4 ms·

Just to pile on about how ridiculous medical costs are: After giving birth my wife was offered Ibuprofen. On the bill we were charged $80 for the 2 pills she t

• djsumdog 7y ago
  The ACA was a blatant failure in most states. It's still not affordable and large groups of people were never insured. ACA approved plans proved to be bogus. I wrote about this once before: https://fightthefuture.org/article/returning-to-america-and-the-unaffordable-care-act/ https://fightthefuture.org/article/returning-to-america-and-...
  • vernie 7y ago
    It was a wrap for the ACA when Lieberman used all his remaining Joementum to kill the public option.
  • lotsofpulp 7y ago
    ACA plans on healthcare.gov are only too costly because employers were allowed to keep their grandfathered plans silo-ing healthy lives in low cost plans to benefit big white collar businesses. This had to be done to appease the Republicans who need to “cross the aisle” and vote for it (and Lieberman who was basically a Republican too). If everyone was forced onto healthcare.gov, there would be enough healthy lives to offset costs from sick lives to create an effective market.
• chooseaname 7y ago
  It isn't just about getting everyone insurance. It's about fixing the whole process. My Dr ordered some not too expensive tests for me. My insurance refused. I was like, wait, what? You're overriding my Dr? It's insane.
  • lotsofpulp 7y ago
    The health insurance company also has doctors working for them. Similar to how auto insurance companies will have mechanics working for them to ensure they aren’t getting ripped off on repair costs.
• sjg007 7y ago
  DME is the absolute worst. Try getting a CPAP machine anywhere near MSRP. It's a joke. We are being fleeced.
  • 0xcde4c3db 7y ago
    No kidding. In my experience even the most aboveboard DME vendors very aggressively push replacement of consumable components/supplies on the absolute minimum schedule allowed by insurance. They make a performance of confirming that you're ordering things that actually need to be replaced, but it's blatantly obvious (even to me, a person who largely sucks at reading social cues and verbal subtext) that the rep is just reading it off of a script to cover the company's ass.
• nickjj 7y ago
  Yeah it's nuts. Someone I know sprained their ankle. They recommended that he should use a cane for a while and said they had one to give him. When the bill came weeks later it was $200 for the cane that looked really close to what you can get for $20 at Walmart. The really messed up thing is I drove him to the doctor and I carried some of the paperwork out (wasn't the bill) so he could use both hands to move around safely. When I was outside I held the piece of paper up and a gust of wind bent the paper in such a way that I ended up with a really nasty paper cut. Like a 2 inch slice on the inside of my finger. One of the worst paper cuts I've ever gotten. So I went back into the medical center and I asked them if I could get a band-aid. They asked why, so I explained. I got a few smirks from them (they borderline laughed in my face) and they told me that they weren't allowed to give away medical supplies and that I should go a few blocks away to a CVS (a local drug store). Meanwhile just to be insured costs $450 / month for the bare minimum (which I don't pay for but I've payed many thousands in fines for not having insurance).
  • sizzle 7y ago
    Wow way to add insult to injury, couldn't even spare a simple band-aid...
  • crankylinuxuser 7y ago
    Yeah for spite, I would have bled all over their counter and caused a biohazard mess. If you laugh at me like that, I'm not going to be pleasant.
• bcrosby95 7y ago
  > I asked how much it cost and they said $280. I'm shocked they could give you a price. Anytime I ask for a price it takes hours of talking to multiple people spread across several days.