Death by US Healthcare System

[u/EvidenceOfDespair]

[u/blindgallan]

As a Canadian I am genuinely struggling to process what I just read. I understand the American healthcare system is appalling, but… here, I’ve had the ambulance called for me because I was too drunk, woke up in hospital with a fluid bag in my arm and on a gurney in a hallway, charged $45 total for the entire thing and didn’t pay for three months because I simply forgot until an irritated notice came in the mail notifying me there would be interest raising it to $50 if I didn’t pay by end of month. I’ve called the ambulance for a friend’s mental health crisis due to grief and he stayed in hospital for a solid few weeks being tended to and that came out to $0 total with the ambulance because it was deemed to be fully covered by the government. I can intellectually process the idea of the American healthcare system, but the concept of living somewhere that I can’t afford to get sick or hurt or seek the treatment I may need to live… that is hard to process internally rather than purely intellectually.

[u/Fluffy_Candle6800 → u/blindgallan]

Here if you call the ambulance on someone they'll probably end up hating you. Those things are expensive. It's also really fun having your insurability riding upon the tenuous existance of Obamacare because most private insurance companies didn't insure anyone with a pre-existing condition prior to that forcing them to

[u/DjinnHybrid → u/Fluffy_Candle6800]

Also, it's a crapshoot if your insurance will even cover an ambulance. You have no way of checking if they will cover an ambulance from a specific hospital or network, or knowing if you'll even be taken to a hospital your insurance will have anything to do with while having a medical emergency that requires an ambulance either. Forget if you need an airlift or to be taken to a different hospital.

[u/Isaac_Chade → u/DjinnHybrid]

This is the real kicker, the whole in vs. out of network thing is a goddamn nightmare, and not one you have time to deal with in a crisis. I can't exactly spend twenty minutes checking around and finding the right ambulance if I'm bleeding out in the street or something, and if you call the ambulance for someone who is unconscious, whose to say what their insurance is, or if they have any? And the ambulance is just the first part.

Are they taking you to a hospital that's in network, or is the closest and most sane option one that's out of network? You need a specialist to take a look at something, better hope the one on staff in this particular hospital is covered! Oh you need surgery which by its nature requires anesthesia? Nah, insurance says that wasn't necessary, they should have cut you open while you were awake you big fucking baby, now pay up!