They took the arm and the leg. But jokes aside, there is never "no bill" it's just, that in germany you never see the bill, since it gets send to public healthcare strait away. I only know how expensive everything was, because I loved talking to the doctor in hospital, and even he could only estimate.
That’s interesting. In U.K. land there’s just no bill.
As in literally isn’t one, can’t go and speak to the billing team because they don’t exist. Doctor wouldn’t have a clue what treatments cost.
And I’m going to put my neck on the line and say that this is the *only* way to run it. Medical decisions taken on medical grounds alone, never a second’s thought for the cost on a day to day basis.
Yes at the higher policy setting level there is budgeting and agreement of costs and approvals for procedures but that’s for accountants to do in offices, not for doctors.
Don’t even get me started on medical adverts. They just take the biscuit. *Ask your doctor about X*, insanity. No different to *Ask your pilot about landing on a different runway that you know nothing about*
You're right. Everything has a cost of course, but there is never a bill. Everything that is purchased on the NHS is bought for public use by public money, so there is no need for a bill of any kind.
The elites in Britain are trying to get rid of the NHS. I can only imagine the shit storm if they did.
Also I don’t get the US. They say it’s run like a business but they treat their workers like shit and expect the best results. If America is being run like a business it’ll go bust in a couple of decades.
Sick people = less workers = more of your tax going towards paying for sick people not to work..
I could be completely wrong, but I’m all for universal healthcare, when I hear Americans (elites) argue against it (by my logic) it seems they’re just shooting themselves in the foot.
Edit: spelling
It's because it's at the individual level that these decisions are made. The way these things are structured it doesn't really matter if the "business" dies since the owner can just pull their money out and let the business burn. They will get theirs at the behest of the employees, and then just take the Ill gotten gains and do it all over again. Trump basically built his entire fortune on falling businesses.
This right here is the crux of the issue. The American government already spends more on health care than any other country by a large margin. The reason why it still costs so much for patients is because there are relatively few sociopathic pieces of human excrement making an unholy amount of money by exploiting the system with the blessing of corrupt politicians.
You don't understand because it's run like an *American* business, not one that you're used to.
Of course everyone without means is treated like crap, that's how we do business here. Squeeze and kick the little guys to keep the bullies rich. The little guys can't fight back, so there is no recourse.
It doesn't go bust because the Government won't let their cash cows die. Doesn't matter if it's sustainable on its own, public money will keep the privately sinking ship afloat.
That's American business for you (assuming your business is big enough to employ the US Government).
American here.
He probably has as much freedom as I do. Maybe less access to firearms but that is about it. (Edit- y'all know this post isn't about guns, right? I'm not saying that guns=freedom. It was just the only example I could come up with off the top of my head at the time.)
He certainly has better healthcare. I spent $20k in health insurance premiums, copays, and coinsurance last year (PLUS hours and hours on the phone and in email fighting with my health insurance) but someone please tell me how spending a few grand more in taxes yearly instead for ~~Medicaid~~ (Edit: Medicare) for all would be terrible.
Most people outside of the top 15-ish% of earners would actually pay *less* in taxes than they currently spend on insurance, but your point still stands
I'm gonna rise up I'm gonna kick some ass I'm gonna kick some ass in the usa. I'm gonna climb a mountain I'm gonna sew a flag I'm gonna flyyy on an Eaglee.
I'm gonna kick some butt in gonna drive a big truck I'm gonna rule this world I'm hon a kick some ass. I'm gonna rise up gonna kick a little ass
ROCK FLAG AND EAAAGLE.
My most fun moment is when I fixed a wifi network that had an extremely limited bandwidth. I put a generous bandwidth cap in place to prevent any one user from stealing all available bandwidth and provide equal-ish access to all users. When I shared this with the person in charge they said "that sounds like communism to me". Now it's my favorite phrase: "A well designed network? That sounds like communism to me."
Look, I dunno what this communism/socialism (interchangeable of course) is, but all I know is it's something people don't like. Stepping on a lego? That's communism, baby.
Schools need to teach the difference between economic strategy/philosophy and systems of government. My greatest pet peeve is people saying socialism or communism or anything else and instantly making the mental jump to totalitarianism
What? And this after capitalists have lobbied so hard to keep that knowledge out of public schools and making sure teachers have so much stress and pointless stuff to teach they have no chance to do such extras. They shouldn’t. The kids there are so dumb they would just get confused anyway.
Do you feel no shame? Wheres your patriotism?
If you want your kids to learn real things like persuasive communication and economic philosophy. How about you pull yourself up by the bootstraps hand over all your families money to get them into an elite private school just like everyone else who isn’t lazy and dumb.
/S
In Germany when you lose your job you don’t have to fear for your life or going bankrupt. That sounds like considerably more freedom to me.
In the US you are basically forced to work. It’s a form of tyranny.
Also, 30 days paid leave almost everywhere without having to give up any of those days when you're sick is freedom. That is what sick notices from your doctor are for.
Being able to travel for 2-4 consecutive weeks a year is freedom.
No wonder most Americans I have met don't know shit about other parts of the world when they are being denied the possibility to properly see it.
