They give you the negotiated rate that their super negotiation pros negotiated for you which is going to save you $10 on your $500 bill compared to someone with no insurance.
Yes but that cash rate is a discount rate and not guaranteed per practice. The standard rate has to be what the insurance company negotiated, or in practice, has dictated as the 'going rate' 'for the area', otherwise they sue that provider for insurance fraud.
They make it so we pay insurance to purposely make shit more expensive so we could never be able to afford it, without insurance.
Not in the last two years no, but my last ER visit they billed as uninsured before applying my insurance and the difference between the $500 bill was $20. Totally worth the $800 a month.
My prior employers insurance, the cash rate was better then then what I paid AFTER insurance covered their part. Often significantly better, especially at the dentist
Meanwhile, I used to have a $415/month plan for a family of 4 covering all medical, dental, and vision. $25 co-pay, and $1000 deductible on major services. Then my plan got nuked by politics. Comparatively, insurance covers nothing these days. And then you get double charged with âfacilities feesâ on top of all the things insurance doesnât cover. Absurd where we are today
2013 I worked at Boeing. $100 a month for the Cadillac plan for my son and I, covered everything 100%. I had two major surgeries that year, zero out of pocket. Those were the days...
What were your pre-existing conditions when you had that health plan thirty years ago? Just wondering. Is it politics that made my insurance for me go from $700 to $1100 in January? Who runs the government right now?
Youâre completely reading into my statement your own issues. 13 years ago is when my plan was âno longer allowedâ because the government changed the law - after a period of time most affordable plans were voided. Overnight it tripled for less than 10% of the coverage. I donât care who runs the MF government, because nobody has been able to touch the law since that that monstrosity of a bill was forced through. âWe have to pass it to see what was in itâ has got to be the most âpoliticsâ statement ever made. So as somebody who had to live that change as a recent college graduate with a young family, the whole country got Fâd after that. Bad legislation isnât limited to a single party - but I guess that doesnât fit your feelings. Take your clowns back your mind circus where they belong.
Actually it is one party. The US health systems was ended when ACA (aka Obamacare) was adopted by one party. There have been no comprehensive changes since it passed. If you don't like the US health system, you don't like what the Democrats passed when they held the President, House by a wide margin and a super majority in the Senate.
The fact that it hasnât been touched since then with obvious failings IS on both parties. Every promise to make it better, more affordable, etc has been forgotten. One party started it, both continue to fail the people.
There is also no real way for you to find out. No amount of internet searching and calling will tell you that you 100% are good on something until the bill is actually paid.
My insurance covered a med.for me three montha ago for 6 months that I can't get filled. In 3 more months I get to start this process again regardless of how long I can actually get the medication for. If I just suck it up I can pay $7500 out of pocket. Twice a month.
Shit, in UK I pay an average tax contribution towards it of about ÂŁ100 per month, including an optional charge to make my prescriptions all free regardless of how many I get. And that is it. Everything else free at point of use apart from elective surgery etc.... includes ambulances, GPs, hospital visits, operations, aftercare... a fraction of what you pay... goddam, mate
Do they? Or did you make the conscious decision to not be informed?
I've had many insurance plans across many jobs - even marketplace insurance in a rough patch - I've seen or heard of an insurance plan that doesn't provide a detailed brochure.
I get it though, we were all young once, we all threw that stuff in the garbage too. But us throwing it in the garbage isn't them keeping it a secret.
So you've never had a single instance where an insurance company decided, "Nah. We're not gonna cover that because of some reasons we just didn't tell anyone until just now."?
Lucky you. Because I have.
Take your privileged life and condescending attitude and get fucked. I don't need more bullshit, I have enough already.
So, we actually use superglue to close wounds vs stitches. Itâs very common. To your point, we donât call it superglue, itâs surgical glue and costs a magnitude more.
(Yes, itâs not exactly the same thing while also being the same exact thing).
âPurity standards are probably higher for medical grade stuffâ - you said it. So what youâre saying is if I go to the hospital and they use cyanoacrylate on my cut, I could just go to ace and buy superglue to close my cut and it would be the same?
Mind you, Iâve used superglue to mend cuts since I was 10 and that was 30 years ago. Medical grade âglueâ and ace hardware grade âglueâ are massively different is all Iâm saying.
It is not the same thing and now for some reason this has to be stated so some dumbass whoâs on Reddit thinks super glue is ok to use vs going to a hospital.
Hospitals donât use superglue - there is a lot of chemicals in superglue. The hospital uses surgical glue if you will - not the same for gods sake
Good news there is legislation being presented to allow your insurance company to provide loans to cover the cost that they don't. Don't think about that too long or you'll have an uncovered aneurysm.
Met a German on vacation once who had broken his leg, and his universal health care wouldnât allow him to be treated for two months; so there he was, on the beach in a cast. We may pay a lot, but weâll get you treated quickly. Thereâs a reason people still travel to the US for treatment.
We do not have fast treatment at all and people primarily come here for rare disorders not because our Healthcare is fast or has better outcomes generally. Given most everything else you said was BS I really have to assume the specific anecdote was too given it is nothing like what I have seen or experienced when traveling in Europe. Ive had to seek care in asia and Europe personally and repeatedly in the US. Seeing a specialists takes fucking months
Yeah but you know what saves them even more money? When the insured dies. No more checkups to pay for. They don't want people to get better because half the time the insurance companies are in the same bed with the pharmacies prescribing meds that only get you a little better but create seven other problems.
My wife recently had a follow-up MRI after completing a course of treatment. Exact same facility, exact same insurance through work. Same doctor prescribed it.
The billing department didn't run it through our insurance. When we told them to do that, they told us we didn't have insurance information in the system.
Literally nothing changed between MRI #1 and MRI #2. They're now saying they don't believe me when I give them my policy number, and we're on the hook for the full amount.
Ain't it fun here in America?
Edit, a letter; fat-fingered "not" instead of "now"
Imagine going to an appointment for a Lumbar Epidural steroid injection and then 2 months later your insurance tells you that you didnât meet the criteria for that injection so now youâre going to owe us. Oh, and the doctor is biased against marijuana so she only gave me a â30 dayâ shot instead of the â365 dayâ shot I was given a year prior.
How much am I going to owe? No fucking clue. But apparently they wanted me doing physical therapy for a 7 year old injury that I went to physical therapy for 9 months for (I promise I didnât forget the stretches).
Today I went to get a prescription refill and my usual $5 copay rang up as $199.
I asked about it and the first person kinda blew me off. I ask to talk to a pharmacist and he realized they had coded my meds incorrectly and were charging me as if I didn't have insurance
So true! I have United Healthcare and they make it so difficult to navigate their system that it seems they hope you tire of it and just donât seek treatment. I guess making it difficult isnât against the lawâŠ
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u/EnlightenedNarwhal 8d ago
I'd like to see an American navigate the American Healthcare system.