I am a 38 year old with a master’s degree. I cannot figure out my own healthcare. There are prescriptions that cost $200 at one pharmacy and $3 at another. You can’t figure out a system designed to screw you over, especially when you are sick.
I can’t figure out my health care when hospitals don’t tell you what things cost until after they give them to you, or when ambulances are required to take you to the nearest hospital regardless of whether your insurance covers it.
This year I had a CT angiogram to make sure scar tissue from my heart surgery wasn’t blocking an artery. Rather critical. The hospital made me agree to pay $900 out of pocket on the day, or take it to my insurance and if they denied it, pay $2500, no exceptions.
How do i figure out a choice between getting scammed by a hospital for $900 for a procedure I desperately needed, or risk being scammed by my insurance company refusing to cover it and pay nearly 3x as much, when I should pay NOTHING?!
This is a choice I had to make while in severe chest pain, about to do a test where you must keep your heart below 70 bpm, with a possible outcome that could’ve meant a second terrifying and dangerous surgery.
I can’t figure that out, Pete. That’s a bullshit choice.
I can’t figure that out, Pete. That’s a bullshit choice.
Because the fiscal year is ending and specialist doctors are slow, I have to figure out if I can afford, with very expensive private insurance, to get a surgery I needed this year but couldn’t be scheduled for til next year that would allow me to eat solid food normally.
It’s still technically an elective surgery - because swallowing solid food is a choice, I suppose- but I may end up on months of liquids until my deductible is met and I can afford the coinsurance for it - if they agree to cover it at all
What is the right choice there? Go into medical debt so I can eat normally? Live on slurpees til I can afford the surgery?
I can’t figure that out either, Pete.
I can’t figure that out either, Pete.