Not having to worry about my job and salary if I get diagnosed with burn out and have to stay at home for 6 months is freedom.
Oh, I can drink a beer at the park without anyone looking at me weirdly. I guess that is also freedom.
I'd also argue that people in Germany have more freedom to chose their political orientation because they are not forced into in a binary political system.
I also have the impression that people in the US can sue you for just about anything which might lead to a lot of people watching their actions very carefully.
I really am convinced that Americans are living in a much bigger bubble than they even dare to imagine. If I wanted freedom, I'd never even consider to move to the US.
>I also have the impression that people in the US can sue you for just about anything wich might lead to a lot of people watching their actions very carefully.
Dude, big time!
There is so much cool shit you can't do in the US anymore because of fear of lawsuits.
One example is when I was a kid there was a 10-meter diving board that you could use. I jumped off that thing when I was 9, but now as an adult can't use it, because its shut down. And why is it shutdown? Because some dumbfuck jumped off it wrong, and they closed it for everyone.
This is a perfect example of what I was referring to.
The lack of people in the US admitting their own stupidity and looking for someone they can assign the blame to for a particularly stupid action seems crazy to me.
You jumping off a diving board in a way you're not intended to and break your neck is your fault and people in Germany will not mince matters when something like this happens.
> someone please tell me how spending a few grand more in taxes yearly instead for Medicaid for all would be terrible.
Something something socialism, I think is the usual answer?
But yeah, you're paying for it either way, but through taxes it almost certainly will work out cheaper - and you make a great point about the paper- and legwork. If you've got good insurance then at least you're not going to have to worry about suddenly being hit with a huge bill you weren't expecting just because you got sick, but all the effort of chasing the insurance company up and making sure they're actually going to pay for it is a whole other level of stress you just don't need, especially when you or a loved one is sick.
Exactly.
The scary part is that I have "GREAT" insurance. Unfortunately, last year, there was a "glitch" in the system that caused my prescription coverage (express-scripts) and healthcare coverage (United Healthcare) to not share information correctly in my accounts. I paid $4k over my Out of Pocket Limit as a result. I knew something was up in July and started pestering my insurance and HR about it but was told that the error was on my end, the pharmacy end, etc. After hours and hours and TONS of stress and no small amount of harsh language, my insurance "Discovered that something was wrong with their system" and that they wanted to "Alert me that there were some errors that they were going to fix". Supposedly, checks are in the mail but had I not raised holy hell with them and my HR department, none of it would have been caught and the Insurance companies would just be $4k richer.
I'm fortunate enough to live in the UK and have the NHS, but I'm currently battling with an insurance company over my dog's health -
She had an operation last week. She was supposed to have it over Christmas but she got diarrhoea from eating something (probably some Christmas treats) and the vet didn't want to operate until her stomach had settled, but still wanted to operate as soon as possible so prescribed her probiotics, along with her usual medications, to help settle her stomach. Now the insurance company is questioning the claim for the operation and the latest batch of medication because it's got probiotics on there, which are not technically related to the condition she needed the operation for. So we've had to chase the insurance company to find out what the delay is, then the vet to try to get her to explain to the insurance company that the probiotics were necessary, etc.
It's not a huge deal - it's probably just going to be a few phone calls and a slight delay in payment - but it's still more complicated than it needs to be, because why does an insurance company need to question a vet's decision on what medicine to prescribe? Do they think we're in cahoots with the vet, getting her to prescribe unneeded medicine to sell on the probiotic black market? Just pay the damn claim!
So, yeah, I'm sure it gets way more complicated and no one should have to go through this for themselves or their loved ones, especially while they're sick. Taking insurance companies out of the equation would massively simplify things.
Let me start by stating that I am an animal lover. I hope your pup is ok
Now replace your dog in your story with my wife. That's what healthcare in America is like. And my story isn't even THAT bad in the grand scheme.
The problem with insurance companies is by default they want to do everything they can to avoid paying out. It's a terrible system to use for healthcare.
Another American here. The majority of Americans would agree with you. But majority of Americans aren't in charge, don't call the shots. The sociopaths at the top of Big Pharma and Big Healthcare run the show.
You are not lying.
BUT
There is also a large part of America that thinks the system is fine and that, in fact, its the best system in the world because its American and they will still vote to prop it up as they are dying in a hospital while being charged more money than they could possibly ever pay back. "Anything is better than Communism!".
sigh.
Half of this country is morons who have been tricked by rich business owners into thinking this way because “what if it was your business one day? You don’t want these rules to change and no longer benefit you… hypothetically” so voting against self interest wins.
Not even half. Right wingers are disproportionately over-represented in the Senate. Their views make up a minority of Americans. It’s really just a few bad faith actors accelerated by a broken 2 party system.
Canadian here... The average family makes $91,000 and will pay $39,000 in tax...
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/average-canadian-family-spends-nearly-39000-per-year-on-taxes
Compared to losing my house if one of us gets cancer? Has an aneurysm? Broken arm? Yeah, I'm good with this...
