The vaccine is free. The chair you sat in while getting the vaccine is an add on service that costs $100 per 5 minutes used.
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āWhy didnāt you check first to make sure the chair was in network?ā
/bogleheads
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Back at the beginning of the pandemic my wife had a covid exposure at her hospital. Her employee health told her they werenāt set up to do covid tests yet and she needed to go to her ER to get one done. The test was āfreeā, but the company the ER docs work for tried to bill her for an exam. After 4 months of arguing with the billing company she threatened to take them to small claims court, they finally decided to write off the bill.
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Chairs are a grotesque luxury preventing you from achieving early retirement. Just stand all time and invest the money in a low cost index fund instead. You can maybe afford a chair when your balance is is at $8 million, but I personally wouldnāt risk it.
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I havenāt!
Okay, I guess I didā¦kind off. I got a PCR test at urgent care in December in the states. The cost for administering the test was $50 or something. Apparently, thatās just to administer the tests. Turns out that they contract to a testing center that anaylzes the sample that also charges a fee. I mean I knew it was coming but it still doesnāt make it bullshit.
I know there is a lot of competition, but healthcare is the worst part of America.
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FYP
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Probably a fair FYP, but tbh I think as bad as healthcare is for white people itās even worse for everyone else, so the original point might stand no matter who you are.
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I would guess the healthcare industry contributes the most to total human misery, but I suppose that might not make it definitively the worst.
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I watched a Frontline documentary on it earlier today and was in a bad place for a while. Total black pill.
My wife works in insurance and told me (it happened to her) that if you have your regular annual checkup, donāt mention anything thatās bothering you because now the appointment has crossed over from preventative checkup to a specific appointment about an ailment. Last time she had hers, she mentioned something about some body part that was hurting and ended up getting a bill.
Iām going to list off all my problems, anyway, since why make another appointment?
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Did you see a film crew hopefully making new episodes of The Zoo - my favorite TV show?
Iāve been to several different docs for physicals, asked all kinds of random shit and have never gotten a bill for it. Iād snap get a new doc if that ever happened to me.
My most consistent complaint is peeing more often as I get older, and just want to confirm Iām in the normal realm of that. In response, one doc had me drop my pants, grabbed my balls and was like, nah, you are fine. Free of chargeā¦ Talk about extra service!
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I donāt know, try to get prescribed pain medication as a POC.
Iāve only been to the doctor like once in the last 18 or so years. It was a checkup and it was free and I think I mentioned possible issues. Kaiser.
Cost me like $60k in premiums though.
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Didnāt see them, but the zooās a big place.
Well, Iāve been to the doctor and paid for medical stuff lots and lots of times, just not for myself. I think Kaiser is good about the checkups/preventative stuff. Not sure if itās usually free or not. I have paid for a fair number of office visits for like $50.
($60k was my estimate just for me. Family is like $13k/year now. (Gone up a lot))
Nope. Same goes for the government. Itās not easy to argue with skeptical people and be like, yeah, I know they lie and cheat, sometimes for money, sometimes because they think they canāt trust you with the truth, but this time you should listen.
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Thatās fair, but people avoid health care in general for a lot of reasons other than costsā¦ but will still use cost as an excuse.
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Definitely noticing a big difference between where I work in Bergen County (still like 90% masks when I stopped by the mall today to grab something at lunchtime), and the significantly more rednecky area in northwest NJ where I live, where Iād say masks have dropped by like 20% per day as word gets around that the local stores definitely arenāt requiring them on their own following the statewide lift. By next week I guarantee Iāll be getting weird looks if Iām still wearing one.
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