I’d like to know other non-US citizen’s opinions on your health care system are when you read a story like this. I know there are worse places in the world to receive health care, and better. What runs through your heads when you have a medical emergency?
A little background on my question:
My son was having trouble breathing after having a cold for a couple of days and we needed to stop and take the time to see if our insurance would be accepted at the closest emergency room so we didn’t end up with a huge bill (like 2000$-5000$). This was a pretty involved ~10 minute process of logging into our insurance carrier, and unsuccessfully finding the answer there. Then calling the hospital and having them tell us to look it up by scrolling through some links using the local search tool on their website. This gave me some serious pause, what if it was a real emergency, like the kind where you have no time to call and see if the closest hospital takes your insurance.
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I’m American and trust me, in no way does it feel normal even after living with it my whole life. Simply hearing what you describe - not thinking about it - feels so deeply right and reasonable that it reminds me just how much weight of “this is not normal” we carry around.
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That’s so fucking crazy sounding. It also sounds wonderful. My parents almost lost our house due to medical expenses, and yes they had insurance (here’s the best part - my dad was a disabled veteran). So support the troops, yay!
Because of that experience, I’ve developed a lifelong almost PTSD about insurance and medical bills - afraid that it will happen again to me now that I’m an adult. I obsess over it. It’s terrible.
I’m so jealous of those who never have to give it a second thought.
And there’s the problem
It’s so fucking normal sounding. Your system is the crazy, horrifying human rights abuse 😅
No, you’re absolutely right. I didn’t mean crazy to sound negative - it’s just something I cannot even imagine…to never have to think about this thing that I constantly think about. It’s wild. And I really do wish it could become a reality.
1 in 4 bankruptcies are military due to medical cost. We only support troops with thoughts and prayers
Sadly, the brainwashing has been so effective that those who buy it never noticed that those gaslighting people into believing that no government system (eg, single payer) could ever work are the ones (Republicans) doing their best to ensure that government remains as broken as possible.
More people believe that our system is fucked than those who think this kind of system is normal.
We’re just faced with so many hurdles, gerrymandering, red states that exist only because of minority representation have more power over larger population areas (districts by size and not population, electoral college) … The majority of the country is merely surviving and the apathy sets in. I remind people that voting fascists out is the only way things are going to change and often the response is “Well, I tried that once and it didn’t work.” So they stop showing up to vote. Or they buy into the ‘both sides’ BS and post lame memes on Facebook and Reddit.
A lot of us really are painfully aware of how fucked it is.
We need to do way more than just voting to defeat fascism
This is why I don’t understand why corporations aren’t behind it. It would take an enormous load of my HR dept. It would save them so much.
Retention. You’ll find the threat of lack of healthcare to be fairly coercive.
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Bingo
Yeah, exactly. The most expensive thing about a hospital visit here is the parking.
No, we haven’t… Are you not aware how upset most people are over here about this system?