Full title: 92% of American adults aren’t going to a doctor because they cannot afford it. The health insurance industry must be dissolved & all of its executives criminally prosecuted for murder, conspiracy, and treason.
There are other reasons - one being that doctors aren’t really offering treatments, just finagling their way to defining a “solution” or excuse for the symptoms you’re exhibiting. Many people experiencing problems are out looking for their own solutions. I don’t blame poor medical training, just the squeezing of their metrics for maximum profit.
Even for me, with health insurance, one of the reasons I tend not to seek health care is due to the surprise and unpredictable costs. I’ve already fallen into that trap twice this year alone.
The very first thing I did when I was choosing a plan for this year was filter the list down to the ones I could afford which said they covered all my prescription meds and for which my current health providers were “in-network”. That left 2 options.
When I went to get my first round of refills, several months into the year, they said I had to have prior authorization for one of my meds. After going through that process several times, provider who writes the prescription has to jump through the hoops with insurance to get the authorization, the insurance finally came back and said “we don’t/won’t cover this prescription.” My provider was able to find a cheaper, older alternative that works, but I pay out of pocket 100% for it.
Then came my annual physical, which is free with insurance. Because of the meds I’m on, the nurse said they needed to do some blood tests to check for signs of problems. Never mentioned that those tests would cost me extra and obviously I did not know. Wouldn’t have mattered, because they wouldn’t have been able to tell me up front how much it would cost so that I could make a financial decision about it. In the end, that free annual visit cost me almost $400 that I was not anticipating. The bills started showing up months later, so it completely blindsided me.
Last year was even worse. I had one of the best insurance plans offered through the ACA. Then I had an accident that landed me in the hospital. The ambulance ride was not covered at all, the service was “out-of-network” so I had to pay 100% of that. The 2 tylenol I was given for pain management in the emergency room cost me $40 because insurance would not pay for them without prior authorization. I hesitated to even call for help, hoping I could stop the bleeding myself, because I knew it was going to be an expensive trip to the ER and boy was it ever. Not to mention the follow-up appointments and treatment that was required.
Same. I had to have a CT brainscan this year. The scan was ordered during my annual physical based on routine questioning so I thought nothing of it. Many moons ago I had to have a CT brainscan in the ER and it cost like $25 with insurance. I figured, surely this scan that is being scheduled would cost the same or possibly less, so nothing to worry about. Nope! $500 for the exact same procedure on the exact same machine with the same insurance plan.
Thinning the herd, just as Project 2025 planned.
I’ve been to the doctor twice in the last 20 years and one of them was an emergency. It has been longer for the dentist.
The leadership of US medical of the last 25 years should be prosecuted, have their wealth taken from them, and their kin removed with them on a biblical scale.
The removal method? Guillotine
There’s also those in the opposite situation: Stuck unemployed on Medicare because getting a job would make necessary healthcare too expensive. What a country
in another time, that would have a better chance of happening since we used to go after racketeers. now, we have them in the actual government so thats not even in consideration
I call bullshit on this stat
Cool. You did it.
I have not had insurance my entire adult life, because it was too expensive, and the jobs I was able to work didnt offer it. So I only go once a year, when I’m forced to in order to get my meds for the next year… and any issues I have, I hope and pray linger until this appointment, because I cant afford to pay 200+ dollars every time i have an issue that i need a doctor for.
the only experience I’ve had with insurance, in my adult life, is handling an elderly relatives medical issues. They have medicare.
Medicare is fucking awesome. Anything they need, poof, its done. no delays, no awaiting approvals, just get it fucking done. Most of their drugs are free (at least until trump gets rid of part d…), and the one that isnt, is only like 5 dollars, for a 90 day supply (so 20 bucks a year for meds). They have had multiple major surgeries, and the copay was like 30 dollars each time.
Not once have they ever been told they cant have a treatment, or that they have to go through some bullshit process of trying 3 other things before they can get the treatment the doctor orders, nothing.
Medicare is fucking awesome and everyone should have it.
The experience with medicare is basically how it is for almost every person in Germany (public health insurance).
The only thing the doctor/hospital care about is that you have the card, you put it into a card reader and that’s it. There is also a small part that you have to pay of the price of drugs if you pick them up at a pharmacy.
My wife recently gave birth and the only costs we will have to pay are around 10€ per day for her stay and we had a family room for a few days, which means I could sleep and got food there too, which will cost 50€ per day or so. I don’t even know how much the insurance will have to pay to the hospital, it doesn’t affect me.
So with insurance it is really cheap and without insurance it would probably still be much cheaper than anything in the US.
I wish I lived in a civilized country.
It is cheaper to keep people healthy through preventive care than it is to treat illness. From a taxpayer point of view, a single payer system would save us money.
But people are so propagandized in this country that they seriously think private insurance is the better option.
All of the hospitals in my state were purchased by Atlantic Health.
My friend works for the hospital. The highlight of their quarterly meeting is how much profit the hospital now makes.
Why do hospitals need to make profit?!
Why are corporate owned hospitals even legal?!
I hate this timeline.
equity firms are ruining healthcare, by staffing less doctors in some areas.
It would be better if it actually was an open market like Japans medical system. They cap the profits on materials and treatment. They also have to list prices so you can actually compare and contrast the costs of treatment. Insurance companies are now the backbone of the US medical system, even owning and operating entire medical providers. Their business model is to maximize profits and deny care wherever possible. It’ll be difficult to dismantle that relationship now.
Instead of prosecution couldn’t the executives be dissolved too?
A lot of times, you just get a big bill without them doing anything useful for you.
Patient: “You misunderstand, the diagnosis isn’t behind a lock, the medicine is.”
Doctor: “Fair enough, I’ll permanently label you as ‘drug-seeking’ and this isn’t libel somehow.”
Which they have to keep an eye out for because doctors fell for drugmakers’ lies and overprescribed addictive opiates while claiming they aren’t addictive (which makes it even easier to get addicted).
Or they just use that as an excuse to not have to deal with an annoying case they can’t flash diagnose and then get offended if a patient decides to do their own research because the doctors they see can’t be bothered.
I always think back to the time my ex was trying to get a diagnosis for a rare condition that matched her weird symptoms very well. She got a new family doctor, a young new doctor, and he would always dismiss her when she brought up wanting a referral to a clinic that specialized in it so they could diagnose her or rule it out. One time I went with her, she brought it up again, he said he didn’t think she had it, and all I did was ask what made him think this wasn’t the case and he admitted he didn’t know much about it and would do some reading. On her next appointment, she didn’t even have to ask because it was as obvious to him that she probably had it as it had been to us, he just gave her the referral.
So his justification for dismissing her belief she might have that condition was jack shit, probably involving imagining House saying “it’s never lupus” or something like that. Like yeah, rare conditions are rare but some doctors treat that as if it’s impossible instead of rare and then don’t even bother learning how to tell.
The Dunning Kruger effect seems to be particularly strong in the medical field. Though to be fair, they do have to deal with their share of idiots and liars, but it makes them jaded rather than sharp.
This is why i stopped going.
Just think of all the missed revenue in both insurance and medical sectors /s
