• Dohnuthut@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    This has been a fun ride for us, husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer end of last year. Met the max oop for our plan very quickly and have everything on the minimum payment plan. Things reset in July and we returned from vacation (needed our son to have some normalcy) to a $1300 bill for his first chemo treatment in the new cycle. We asked if the oncology office will work with us so we’ll see what comes of that. It’s exhausting and I don’t know how people without insurance survive (although the current system is an absolute joke).

  • SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one
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    12 hours ago

    Every time, I think of The Incredibles. So depressingly real.

    "Are you saying we shouldn’t be helping our customers?

    “The law requires that I answer ‘no’.”

  • InvalidName2@lemmy.zip
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    16 hours ago

    The ambulance ride is $2,500 USD. It’s out of network, so you owe 100% on that, we don’t pay for it. No, you don’t get to choose which ambulance service comes to pick you up, you get what you get and you have to pay if it’s not in network. Oh, great news! Your emergency room is fully covered! But you haven’t met your maximum out of pocket, and you still have your co-insurance and deductible, so another $2,500 USD, please. So, uh, the doctor in the emergency room that you never even saw, he’s also out of network, so that’s an additional $900. And the ibuprofen they gave you, that’s $45 because we only cover 90 day prescriptions and those have to be pre-authorized. On the bright side, your share of the imaging is only only $1,800 USD. Pinky swear, we actually paid out $7,200 USD on that one.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      11 hours ago

      When I got in an accident and was on the ground with a broken bone, the EMT asked if I had a preference about which hospital to go to. Like I was going to check out reviews with one working arm, from the pavement.

      The US is a dystopia

      • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Some people will already have a preference and not need to look up anything. I would have if the accident happened near where I live. Imo it’s not a bad question at all.

          • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
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            25 minutes ago

            ? Where did I say it was about cost? I don’t live in the usa. The 3 hospitals that I could potentially pick from are public hospitals and their cost for the same procedures would be exactly the same, since they have to stick to a government price list. But between those 3, I still have a preference.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Meanwhile, in our third-world country, the doctor recently ordered my mother to redo all her previous medical exams from last year, including an MRI, a Holter monitor, blood work, urine, an EKG, and everything else for free. Even her heart medication is free. The quality of care is top-notch, and the doctor is very attentive. We only pay with our time spent waiting in line for the appointment that was booked months in advance, because some things are honestly a mess. It sure as hell beats whatever is going on over there.

      This is not to shame nor brag, but to hopefully show that these things are possible, affordable by the government despite what Republicunts say, and are worth fighting for.

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        In a sane world we would have affordable Healthcare. But we have fox News here, so we don’t. Literally fox News is responsible for 90% of our problems bcz some stupid high percentage of republicans only get their news from Fox, and they’ve demonized any kind of socialized medicine.

          • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            Actually no. Disney bought 21st Century Fox but without Fox News, Fox Sport and a few others. Those were spun off into the Fox Corporation (owned by Murdoch) or sold off to Sinclair and Comcast.

            Fox News ended up in the Fox Corporation.

        • burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 hours ago

          I was subjected to that shit today, and you know what they were ‘losing their minds’ (knowing it’s all fake outrage) over? Joe biden getting “too much ice cream.”

          I fucking kid you not.

        • Smeagol666@crazypeople.online
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          11 hours ago

          Fox News are scumbags, no doubt, but most republicans are for med for all. Our scumbag politicians on both sides of the aisle are the ones who are fucking us over.

  • rickdg@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    It’s a mystery how the US belongs to a select group of contries with homongous GDP but lower life expectancy.

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      11 hours ago

      Inequality is like some of the worst developing world countries

      https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/aug/05/progress-by-samuel-miller-mcdonald-review-humanitys-greatest-myth

      Inequality is soaring, with the 1% scooping up ever-larger shares of global wealth. These days, the US has a Gini coefficient – the most common international measurement of inequality – on a par with slave-owning Ancient Rome. Maternal mortality rates for American millennials are three times higher than those of their parents’ generation

      • haloduder@thelemmy.club
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        11 minutes ago

        It’s always acceptable to kill a rich person.

        They only got rich by killing and exploiting poor people.

        Unless they renounce their wealth and give most of it away, kill them.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      14 hours ago

      Why is the US dollar always worth less than the pound and the euro, if it’s this great functioning economy? I’ve never been able to work that one out.

      • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Because the actual number doesn’t matter, only the change trajectory.

        Put it differently: A water melon costs more than a dollar. Still, a water melon doesn’t have a great functioning economy.

      • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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        11 hours ago

        Because the actual amount of money is somewhat arbitrary.

        Like how if it is 77°F in the US it is the same temperature as it being 25°C in France.

    • haloduder@thelemmy.club
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      7 minutes ago

      Useful idiots have been convinced that the pill wouldn’t even exist unless these scumbags could maximize profit off of it in this manner.

      It’s why most dumbasses think copyright and patent laws are beneficial for them, not their rulers.

      Hey, news flash idiots. If copyright and patents laws benefited the working class, we’d see the ruling class fighting tooth and nail to remove them. Instead, they fight tooth and nail to protect them.

      I don’t expect most people reading this to agree with me, and it’s another reason why I think most people are useful idiots. If you’re stupid enough to believe that life saving drugs wouldn’t get made if someone couldn’t own the patent for it, then you are a moron going to bat for their oppressors.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      it’s literally meth with speed and can be bought for $10 at any corner in the “bad part of town”.

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      This is fantastic and I need to learn more. I would love to be a part of something like this. I always think about medicine, specifically to fight infection, in a world that you can’t just go get it at a pharmacy.

      Thanks for sharing this, I hadn’t heard of it.

  • someguy3@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I really wonder exactly how many office towers are there full of people whose sole job is to deny healthcare claims. Think about if we paid those people to do something actually productive instead. This is the waste of for profit healthcare.

    • haloduder@thelemmy.club
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      5 minutes ago

      Everything is so expensive so the people exploiting us can make more money.

      Anyone telling you it’s so the business can stay in business is a useful idiot.

    • AndiHutch@lemmy.zip
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      15 hours ago

      I saw a map on here how healthcare industry is like the the biggest employer in like 40 of the 50 states or something insane like that.

      • burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de
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        11 hours ago

        Healthcare, but not health insurance.

        Anyway, if I had my druthers, I’d get together with a cabal of like-minded doctors, vote ourselves onto the state board, and revoke the license of any doctor working for health insurers. If the courts/cops had any balls, they’d then say any person or persons (and if it’s a computer, then the entire c-suite) rejecting claims are practicing medicine without a license and put them all in jail.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      At this point those departments are now a bunch of AI and algorithms. That way no pesky emotions or ethics get in the way.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Post conventional anti theft view: he should steal the drug and publish its formula for the others who need it

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        14 hours ago

        If I had the money and the means I would probably smuggle insulin into the United States from countries where it’s reasonably priced, mostly just for the entertainment value.