Alex HallAll my life, I had Medicare. Basically, free healthcare. This was a combination of my blindness, my family, and my lack of high enough income. Then, during the pandemic, they extended Medicare coverage. This year, they finally took me off it. I'm now part of the group that gets to weigh the expense of ambulances, ER visits, and optional surgeries against how much they'll cost. Oh, and no dental coverage at all on my new plan. My deductable? $5000. Thanks America.
Worse, though, is that this is the norm. Just today, I saw a post on here talking about fundraising for a children's hospital trying to cure childhood cancer. Think about that: caring for and trying to cure cancer in children is something we have to fundraise for. How is that not paid for by the government? Government can't pay for everything, but childhood cancer? They can't spare the money to make sure that's covered?
@alexhall Oof. I work full-time, never had Medicare, and had to pay a $2000 ambulance bill last week for a trip to the ER back in July. That was fun.
@alexhall I was recently prescribed Tasimelteon for #Non24. Almost had a heart attack when the pharmacist told me what it cost without the prescription… I mean… Executive bonuses don’t pay themselves I guess. My co-pay is 5 bucks. It’s not perfect, but thank God forObamacare.
@Cristobalm Those prices don't even sound real. I take a very expensive medication, and I'm honestly scared to tell the hospital about my new insurance because of how much they might tell me I have to pay. Plus, being an IV medication, I have to spend a few hours in the hospital itself to have it administered. That won't be cheap either.
@alexhall One of the side effects of this medication is vivid dreams/nightmares. I told a friend, I’d better have the best wet dreams ever considering how much these things cost.
I was also prescribed a C-PAP machine. When I let the technician know that the touchscreen model they wanted to give me wasn’t going to work, they said they write their supplier asking for an older button/knob model, but it wasn’t guaranteed since they were pushing the touchscreen one. God forbid they give the patient what they need instead of what’s good for their bottom line.
welcome to the healthcare marketplace…
I was also prescribed a C-PAP machine. When I let the technician know that the touchscreen model they wanted to give me wasn’t going to work, they said they write their supplier asking for an older button/knob model, but it wasn’t guaranteed since they were pushing the touchscreen one. God forbid they give the patient what they need instead of what’s good for their bottom line.
welcome to the healthcare marketplace…
@Cristobalm That's ridiculous. Worse is that there's no law saying medical devices have to be, or be able to be made, accessible. Best of luck with those dreams though!
@Cristobalm @alexhall I’ve been on Hetlioz since 2016 and I very rarely remember my dreams and never have nightmares, so hopefully you don’t have any either!
D.Hamlin.Music@alexhall I assume you meant Medicaid, though if you're on SSI/SSDI you should be eligible for Medicare.
@dhamlinmusic Medicare because I had SSI for a long time.I'm not quite sure what the difference is between Medicare and Medicaid.
@alexhall Medicaid is the one for low income, disabled, elderly, and pregnant people, medicare is the one for retired or disabled people. Medicaid means you pay nothing because they cannot legally bill after it, medicare has a monthly premium and copays. You can have both and if you do medicaid will pay the medicare premium.
@dhamlinmusic Ah, in that case I had Medicaid for a long time, then was switched over to Medicare with a monthly bill that was very low.
@alexhall That sounds right, medicare would have had a paper card that said like part A part B, etc on it, that one you should not have lost unless you were off SSI and ran out the window now medicaid you can be booted from as soon as you cease receiving ssi/ssdi.