My daughter has an English friend. He has a twin sister. She was in Thailand and got in a scooter crash where she tore her ACL or something like that - will require surgery. While in Thailand she reports the care as good. She got an ambulance ride, a cast, a night or two in the hospital and had no insurance for Thailand and her bill was…$70.
And that was probably a ripoff by Thai standards.
I spent 7 days in a South Korean hospital and paid the equivalent of about $200 in 2009. Spent nothing when I was in China (had employer-based insurance though) for about the same amount of time a few years later.
My dad needs a kidney, so that should be fun.
Sorry to hear it.
Does he have any transplant matches within the family?
There’s a possibility that my mom might actually be a match, so she’s going to get tested.
My brother, my wife, and I have all offered to get tested, but my dad won’t let us. Doesn’t want to risk our health/lives, especially because I have kids. He and my mom both coincidentally have the same blood type (B+), so it might work out. I would assume I do, too, if they do. I know we did a self-test in biology class in high school and I was B, but not sure of positive or negative.
He literally just got activated on the donor list. His stats (whatever those numbers are called) aren’t quite low enough to require dialysis, but they’re getting close.
He asked if my wife and I could maybe post something on Facebook to try to get the word out, since you never know who might see it. I’m going to do it - just trying to figure out the right way to go about it. Might just be as simple as a regular “my dad needs a kidney” post.
If my recollection of high school biology does not fail me, if both your parents are B+ you are definitely a B-type and most likely to be Rh-positive.
I guess hobbes can weigh in on how dangerous it could be for you as a donor, but as far as I know, with access to modern medicine it is most likely fine.
Anyway, good luck to you dad!
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My dad’s fears in me being a donor are a) if something goes horribly wrong during surgery (unlikely, but certainly possible), and b) if my remaining kidney develops problems down the road. Basically, he’d rather risk his life when he probably only has 15 years left max (man, that’s depressing), rather than mine, especially when I still have kids to raise.
I joked with him that I finally found an advantage to having kids.
Fortunately, he hasn’t felt any ill effects of his kidney disease yet, even though they are clearly failing. He’s dreading dialysis, but is ready to do some prep in advance to make it easier.
Damn, dude. Sorry to hear it.
I doubt it will help, but if you actually show him the stats, donating a kidney is an extremely low risk thing to do.
My dad had kidney failure (diabetes) and was on dialysis for about 10 years. There was some talk about being donors, but partly because of the same kind of feelings I’m not sure that would have happened. He never got on a list though and I can’t remember why. It’s possible his prognosis wasn’t good enough.
It’s a tough situation. Maybe I’d change my mind about this, but right now I don’t think I would take a kidney from one of my kids.
Nah, it’s a great job. Work with smart people, get to use your skills, and from time to time make an actual difference in someones well being. The liability stuff sucks, of course.
Health care costs are being driven by a multiple of things that don’t have anything to do with having much to do with taking care of sick people. I feel that I’m more than adequately compensated - not many docs are starving after all. We just have a boatload of poorly thought out incentives ( a lot of them that were never consciously planned for) that have ended up with a shitshow of a health care system.
MM MD
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The OECD stats are the ones I’ve seen the most, have linked their latest healthcare stats below. If you look at health expenditure (which includes what the government spends on healthcare, what individuals pay for their insurance and what individuals pay out of pocket) then the US spends about 17% of its GDP, whereas Germany spends about 11%.
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It’s EXTREMELY difficult for a Yank to get any sort of grip on what sort of coverage you actually have, even if you ARE insured. AFAIK, my coverage is pretty good - I’m covered under my ER groups policy, and so far it’s been OK in terms of stuff like colonscopy/meds. I don’t really have a primary doc, for reasons that make sense to me, but probably don’t make sense for the average person. But there are a lot of sketcy insurers out there (and some of them are “reputable” companies) that will angle shoot vigorously in terms of claims/care if the get the chance, or if someone doesn’t have the financial or intellectual capital to make sure that you get the goddam care that you are paying for. Something as shitty as just routinely declining claims that are completely legit will result in a significant % of people just giving up and either ignoring or paying the bill - a bill that is COMPLETELY legit. If they get called on it, they’ll pay eventually - but it’s a total freeroll for the insurer if they don’t get caught. (Source - chief of Big ER group who had to deal with these assholes as part of my job)
MM MD
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Yeah, I’m happy that my job pretty much insulates from that stuff - I’m an ER doc, so admissions/rules etc. aren’t my problem.
There are all sorts of odd angles on this stuff. For example, every 2 years (I think) the state gets together and tweaks our trauma criteria - meaning stuff like - if you fall from 10 feet 1/2 inches you’re designated a trauma patient, but if you fall 9 feet 11 1/2 half inch you’re not. (Never mind that the paramedics aren’t carrying tape measures, and that you can land off a ski life on fluffy snow off a 15 foot drop and have nothing more than a pinky sprain, or you can land on concrete from 4 feet and fuck yourself up, especially if you’re say, an 84 year old lady with osteoporosis)
Why does it matter? Because if you’re a non trauma designation, you’re not going to get slapped with a trauma charge - which will add about (it varies from time to time) about 8000, 16000, or 24000 dollars to the tab. This gets dumped on the bill before my cheerful self says “hi” and starts ordering stuff. If you land on the snow, you might get a bill for a few hundred bucks at a max, as long as you’re not falling 9 feet 11 1/2 inches. The same bill will be an additional 8K for falling 10 feet 1/2 inch, for the same minimal injury. Which (especially if you’re poorly insured/have a high deductible) pisses people off. Note that this has NOTHING TO DO with evil doctors or hospitals gouging patients - trauma patients, especially penetrating trauma patients tend to be young men doing stupid shit with no insurance, and a simple “Leon stabbed Buford” stabbing can easily cost six figures to the hospital with zero payer source. Buford gets covered because your 10 1/2 foot fall with no/minimal injury while skiing gets several thousand dollars shipped over to cover Buford’s ass.
MM MD
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What’s right with Kansas? (Medicaid expansion)
Cali leads the way
Amazing that the Czech Republic has a higher life expectancy than America. We’re talking about a country that ranked 2nd in the EU in alcohol consumed per capita (Lithuania is higher), 2nd in the EU in cigarette consumption* per capita (Belgium is higher), and spends 7.5% of its GDP on healthcare, less than half of what America spends.
*Luxembourg is also higher but that’s because people from countries all around it travel there and load up on cartons of cigarettes due to lower taxes.
Chiefsplanet will tell you that’s just because of black people.
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That’s hilarious since it’s because of drug addiction and despair among mostly poor white people.
You have your truth, they have theirs.