Healthcare USA #1

Just got our renewal papers at work for our group plan. Just under 15% premium increase year over year. Pre-ACA grandfathered PPO HSA plan. Don’t let coronavirus control your life.

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Yeah, because of boring shenanigans although we live in communist Europe my wife isn’t in the state system and has private insurance. It’s through her job and is equivalent to the state system and I looked up the price once and we could buy it for ~200 euros a month. Just looked at the price of what you’d need if you were moving here (France) and the ‘deluxe’ plan for 4 0-65 yr olds was 630 euros. (It’s the same timeframe here, three months before you’re in the state coverage)

I’ve almost asked a few times why US insurance is so expensive even compared to other private insurances, but I assume the answer is just that the whole system is a scam to milk sick people and there’s not much more to it than that.

My Independence Blue Cross plan I bought off the exchange won’t cover my flu shot. I have to pay out of pocket and fight them over the reimbursement. What a fucking crock of shit.

Fuck this country’s healthcare system.

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Don’t bother it’s not worth it. Anything under a hundred bucks is never ever worth it. Better to just get the out of pocket cash discount and move on with your life. Your insurance’s only job is to limit the maximum damage to your liferoll getting hurt or sick could do to you, and while it doesn’t do that job particularly well, it is the absolute maximum that can be expected from it. Unfortunately the % of the population that is rolled to take on that kind of financial risk isn’t very high, and if your net worth is negative the risk is just getting substandard care and dying.

Fuck them, that’s what they’re counting on. They are my mortal enemy and I despise them and will not roll over and let them off the hook. Fucking assholes.

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I didn’t expect you to listen, but someone needed to tell you. Make sure you take your time and extract maximum enjoyment from the crusade. Try not to be too mean to the call center people, they’re worse off than you. Much worse off. Indescribably worse. I’m speaking from first hand experience here.

That being said if you’re very pleasant while you pursue getting this paid you’re still making them lose the bet they made. You can do that and feel great about it. Be an oasis for that call center person. Make the call last a while.

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The system is incredibly well designed to insulate any of the assholes making your life miserable from exposure to your entirely justified rage.

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Just saying.

I was today years old when I learned where the term Whipping Boy comes from and what it actually means.

Yeah I know, which pisses me off even more. I have to argue with people who don’t deserve to be argued with, but that’s the cost of not getting screwed.

This whole system sucks so hard.

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Fuck, I think my local grocery store is giving our flu shots for free regardless of insurance situations.

Yeah I could have left and tried to sort it out but when Walgreens told me I had already been in there 15 mins despite scheduling and filling everything out in advance and I wasn’t looking to double my exposure at that point.

Which makes me soft, weak and vulnerable to the exploitation of our wealthy overlords.

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6 mins on the phone entering my info all to have to wait for a callback. They tried to get me to pay my premium due 11/1 before even letting me hear any other menus lol fuck them all so so hard.

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Lol these fucking people. In order to get reimbursed, I have to fill out a form and send it via mail with my receipt. Cannot do it online. Had to spend 10 minutes on the phone to sort that out.

If I were a more cynical man, I’d think they had designed it exactly this way to maximize the number of people who fall through the cracks.

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Have you met your deductible yet? If not they’ll just turn around and charge you full price even if they approve it.

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That happened to me once with medication I had active insurance for. I show up at the pharmacy and they’re like “hmm this is weird, it won’t go through.” My only options were to pay cash then or not function for several weeks while sorting it out. I don’t even remember what the exact technical glitch was but when I called they said they’d mail a form for me to send back with receipt. I never got the form obviously and wasn’t willing to spend another 3-4 hours on it for what was probably a 50% chance of ever seeing a dollar.

No but they have to cover flu shots anyway under the ACA, it’s like the annual checkup.

God bless America, land that I love!
Stand beside her, and guide her,
while our corporate overlords fuck us from above!
From the mountains, to the prairies,
to insurance that fucking sucks!

God bless America, my home sweet home!
God bless America, my home sweet home!

The pharmacy bullshit makes my blood boil. “That will be $2,933.56.” They say it as if this is completely normal.

“Excuse me, what? I have insurance.”

“It didn’t go through.”

“What does that mean? I’m not paying $3,000 for a prescription I have insurance for.”

“You can pay now and dispute it with your insurance company.”

“That is not acceptable. I am covered for this medication. Please do whatever you need to do to expedite.”

"Sir we have. I can apply a discount coupon. That will bring it to (pauses) $1,735.55 (blank stare).

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Yeah like how does 50-60% of the country experience that and say, “Nope, no way we would ever want to change that!” Fucking assholes.

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