3 ms·

The US healthcare system is all kinds of messed up, but this sounds like FUD territory. I was hospitalized for 12 days earlier this year for what ended up bein

by Merad 4y ago

The US healthcare system is all kinds of messed up, but this sounds like FUD territory. I was hospitalized for 12 days earlier this year for what ended up being a heart issue. Not as "exciting" as a stroke perhaps but I'd have ended up very dead without modern medicine. The total bill sent to insurance was $85k and I ended up having to pay $5k.

dzhiurgis 4y ago
> ended up having to pay $5k. Still outrageous. In Spain you pay 300 euro a month and in Lithuania it’s like 50 per month. So what you paid buys years of insurance on its own.
- quantum_magpie 4y ago
  Social security is 20% of your salary in Lithuania. 50€ if you're unemployed. Although it does cover healthcare, unemployment and part of retirement pensions. Probably something more, but I don't know further details.
  - dzhiurgis 4y ago
    Do you know what is the actual spend per capita and does 50 cover it? Sounds like a good metric to go by. P.S. not a fan how the social taxes are collected since whenever you are supposed to get benefits it’s always capped at some ridiculous number…
    - 1letterunixname 4y ago
      I would bet my life that hospitals and doctors in Europe can't take everything you own while you're alive just because you require expensive cancer treatments. I wonder though if European patients are subtly not given the opportunities of expensive or experimental treatments to keep costs under control or if QALY "death panel" calculations are performed. My late grandmother was often slighted and not offered treatment by VA medical personnel because of her age. It was disgusting, overt ageism beyond whether a particular treatment was suitable or not, she was treated as a second-class citizen not worth helping.
1letterunixname 4y ago
I feel sorry that you believe your experience is worth diminishing the experiences of others. I have my mother's bills to prove it. She had a bleeder causing damage the size of a golf ball. No operation performed. A week in the ICU, 2 admitted, and 6 in admitted rehab. And I had a powered vehicle collision that cost ~$83k without any surgery. The care was so bad (waiting 4 hours for stitches) and when they wanted to admit me, I said to myself "fuck it, I want to get some real sleep at home where I won't be woken every 45 minutes just so they can pad the bill even more as an expensive hotel." I got up and walked out. Minus CT and MRI, I could've done what they did in 3 hours what took them 18. 3 broken bones (T-8, nose, and shoulder) and they kept pushing me to take opiates. The pain was tolerable because it was a high-energy impact with clean breaks. Also, around 2016, I spoke with a young lady in coffee shop in Redding CA who had a nasal infusion pump with a small tube taped to her face. She was preparing her documentation to attend a bankruptcy hearing across the street. She had stage IV terminal cancer and the doctors and hospitals were trying to take everything she owned while she was alive. 62% of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills and 78% had some form of insurance that obvious didn't help them. I suggest you might want to get out more and talk to people. The US healthcare system is a fucking racket. People with the privilege of good health insurance rarely get outside of their bubble because "they got theirs" and assume everyone else has the same opportunities and protections. That's not the reality.

by Merad 4y ago

dzhiurgis 4y ago

> ended up having to pay $5k. Still outrageous. In Spain you pay 300 euro a month and in Lithuania it’s like 50 per month. So what you paid buys years of insurance on its own.

quantum_magpie 4y ago
Social security is 20% of your salary in Lithuania. 50€ if you're unemployed. Although it does cover healthcare, unemployment and part of retirement pensions. Probably something more, but I don't know further details.
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  Do you know what is the actual spend per capita and does 50 cover it? Sounds like a good metric to go by. P.S. not a fan how the social taxes are collected since whenever you are supposed to get benefits it’s always capped at some ridiculous number…
  - 1letterunixname 4y ago
    I would bet my life that hospitals and doctors in Europe can't take everything you own while you're alive just because you require expensive cancer treatments. I wonder though if European patients are subtly not given the opportunities of expensive or experimental treatments to keep costs under control or if QALY "death panel" calculations are performed. My late grandmother was often slighted and not offered treatment by VA medical personnel because of her age. It was disgusting, overt ageism beyond whether a particular treatment was suitable or not, she was treated as a second-class citizen not worth helping.

1letterunixname 4y ago

I feel sorry that you believe your experience is worth diminishing the experiences of others. I have my mother's bills to prove it. She had a bleeder causing damage the size of a golf ball. No operation performed. A week in the ICU, 2 admitted, and 6 in admitted rehab. And I had a powered vehicle collision that cost ~$83k without any surgery. The care was so bad (waiting 4 hours for stitches) and when they wanted to admit me, I said to myself "fuck it, I want to get some real sleep at home where I won't be woken every 45 minutes just so they can pad the bill even more as an expensive hotel." I got up and walked out. Minus CT and MRI, I could've done what they did in 3 hours what took them 18. 3 broken bones (T-8, nose, and shoulder) and they kept pushing me to take opiates. The pain was tolerable because it was a high-energy impact with clean breaks. Also, around 2016, I spoke with a young lady in coffee shop in Redding CA who had a nasal infusion pump with a small tube taped to her face. She was preparing her documentation to attend a bankruptcy hearing across the street. She had stage IV terminal cancer and the doctors and hospitals were trying to take everything she owned while she was alive. 62% of all bankruptcies are due to medical bills and 78% had some form of insurance that obvious didn't help them. I suggest you might want to get out more and talk to people. The US healthcare system is a fucking racket. People with the privilege of good health insurance rarely get outside of their bubble because "they got theirs" and assume everyone else has the same opportunities and protections. That's not the reality.