How did you see a doctor if you didn’t make an appointment before September? It takes 4-5 months to see a doctor where I live. This country is such shit
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 16 hours ago
People pay a fortune in premiums, then another fortune in deductibles, before they can even use their insurance. Most families never actually get to that point unless they are “lucky” enough to have a family member who gets sick or injured badly enough to meet the deductible. Then you can finally use your insurance for the rest of the year.
We paid for years, and got literally nothing out of it, until I fell off a roof and got a bad concussion, and a big enough bill that our deductible was met. That was in September, so for the next few months we went to every doctor we needed, got every test we’d been putting off, etc. It was the only time we got full use of our insurance, so we took advantage of it, after paying in tens of thousands of dollars for years.
Medicare 4 All would give us full use of our insurance on January 1 every year, without having to worry about any deductibles. It might cost a couple of hundred extra dollars in taxes, but you’ll save $600 month in health insurance premium, and $4500 per year in deductibles, so you’ll come out far ahead, and have actual health insurance.
mrmisses@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
notabot@piefed.social 12 hours ago
How do you know you’ll need a doctor in 4 months??!? How do the other people booking that far out know they’ll need one? When you need a doctor, you need one soon, preferably today. Do you just book an appointment per week and cancel if you don’t need it?
mrmisses@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
If it’s an emergency - the er. If it’s not an emergency - an “Urgent Care” type place. But not your actual Dr unless you plan months in advance.
notabot@piefed.social 10 hours ago
Are we talking “no, sorry I can’t get a chest infection right now, I need to schedule an appointment with the doctor firat, but I should be able to fit you in in 4 months or so”? I ask because I know the US healthcare system is bad, but I have difficulty judging how bad.
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
I didn’t even get to use my insurance.
We met our deductible for a baby. A month before birth our company switched insurance providers. Back to zero. I’m still paying hospital bills 7 months later.
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
As an outsider seeing the US from the internet, can I guess that you didnt get Medicare 4 All because people went :
“4 All? But like, not those people surely? Oh hell no. Thats just socialism.”
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
No, we didn’t get it because our politicians are partly owned by the insurance companies.
The majority of people want Medicare for all and even more if you explain it without including the name.
ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
We nearly had a public option in the Affordable Care Act, but then Democrats watered down their proposal before it ever went to up for an actual vote thanks to Lieberman. Which of course ended up making it a huge boon to the insurance companies, resulting in our current state of affairs.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
The public option was never going to be in the final bill. It was there to be negotiated out for republican votes. When they refused to play ball, Lieberman had to play the part of the bad guy.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
That’s the meme, but I think it’s more that insurance companies spend fortunes to
bribelobby for politicians to vote against it, not to mention fortunes in propaganda to push the narrative that universal healthcare is more expensive.raze2012@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Universal healthcare is actually a bipartisan issue among the people. But as you expect, one side is really good at reframing terms to make it sound like It benefits the “non-deserving”. The main “issue” over the decades is that everytime they try to creep this into making all insurance worse they get pushback.
So, kinda.