Our "Healthcare" System Makes Me Sick

Your employer pays for your health insurance and you're complaining about a $234 bill. What a whiner!

Now for one of the problems with health insurance and why costs are so high. Medical appointments are not consumer and cost driven. No one looks for the best price. They just go to a doctor.

I got a physical complete with all lab tests at an Urgent Care faccility for $150. It was outside my health insurance coverage. But it was still cheaper. Because I have a high deductible HSA plan I used tax deductible dollars from my HSA account to pay the bill. So after taxes I paid much less than $150.

My son's health insurance plan allows for one physical per year. He forgot to go to the $10 at school physical for his second sport of the year. I called his doctor's office. They said they could see him next week for $180. I took him that afternoon to Urgent Care. He got the same physical for $50 that day.

If health insurance consumers shopped for rates it would drive the cost of health insurance down.

If you have the option of an HSA it's a good deal if you're generally healthy. Your rates go down due to the higher deductible. The money you pay into the account towards your deductible is tax deductible. Money you don't use in one year rolls over to the next.

The healthcare bill was so watered down, it didn't help many people and is actually costing. I thought it was supposed to be a national medicare.
Look at France, Norway, Sweden, Canada etc. Even Cuba has a much better health plan than we do. So much for the greatest.

I have two horror stories to share:

Horror story #1

The first happened in 2004. I was a healthy 23 year old - well, mostly. I had just broken my tailbone, developed a lung infection (which I usually get at least once a year since I was very little), and had a feminine issue to discuss with the doctor. I did not have health insurance as I was making just over minimum wage in a restaurant, so I went to a "quick care" (hahahahahaha, quick. That's rich). In any case, I filled out the form and listed the reasons for my visit. When I finally got in to a room, the (male) doctor came in and immediately asked me to remove my clothes and lay down for a pap smear. (Mind you, I was there alone). He said I probably had an STD. I was devastated; mortified. I was sick. I was emotional; balling my eyes out. I complied. At the end of the visit, I asked him again about my tailbone. HE ASKED ME TO PULL MY PANTS DOWN AGAIN! I refused. Then he gave me 3 samples of antibiotics. Told me one was for Chlamydia, one for Gonorrhea and one for some other STD, then sent me on my way. I decided to just take one of the antibiotics for my LUNG INFECTION! Found out later that I had no STDs and paid my $400 lab work bill and my $80 bill for the "doctor's" time.

Horror story #2

Last summer I was working for a retail pharmacy owned by a major hospital. For our convenience (and pocket books) we had an on-site nurse who we could see for free if we had health issues. Well, my tonsil swelled up to the point I could not talk or eat, so I went to see her. She scared the shit out of me when she said it looked like an abscess and that I needed to go to the E.R. immediately because I could die from it. She walked me there and helped me get checked in. I waited in the room for ALMOST 3 HOURS before the doctor came in. My fever went from mild to dangerous while I was waiting ending with a temp of 103. He came in, looked at my throat and said it was nothing. He gave me a hydrocodone liquid sample (which went up my nose because it hurt to swallow) and sent me on my way. I received a bill for OVER $1000 for my 3 hour vacation stay in the ER and a $200 bill for the doctor's 5 minutes of time.

A month later, I had the same symptoms again but this time (because I knew I wouldn't actually die from it) I waited it out as long as possible but eventually ended up at a clinic. I was eligible for a sliding fee with which I only had to pay for 10% of my bill. They did lab work to test me for Mono. They gave me a pain-killer prescription and a script for anti-biotics (even though it was a virus and not bacteria - which is another horror story altogether! - I didn't take the anti-biotics because I know better.) My bill for all of that came to $137 of which I only had to pay $13.70 and was told that I did not have Mono. Just some random virus they couldn't name.

Now, on top of my $15000 student loans (for 10 months of schooling), credit card debt, and regular bills, I have a HUGE medical bill that I can't pay (and really don't want to pay based on principle alone!)

The health care system is completely corrupt and outrageously inept! My dad always says, "just remember, they are PRACTICING medicine."

Rant complete.

Eight hundred twenty four dollars a month paid into health insurance from employer. Still have to pay a co-payment and have to pay the full prescription price if anything is needed. Oh, but they "reimburse" half at the end of the month. Doesn't matter if on the day you actually need the prescription whether or not you actually have the money to pay the full price out of pocket up front. And also, if I need to see a "specialist" ( which is a larger co-pay) I have to get a referral from my medical doctor, but then, my medical doctor requires me to schedule an exam with him first before I get the referral. I've actually just made appointments with specialists and paid for the visit because it was cheaper than having to go to two visits just to get a damn piece of paper. I am basically healthy and actually pissed off too, because all of that money they take every month gets sucked into a vortex. You are correct, the healthcare industry in this country from many of the doctors right on up to the pencil pushing geeks in the insurance offices who think they know my body better than me are CROOKS.

Good one, my Healthcare nightmare currently going on is my high blood pressure pill, a random doctor I had to see for a job, and did get prescribe a basic water pill that worked as I checked my blood pressure everyday and it was working. So when I went to refill my prescription the pharmacist said he could not refill the prescription cause I have to go back to see the doctor so he can check how I'm doing. Another 200 dollar visit out of my pocket because my insurance won't kick in on my new job for 3 months. They are crooks, and as many of them as there are we have a lot of work rounding them up!

I am 27 years old in America, only had health insurance for 1 year thru a teaching job. My provider was Aetna, and the one time I needed a doctor I had to call 10 on their list before I found one that would accept new patients. Then after my visit I got conflicting bills in the mail for lab tests that I was not informed the insurance did not cover; I neglected to pick up some meds because the insurance didn't cover those either so I was recommended by my pharmacy to pick up an over-the-counter product that was cheaper instead. 3 years later, I no longer have insurance, but I am still getting bills for those lab tests because no one could tell me for sure how much I owed or who I should contact to get the insurance to cover it.

Health insurance in America is the biggest scam EVER. By 2020 healthcare spending is estimated to be 20% of our national economy.

Progresshiv,
Your health insurance sounds worse than United Healthcare....and that's going some! At least under UH, physicals, mammograms, pap and pelvic are covered and my husband and I don't pay. The problem we face now with UH is the fact that my husband is currently working a contract job that will last 6 months. But hopefully this company will hire him so we no longer have to pay $1200 a month for COBRA. This country's health care sucks! It is extortion. We should have Universal Healthcare like Europe. So if you lose your job, at least you will still have health insurance. This country will never change.