Current Events > Is it possible to come up with a worse healthcare system than the one in place?

(+) Yeah! (+)

For the USA of course.

Just brainstorming here. Give me your best ideas.

Yes one that doesn't exist

Yeah, one where they beat your ass when you're sick or injured would be worse I think.

Irony posted...

Yes one that doesn't exist

So the American healthcare system is only better than a non-existent one? Is it really that bad?

Geiki_Ganger posted...

So the American healthcare system is only better than a non-existent one? Is it really that bad?

No I mean it's better than not having one at all

That's not a good thing btw

Try being in Canada. It sounds great in theory, but because most places are short doctors wait times are ridiculously long. I have a cousin who now lives in the states who wouldn't have it any other way than the way they do it down there. As long as he has the money to get seen, he can go in and within a week he can have all the tests he wants done.

I shit you not, I literally waited 6 months to get seen for a simple test up here. I've had relatives with serious heart problems have to wait longer than a full year to get seen.

Obviously it shouldn't cost as much as it does in the States, but they are much faster at seeing patients from what I know.

Ivany2008 posted...

Try being in Canada. It sounds great in theory, but because most places are short doctors wait times are ridiculously long. I have a cousin who now lives in the states who wouldn't have it any other way than the way they do it down there. As long as he has the money to get seen, he can go in and within a week he can have all the tests he wants done.

I shit you not, I literally waited 6 months to get seen for a simple test up here. I've had relatives with serious heart problems have to wait longer than a full year to get seen.

Obviously it shouldn't cost as much as it does in the States, but they are much faster at seeing patients from what I know.

Yikes, that does sound pretty bad. Guess the USA doesn't have the worst healthcare system for a developed country.

Geiki_Ganger posted...

Yikes, that does sound pretty bad. Guess the USA doesn't have the worst healthcare system for a developed country.

don't get me wrong. We have very low costs when it comes to health care, but if your someone with a serious issue, unless you get lucky, you can get much worse. I still think the States have it worse as it can literally bankrupt someone.

Healthcare wont bankrupt you as long as you have decent health insurance, I literally pay $3k max OOP and my insurance would cover the rest.

bruh it was fucking hella worse before obamacare. back then you just didnt get free health insurance if your job didnt give it to you.

make no mistake, it's twice as good as it was then...

...still got a ways to go tho!

Add a bunch of RNG to it. Like two people with the same insurance go to the same doctor at the same office. One rolls an in-network and the other rolls an out-of-network.

Irony posted...

Yes one that doesn't exist

I'm sure this sounded smart in your head.

Ivany2008 posted...

Try being in Canada. It sounds great in theory, but because most places are short doctors wait times are ridiculously long. I have a cousin who now lives in the states who wouldn't have it any other way than the way they do it down there. As long as he has the money to get seen, he can go in and within a week he can have all the tests he wants done.

I shit you not, I literally waited 6 months to get seen for a simple test up here. I've had relatives with serious heart problems have to wait longer than a full year to get seen.

Obviously it shouldn't cost as much as it does in the States, but they are much faster at seeing patients from what I know.

Tragedy of the commons, man.

Here's my attempt: outlaw all medicine and surgical procedures. Survival of the fittest only.

I drop fucking dead within the week lol.

All of the doctors are quacks who peddle snake oil miracle cures, charge exorbitant prices, and perform surgery without any sort of anesthetic or hygenic practices.

Actual medicine is outlawed, only faith healers are allowed.

Ivany2008 posted...

Try being in Canada. It sounds great in theory, but because most places are short doctors wait times are ridiculously long. I have a cousin who now lives in the states who wouldn't have it any other way than the way they do it down there. As long as he has the money to get seen, he can go in and within a week he can have all the tests he wants done.

I shit you not, I literally waited 6 months to get seen for a simple test up here. I've had relatives with serious heart problems have to wait longer than a full year to get seen.

Obviously it shouldn't cost as much as it does in the States, but they are much faster at seeing patients from what I know.

