Mastodawn

US healthcare is so fucked! I just got a bill for $20 for a copay, so I checked the bill, and holy shit...

I have had three doctor visits this year:
- one to meet my new doctor (and get my jabs)
- one to sign paperwork for my chronic condition medication
- and one for lab work for my chronic condition medication

Amount I've paid (this year):
- ~$50 for copays
- ~$600 for visits
- ~$300 for medications

Amount paid by insurance: ~$1070

(which is notably less than the cost of 4 months of insurance premiums)

Amount insurance is still deciding on: ~$3700

Not only have I paid for the insurance, but I've also paid out at almost 50% of the cost of care so far, *and* I could be on the hook for nearly 4x that amount if insurance doesn't feel like paying.

Just saying, I wouldn't have ratted on Luigi.

"Insurance" is a total scam in the USA. Existing in the USA is being a target of the billionaires.

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Andrew Zonenberg 14h ago

@dianea @alice But the scam gets worse: the insurance paid $1070, but also look at the amount they haggled the provider down, and count that towards the value it provided.

Because if you dare to not have insurance, you're not going to be paying $1070, you're going to be paying more like $5000 for the same services because you're not a 500 pound gorilla insurance company who can negotiate with a 500 pound gorilla hospital system. The same hospital system who knows the insurers are trying to fleece them so they jack up prices to exorbitant levels in order to leave room for "discounts".

Scams all the way down.

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Andrew Zonenberg 14h ago

@dianea @alice Looking at a random insurance statement for example, the lab billed $390 for some routine bloodwork.

The insurer negotiated this down by $343, they paid $42, and we paid $5 out of pocket.

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diana 🏳️‍⚧️🦋🌱

@azonenberg @alice

For routine bloodwork, I usually pay about $65 cash. If I went though "insurance" they would likely charge $450 and I would only pay $100 and a $20 "deductible."

I remember major surgery was about $14,000 cash. Through insurance, most of my friends were paying about $100,000 for the same procedure, not sure what their responsibility of that was. But they had to wait a year or two of approvals and delays. I had my surgery within two weeks after offering cash.

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Zimmie 14h ago

@dianea @azonenberg @alice Yeah, insurance negotiates prices for a lot of common stuff way *up* in exchange for the providers agreeing to charge insurance less for some less common (but outrageously expensive) stuff. Cash prices for routine things are almost always far, far lower than insurance prices.