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How does testing and quarantine work for people in the US who are not insured? I am seeing stories around the web of people having to pay 2-3.000 USD for a tes

by chvid 7y ago

How does testing and quarantine work for people in the US who are not insured? I am seeing stories around the web of people having to pay 2-3.000 USD for a test and also facing major bills for hospital quarantine?

totalZero 7y ago
If you make a working-class wage in the USA and you don't have health insurance, it's pretty unlikely you'll check in to a hospital for any reason that doesn't scare the hell out of you. In addition to being expensive, medical costs in the USA vary wildly between different hospitals, cannot be predicted based on symptoms alone, and are essentially not discoverable during an emergency. Even if you have insurance, some parts of the medical attention you receive will be covered but others may not. For example, you may have a procedure that is covered by your insurance company, but the diagnostics needed to address an urgent complication of that procedure may not be covered. More specifically to the present viral outbreak...imagine paying $3k for a test just to find out that the result is negative. That happened to this guy in Florida: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article240476806.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article24047680...
- chvid 7y ago
  Given that. I don't understand how the US can fight a viral epidemic. You have the best medical services in the world; but if a significant part of the population is not going to use that because of the threat of financial ruin, then you are never going to get on top of an epidemic.
  - NicoJuicy 7y ago
    The best medical service is also an affordable one. That aside, I see a lot of health operation shopping to Leuven ( Belgium), but I have never met someone doing a surgery at the US because "they are the best", so I don't agree with your standpoint.
  - thephyber 7y ago
    We don’t have the best medical in the world. That’s just marketing. A doctor in the US can prescribe an expensive medication or a generic, but they are completely unable to inform you of the price difference. And their employer is contractually prevented from posting the prices that an insured patient would pay. American patients probably suffer as much from dealing with errors in hospital bills, debt collections, insurance companies denying claims, etc as they do from disease. And our health care system is entirely fee-for-service rather than optimized for outcomes. Doctors may be idealistic, but I don’t see how they can do more good than harm in our current parasitic industry.
    - viklove 7y ago
      Depends on how you grade "best medical in the world." If it's how many people are covered and how easy it is to access healthcare, it's pretty low. If it's access the specialists and quality care, regardless of cost, it's top of the world easily. Problem is that only makes a difference for rich people.
  - tim333 7y ago
    With a sane government they might agree to pick up the COVID costs as I think is mostly happening in the rest of the world. Though with the current lot I worry it'll be a mess.
- thephyber 7y ago
  With any luck, this pandemic will reveal to US companies, voters, and state+federal legislators how perverted the current incentives are and make some of the incumbents think a little more about their mortality and what health system they leave behind more than who will primary them from the outside next cycle.
fspeech 7y ago
I agree that our health care system is a mess in terms of incentives. The most vulnerable group (65+) is covered nearly universally. So the main issue will be to control the spreading and prevent overloading of the medical system. From that perspective while the younger people are not as vulnerable there is no way to stop the spreading unless they seek help at the earliest time. And they will be vastly cheaper to treat than someone on ventilator for weeks. So even from an economic point of view, making all transmissible respiratory diseases free to diagnose and treat has a very high ROI.

by chvid 7y ago

totalZero 7y ago

If you make a working-class wage in the USA and you don't have health insurance, it's pretty unlikely you'll check in to a hospital for any reason that doesn't scare the hell out of you. In addition to being expensive, medical costs in the USA vary wildly between different hospitals, cannot be predicted based on symptoms alone, and are essentially not discoverable during an emergency. Even if you have insurance, some parts of the medical attention you receive will be covered but others may not. For example, you may have a procedure that is covered by your insurance company, but the diagnostics needed to address an urgent complication of that procedure may not be covered. More specifically to the present viral outbreak...imagine paying $3k for a test just to find out that the result is negative. That happened to this guy in Florida: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article240476806.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article24047680...

chvid 7y ago
Given that. I don't understand how the US can fight a viral epidemic. You have the best medical services in the world; but if a significant part of the population is not going to use that because of the threat of financial ruin, then you are never going to get on top of an epidemic.
- NicoJuicy 7y ago
  The best medical service is also an affordable one. That aside, I see a lot of health operation shopping to Leuven ( Belgium), but I have never met someone doing a surgery at the US because "they are the best", so I don't agree with your standpoint.
- thephyber 7y ago
  We don’t have the best medical in the world. That’s just marketing. A doctor in the US can prescribe an expensive medication or a generic, but they are completely unable to inform you of the price difference. And their employer is contractually prevented from posting the prices that an insured patient would pay. American patients probably suffer as much from dealing with errors in hospital bills, debt collections, insurance companies denying claims, etc as they do from disease. And our health care system is entirely fee-for-service rather than optimized for outcomes. Doctors may be idealistic, but I don’t see how they can do more good than harm in our current parasitic industry.
  - viklove 7y ago
    Depends on how you grade "best medical in the world." If it's how many people are covered and how easy it is to access healthcare, it's pretty low. If it's access the specialists and quality care, regardless of cost, it's top of the world easily. Problem is that only makes a difference for rich people.
- tim333 7y ago
  With a sane government they might agree to pick up the COVID costs as I think is mostly happening in the rest of the world. Though with the current lot I worry it'll be a mess.
thephyber 7y ago
With any luck, this pandemic will reveal to US companies, voters, and state+federal legislators how perverted the current incentives are and make some of the incumbents think a little more about their mortality and what health system they leave behind more than who will primary them from the outside next cycle.

fspeech 7y ago

I agree that our health care system is a mess in terms of incentives. The most vulnerable group (65+) is covered nearly universally. So the main issue will be to control the spreading and prevent overloading of the medical system. From that perspective while the younger people are not as vulnerable there is no way to stop the spreading unless they seek help at the earliest time. And they will be vastly cheaper to treat than someone on ventilator for weeks. So even from an economic point of view, making all transmissible respiratory diseases free to diagnose and treat has a very high ROI.