Okay, but many millions of people don't have that money and can't just wait 6 months to get in; they're not getting in period, or they're going into massive debt instead.

Irony posted...

Yes one that doesn't exist

wrong.

It would be you are legally obligated to pay monthly %70 of your take home pay but it never covers anything.

insurance agents reading this post are salivating

Ivany2008 posted...

Try being in Canada. It sounds great in theory, but because most places are short doctors wait times are ridiculously long. I have a cousin who now lives in the states who wouldn't have it any other way than the way they do it down there. As long as he has the money to get seen, he can go in and within a week he can have all the tests he wants done.

I shit you not, I literally waited 6 months to get seen for a simple test up here. I've had relatives with serious heart problems have to wait longer than a full year to get seen.

Obviously it shouldn't cost as much as it does in the States, but they are much faster at seeing patients from what I know.

so just be rich?

got it

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Holy s***, if the healthcare system was that bad, why the hell were there people opposing Obamacare?

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


many in America don't want to help their fellow man and they see these people as freeloaders and they see Obamacare as the government taking their money to give it to someone they dislike

Geiki_Ganger posted...

Holy s***, if the healthcare system was that bad, why the hell were there people opposing Obamacare?

The biggest issue was the restrictions on preexisting conditions, which were there to prevent people who didnt pay into the system from only jumping on when there was a problem. It protected the insurance profits, but also done out of a sense of fairness and pricing for existing clients. The issue with this restriction is if you had something you didnt know about if you applied down the road in life, no matter how life threatening or severe you would be denied coverage for it since policies were not retroactive. You could only be treated for future ailments unrelated to your preexisting condition.

Holistic based healthcare.

I have like the most premium plan Blue Cross offers. It'd be 1k a month without my job.

So far:

Got scabies from a nice hotel while traveling. Insurance wouldn't cover any of the $70 bottles of cream the doc prescribed. (It's $60 to see a doc)

Doc recommended I get tested for a gene that runs in my fam. Insurance wouldn't cover so I paid 2k out of pocket. (thankfully neg)

Broke my foot. My insurance will not cover treatment for broken bones so I just have a broken foot the rest of my life.

So far the only thing insurance has covered in my life is antibiotics I could've just paid $4 out of pocket for.

America! We love our private health insurance <3

foreverzero212 posted...

I have like the most premium plan Blue Cross offers. It'd be 1k a month without my job.

So far:

Got scabies from a nice hotel while traveling. Insurance wouldn't cover any of the $70 bottles of cream the doc prescribed. (It's $60 to see a doc)

Doc recommended I get tested for a gene that runs in my fam. Insurance wouldn't cover so I paid 2k out of pocket. (thankfully neg)

Broke my foot. My insurance will not cover treatment for broken bones so I just have a broken foot the rest of my life.

So far the only thing insurance has covered in my life is antibiotics I could've just paid $4 out of pocket for.

America! We love our private health insurance <3

are you sure this the most premium plan?

hard to believe such doesn't cover broken bones

WingsOfGood posted...

are you sure this the most premium plan?

hard to believe such doesn't cover broken bones

Yes, it's Blue Cross highest tier. There's a lot of weaselly games insurance plays. Because the bones I broke are small and require bone stim devices to heal instead of a traditional cast insurance won't cover it unless I can get a million xrays over the course of 2 years proving they aren't healing on their own. And even then it's still a maybe to cover it.

I've learned to just live with it. I can't run or walk long distances, but I get around just well enough to work ok most days.

It's a damned nightmare.

My story is that I once sliced my thumb really bad at work while cleaning up a broken bottle of olive oil I was really stressed that night and didn't think things through: put down the flour *before* getting the glass. I had to go to the ER, and they wanted me to go to one several towns over. Given that I was bleeding profusely even an hour later and beginning to feel light-headed, I didn't think getting on I-95 at night was a great idea, so I opted instead to go to the one nearby. Worker's comp covered it too, I was assured. I waited around for hours, before finally seeing a doctor who looked at my thumb, applied liquid stitches, wrapped it, and left. Took all of fives minutes. The hospital bill for this was like $800 LOL, but that was worker comps' problem....or so I thought.

