Mastodawn

Having spent thousands of dollars on Cobra, only to have Kaiser terminate my account without notice or warning, and back-date the termination to December, I called Kaiser. It took 54 minutes to speak to someone, who could not resolve this issue. I have been waiting to speak to someone who may be able to resolve my issue for 71 minutes now.

Flipper 🐬🏳️‍🌈Jan 23

@pluralistic I'm not originally from the US, so not a day goes by that i don't feel frustrated by the appalling service that passes as healthcare here.

Hope you find a human soon.

Sunshine and Wind Jan 23

@pluralistic
For those of us who don't live where you live, who's Kaiser, and what's Cobra?

@WigglyWigtails @pluralistic you're gonna love this. Cobra is a law that means you can pay to keep insurance when you leave a job. It costs so much it's incredible. Kaiser is a HMO which means they handle all aspects of healthcare which would be great except it's not.

Led By Gilded Fools Jan 23

@grechaw @WigglyWigtails @pluralistic where HMO is satirically interpreted as "Hand the Money Over"

@WigglyWigtails @pluralistic

https://youtu.be/C7mEMMSbntQ

The Usual Suspects 4K Ultra HD "Who is Keyser Söze?" | High-Def Digest

YouTube

Joe Bayes Jan 23

@WigglyWigtails Kaiser is a large medical provider-and-health-insurance company in the US. It is different from most US health insurance companies in that they will only pay for (non-emergency) care at Kaiser facilities; the trade-off is that since the provider and the insurer are the same company, there is much less argument about billing. Many people consider them the best of a sorry lot.

COBRA is a program that lets you pay (through the nose) to stay on your (former) employer's health insurance program, even after you have left the company.

If all this sounds ridiculous, that's because it is.

Flauschtext Jan 24

@jbayes @WigglyWigtails Thanks for explaining. That's quite bizarre.

Flipper 🐬🏳️‍🌈Jan 23

@WigglyWigtails
Kaiser: a "healthcare" "provider"
COBRA: if you don't get "healthcare" the "normal" way, through your employer (ofc), COBRA is a temporary way to overpay for "healthcare" until you get back into the system.
@pluralistic

@flipper @WigglyWigtails @pluralistic "Overpay" to get back in? Does it think it's the state pension? 😅

@pluralistic The US healthcare system is Kafkaesque. At its best. Sadly.

Obbie King Jan 23

@pluralistic I recently had a similar issue with our phone company. They shut off our land line without warning, and calls to "support" went in circles.

A complaint to the FCC and the BBB got their attention and they put *real* effort into fixing my issue. YMMV.

hallvors Jan 23

@pluralistic I know nothing about these names, but let me guess: US health insurance madness?

Cavyherd Jan 23

@hallvors @pluralistic

Right in one!

Led By Gilded Fools Jan 23

Seems like it is time to re-read "Radicalized - A short story about health care, and desperation. " by @pluralistic

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-12-09-radicalized-cory-doctorow-story-health-care/

#Health #Healthcare #YouShouldBeAfraid #UHC #UnitedHealthCare #Luigi #LuigiMangione

Radicalized

A short story about health care, and desperation.

The American Prospect

Nick boss Jan 24

@MHowell @pluralistic

This might be Cory's best work. Essential reading for all Americans.

A year or two ago I jokingly suggested that him.and I were beefing over his recommendation for me to purchase Terry Miles' "Rabbits", but I really think Cory might be the most important writer of our current age.

@pluralistic player 2 start

James Creel Jan 23

@pluralistic Good god, man, it appears your health insurance account has been enshittified! 🧐

Allpoints Jan 23

@pluralistic two words, "jury nullification"

Negahyphen Jan 24

@pluralistic The stories I have from working at United Healthcare before the Affordable Care Act passed... oof.

@pluralistic
seems like somebody read your blog.

Kathy Bryson Jan 24

@pluralistic
oy! Hoping someone can help!

@pluralistic Kaiser billing support is the ninth circle of hell. And the entire time they tell you to go to their website which won’t actually do anything. They are quite nice in person and confident if you walk in and having talked with a few, Wednesday 5 PM PST is best time to get fast customer support oddly. I spent a few hours tracking down an unpaid bill, even though I was paying my monthly premium. Eventually found it was an obscure optometry charge. I paid it and three months later they refunded it because they had billed me in error.

MidgePhoto Jan 24

@dplattsf @pluralistic
Odd place, America.
You really should have a health care system.
It seems it would liberate a great number of working hours, some of them clever, for other activity.
There are other benefits, but only everyone else thinks them important.

@Photo55 @pluralistic I won't defend the US system for a moment, but I also think that a lot of the discussion around healthcare is pretty naive and focused poorly. Whether employer pays, or Government the customer Is completely insulated from the real price of providing the product. That means the providers get away with incredible inefficiencies and there is no real accountability. Voters scream if you try to ration anything. I'm in the odd position of actually paying directly and it's both expensive, and customer service (not for the care itself but things like billing) are worse than any other type of product. I wonder if something like health savings accounts would incentivize better behavior by providers if they had to actually compete on quality and price because the underlying cost of providing healthcare is out of control and product cost is invisible.

MidgePhoto Jan 24

@dplattsf @pluralistic
Employer paying is an abuse coming close to slavery.
Which may be why it has trailed on in the USA.

Patients here are not completely insulated from the cost, apart from it being raised from general taxation, and published, it is discussed.

@Photo55 @pluralistic what does it cost to provide health care for a typical family? Employers aren't sympathetic figures either but can tell you it's no fun having an employee cost that goes up 10% per year. It's not sustainable.

MidgePhoto Jan 24

@dplattsf @pluralistic
Ridiculous to make health contingent on employment.
And as you note, it isn't good business either.

Hoggrim 🐗Jan 25

@Photo55 @pluralistic

The free market is the worst possible way to incentivize rational pricing. when you need health care you need it. being told to shop around to people who know they can charge whatever they want because it can be life or death just leaves all bad options unless someone is being altruistic and those will be kneecapped by the other players for hurting profit. The whole idea of a healthcare market is a failure to understand how markets work. ( unless you're the aforementioned profiteers )

@pluralistic @Hoggrim @Photo55 respectfully disagree but understand your point of view. There’s no real market right now. Mostly binary outcome. One of my kaiser doctors one day memorably said „never has so much money been spent on so few, so healthy people“, as he charged my employer probably a fortune for a one minute procedure.

Hoggrim 🐗Jan 25

@pluralistic
And Kaiser is the better of possible options too