I fell off my ebike and broke my collarbone. In the immense pain and fear I was in I went to emergency clinic that forwarded me to an ER. I received no care at this ER and only sat in a bed for 4 hours before they discharged me. I’ve been refreshing my claims page for my government subsidized insurance for abt a month waiting for the other foot to drop. I have to pay $620 dollars in copays I don’t have. How is the American healthcare system so broken? Also why would any doctor recommend going to an ER? I will also loose my benefits if my premium rates rise since Trump and Congress want to give tax breaks to the ultra wealthy. I knew the system would come for me eventually, there is no escape.
Not yet we haven’t. But we are slowly privatising the NHS, and theres a political party getting too close to power that would like to speed that up a lot.
A friend of ours had breast cancer, got treatment, it went into remission. Fast forward a few years, she thinks it might be recurring. She calls her doctor. Four month wait for the test. She decides to go South to the US. Pays a chunk, gets the test right away, yep, cancer confirmed
What would have happened if she had had to wait four months for a diagnosis? Would it have been too late?
The way health systems work now only makes sense in the context of profit and expense. People are used to going without so that either taxpayer funded systems can squeeze their budgets as tightly as possible, or for-profit systems can milk the last nickel from anyone in need.
It’s a disgrace. Whether the government budget is squeezed to control debt and deficit levels or people are abused and mistreated for profit, it comes down to this filthy, unfair, colonial system based on monetary and banking systems introduced in the later years of the British Empire.
People should be rioting at the treatment that the billionaire class deems acceptable for them. There is no practical reason other than greed for any of this.
The really weird part is, a friend of mine on Medicare with supplemental private insurance was recently diagnosed with a mass in an area known for developing rapidly metastasizing cancer and had to wait several months to be seen by an oncologist, who confirmed they do indeed have that form of cancer. They were then scheduled to begin radiation a month out but for some reason had to wait an additional month. I’m betting your friend got immediate treatment because they paid much better than Medicare does.