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Zink@programming.dev âš6â© âšdaysâ© agoI have a âfunâ american anecdote for you then! The office that gave me crap for being late a while back is also coincidentally the expensive one.
Iâm on a biologic medication that I get every month via IV. I get the infusions at a cancer treatment center at the local hospital. The chairs are comfy and the nurses are amazing. They will actually give me free snacks and drinks too. I am typically there for about two hours.
The amount they charge my insurance company? About a new BMW.
What my insurance company actually pays them? Surprisingly, about a new Honda!
BurntWits@sh.itjust.works âš6â© âšdaysâ© ago
Did you have to pay the difference out of pocket? Or is there a discounted price for insurance providers to pay that laypeople arenât approved for?
Whenever I go to the doctor, hospital, etc I just give them my health card (which is freely provided to every Canadian citizen) and they punch in the number into their system, then thatâs that. I donât have to pay or contact insurance or anything. Some stuff doesnât count such as the dentist but dental care is almost always provided through work benefits.
Zink@programming.dev âš6â© âšdaysâ© ago
Oh boy, I get to do more Freedumsplaining!
The luxury sport sedan price is the fake sticker price they bill up front.
The sensible commuter sedan price is the secret agreed-upon price that the insurance actually pays out to them.
The out of pocket costs are a completely separate number, where the individual is responsible for all the costs until they hit their deductible (and sometimes pay a percentage for a while until they hit a second complete out of pocket limit).
For some of us, however, there is a silver lining to this shitcloud. Obviously when a 2-hour stint in a chair gets paid out actually for real at tens of thousands of dollars, that money is not going to the wonderful nurses poking my arm and checking on me. Therefore, it is very much in the best interests of the pharmaceutical shareholders that I do not stop my treatment just because I canât afford it. So these companies have copay assistance programs that will pay your out of pocket costs, with no income threshold.
So the reward that I get for having a health condition is⊠I effectively get decent healthcare coverage as an American. For 11 months of the year. If something bad happens in early january it can cost a few grand in the blink of an eye.
You canât be on government insurance and use those programs though. But Medicaid on its own is great coverage.
BurntWits@sh.itjust.works âš5â© âšdaysâ© ago
That system seems so alien to me, I canât even imagine. When my wife gave birth, she lost a ton of blood, like, far more than normal. She ended up needing both an iron and blood transfusion, and we needed to stay for a few extra days. She got a ton of meds and got seen by several doctors. Plus my baby had a couple small issues too which needed to get treated. Everything worked out okay, and everyoneâs healthy now, thankfully. We didnât pay a single cent. It was all covered. I canât imagine making those decisions thinking about how much it would cost. I remember shortly after birth we were looking at how much birth costs in the States, it was insane. I canât remember how much now but it was just for regular birth, Iâm sure all the extras we needed wouldâve cost more.