You see, the doctor was out-of-network, and billed me seperately for the same sum, and workers' comp and my insurance both decided that was my problem, so that's how I wound up having to pay about $800+ out-of-pocket. About $1,700 total for a five minute "procedure" involving materials that cost $20 tops. Long story short, I'm driving to St. Rae's next time, no matter how light-headed I feel.

This was a few years ago. I remember reading about a woman who found a lump in her breast while working on a movie being filmed in Iceland. She was seen and the lump was determined benign in less than the time it took me to get my basic ass wound care, and it cost her about $50 out-of-pocket because she wasn't a citizen.

I will say, I one major benefit of joining the military is that my family and I have had better medical benefits than we ever did in the private sector.

Aside from the ER, I have to use military hospital care, so I'm more beholden to wait times than they are, but my wife and kids are covered under Tricare Select, so they have more freedom to choose their own doctors, but the out of pocket payments for treatment and medication are much more manageable than private insurance was.

i will say that you probably DONT need a cast for a broken foot. lots of people break their feet tbqh.

If you are 100% set on healing it, just use crutches 100% of the time for a few months. A walking cast isn't going to help a foot.

all the other shit you mentioned is bullshit, but i think the foot thing is pretty normal. ive know a lot of ppl with broken feet and i had a broken foot in 2008 that i never even tried to see a doctor about cause i knew they dont do anything for a broken foot if you can walk across the room and not cry.

This dude obviously is a Insurance company CEO. Don't give him any ideas.

I'm an Australian in hospital right now with a lung infection. I've been in er and now 4 days in my own room with shower TV etc. My bill on release will be 0 dollars.

WingsOfGood posted...

are you sure this the most premium plan?

hard to believe such doesn't cover broken bones

This. Im also under BC, but not even the best plan. They cover stuff like my two anti-epileptic medications, doctor, optometrist, ophthalmologist, neurologist, dentist, and pulmonologist visits, and a vast majority of the cost of my three hospital stays when I had pneumothorax surgery.

Ivany2008 posted...

Try being in Canada. It sounds great in theory, but because most places are short doctors wait times are ridiculously long. I have a cousin who now lives in the states who wouldn't have it any other way than the way they do it down there. As long as he has the money to get seen, he can go in and within a week he can have all the tests he wants done.

I shit you not, I literally waited 6 months to get seen for a simple test up here. I've had relatives with serious heart problems have to wait longer than a full year to get seen.

Obviously it shouldn't cost as much as it does in the States, but they are much faster at seeing patients from what I know.

thats because conservatives are gutting the public system so they can swoop in and privatize healthcare so its like the US

Robot2600 posted...

i will say that you probably DONT need a cast for a broken foot. lots of people break their feet tbqh.

If you are 100% set on healing it, just use crutches 100% of the time for a few months. A walking cast isn't going to help a foot.

all the other shit you mentioned is bullshit, but i think the foot thing is pretty normal. ive know a lot of ppl with broken feet and i had a broken foot in 2008 that i never even tried to see a doctor about cause i knew they dont do anything for a broken foot if you can walk across the room and not cry.

I strictly used crutches for a few months (sometimes they're still necessary) a walking boot for a few months, it's been 4 years now and still hasn't healed. Podiatrist said these specific bones need a stim machine or sometimes surgery. Especially if they haven't healed by now. I might have the surgery in Mexico if I ever feel like running again.

Affordable Healthcare Act helped some...but it should be a right, not a privilege ( -_-)

The system is complete trash, but at least pre-existing conditions isn't a thing anymore. I guess add that back in if you want an even worse system.

I don't think so.

Healthcare should either be market driven, or when the time comes universal.

We have this in between crap so insurance companies make billions and the markets are all outta whack. Have you seen how much a Covid 19 test is at the hospital is lately? But the vaccine is basically free? I mean what the fuck