriving business for doctors on retainer that you can pay out of pocket and be seen on demand outside of the healthcare system?

In Canada this isn't allowed. GPs are all self employed but you can't contract directly with them, they are paid by the local healthcare provider. (At least that's the case in Ontario, it's possible other provinces have different rules but I don't think so.) In the UK it is possible but it's extremely expensive.

I assume there are no regulations against something like this.  Are there also hospitals where you can pay full price outside of the healthcare system for the ability to be seen ASAP and control your medical decisions? I would figure rich people would be willing to pay for something like this to insure they can be seen ASAP for any fart, sniffle, tumor and STD they might acquire along the way.  Can you imagine Donald Trump waiting in a public ER to be treated for strep throat?

You can go the private route for elective surgeries such as cosmetic procedures, but there is no option in Canada for purchasing private healthcare. The UK has a private option but again it's phenomenally expensive. Why would you go to an ER for strep throat though? ER is for emergencies. I know that Americans have this terror that a public healthcare system would mean that it would immediately be engulfed by millions of undocumented immigrants demanding their free breast augmentations, but the reality is that providing healthcare free at the point of access means that people take preventative measures and end up costing the system far less than if they wait until bits are falling off before they see a professional.

[ukilledkenny]

The example is right in this thread. Pope would have gotten some preventative care if it wasn't going to cost him thousands of dollars. Instead he is just going to do what I would do in that situation and just hope it wasn't anything to begin with. If it does turn out to be something real he is going to be worse off financialy and medically.

[dcm1602]

In Canada this isn't allowed. GPs are all self employed but you can't contract directly with them, they are paid by the local healthcare provider. (At least that's the case in Ontario, it's possible other provinces have different rules but I don't think so.) In the UK it is possible but it's extremely expensive.

You can go the private route for elective surgeries such as cosmetic procedures, but there is no option in Canada for purchasing private healthcare. The UK has a private option but again it's phenomenally expensive. Why would you go to an ER for strep throat though? ER is for emergencies. I know that Americans have this terror that a public healthcare system would mean that it would immediately be engulfed by millions of undocumented immigrants demanding their free breast augmentations, but the reality is that providing healthcare free at the point of access means that people take preventative measures and end up costing the system far less than if they wait until bits are falling off before they see a professional.

I do think a compromise would be very possible if both parties weren't so freaking stubborn.

Combine immigration and healthcare reform all into one package. Reducing entitlement spending, illegal immigration, increased tax revenue  (from less illegals working off the books) and you could pay for a chunk of healthcare with the savings. Legalize Marijuana and tax the freak out of it incorporated into that bill and we really could have a much better system for comparable cost

Pure universal health care probably won't happen but I think some kind of hybrid approach (like Obama care)  But better is feasible

[Fenwyr]

And/or cut defense spending by 20%.