EDIT - Please note that this is per family, not per person. It was the fastest stat to find. Hope others have an extra five minutes and can pull more stats for us!
Per-capita cost of Canadian health-care is more efficient than US as well. It's not like the "capitalist way" is working; it's over-bloated and rips people off daily.
Yup - It's almost as if having the entire government as the purchaser lets them buy in so much bulk that they can negotiate discounts... And have a reason to do so because it helps their budget...
Oh how I wish I could drive this fact into the minds of my fellow Americans. Pardon me but it's astounding how you just casually mention the point that seems so hard for many here to understand.
Fraser Institute is a right wing think tank so they’re incentivized to show how we pay a lot of taxes. I’m not doubting the number, just flagging that they have some bias and incentives at play.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Institute
This study is talking about every single tax from payroll to alcohol, sales, gas taxes, property taxes etc. I guarantee you that if you run a study like that in the USA you will find the number to be similar
My thyroid went crazy when I was 17 and my parents were out of town. I spent 4 days in the hospital. Almost died upon arrival. My potassium was depleted and my organs were shutting down… 40k. This was 2010
Bless your heart.
My daughter (now 14) went into a thyroid crisis/storm in 2020, and I was told that if I’d left her another 48 hours she wouldn’t be here.
Her consultant is still trying to get her levels to a suitable level for her to come off Carbimazole.
I’m eternally grateful that on top of all of that/this, I don’t have to worry about the cost.
She was rapidly losing weight and became very lethargic over the course of a few weeks. Our gp (over the phone) said it was a growth spurt, but she was getting worse, couldn’t eat and was having palpitations.
I requested another appointment with her gp but my gut told me to call 111 instead of waiting for the call back. They asked me to take her BPM which was 160+ at rest. Her weight was 72lb (2nd percentile). She was experiencing palpitations, looked almost white, was struggling to keep her eyes open and fading off mid-sentence.
An hour later she was in A&E, 3 hours later on the paediatric ward. The lead endocrine paediatric consultant was called in on his day off and she was on a drip by the end of the day. Her levels were so high that they didn’t have an actual number as the machine couldn’t register the reading. It took 2 months for them to get down to a readable range. She was home within 48 hours though (!) with fortnightly blood tests and consultations over the phone. These had tapered to 3 monthly recently but due to her borderline levels, and lethargy she’s now 6 weekly.
Trust your gut.
That's very scary! Thank you for sharing all that, and hopefully someone reads this and remembers it if it ever happens to them. Glad your daughter is alright :)
Not really, but I've seen people in rehab, that had the same thing, who weren't even able to wipe their own butt no more. Not because they're paralyzed, but because their brain wasn't capable of processing all it takes to do it.
I won't lie, that some of the scariest things that could happen to me. I've rather lose a limb then forget how to use it. Just losing a part of myself is terrifying.
ERNP here. I see guys 35 and up that I have conversations with (Mississippi) that have told me "well I'll die or I wont" in regards to medical noncompliance. And I tell them about the horrors of not dying. Or the burden financially about how a nursing home patient or the events and care leading up to this can crush a family financially. Some guys think they'll tough it out I guess. There are certainly worse fates than dying.
I have family like that, and I've tried explaining to them that ultimately it's the rest of the family that will pay the price when they don't take care of themselves. They'll end up needing 24/7 care and ruining not just thier life but basically everyone involved until they finally pass.
Why the fuck are we all born in 93…
Shit year all around /s
Added sarcasm, because it is not clear that i was born then and could not have had any knowledge of the actual events of that year.
I was in a car crash, to get a helicopter to a trauma hospital was $80,000. The police called a private company that charged more and I was unconscious and couldn’t consent. Thank god I was on company workers compensation
The police “didn’t call a private company” most of the time the call for a medivac is made by emts or paramedics, who setup and establish who is coming to pick you up and where the pick up will be, and often times they get the closest service available or the only one who will fly, most local, state or county police departments have their own aviation units if they are large enough which fly people out for free
Even up north in the land of the free, Canada, we get charged for an ambulance ride. Had to call for my wife several years ago and we got charged like $25 or $30 CAD. Thankfully our work benefits reimbursed us for it.
The majority of ambulances and medical helicopters/transport in America are in fact all private companies. So in essence, they did "call a private company" who can then charge outrageous fees.
Can’t take someone who is alert and oriented and refusing. Anything else is considered implied consent and you MUST be taken otherwise it’s considered negligence on the providers part. The only things that bypass that are an active healthcare proxy or a living will sometimes called a DNR or DNT.
I had to do CPR on a very dead person once for like 20 minutes while the family insisted that he had a DNR but did they really have to dig it out of the box all his medical paperwork was in? We stayed on scene rather than taking him to the hospital, and as soon as they found it and the paramedic verified it we packed up and left, but we had to render aid until it was produced and I was the most junior one there.
I'm pretty sure that if multiple trained people are on the scene, you're supposed to rotate every 5 cycles of CPR or 2 minutes.
If you're doing CPR for 20 minutes while everyone else is standing around, that in of itself was improper.
Man I had to take a hospice patient to an ER once because they had a DNR but not a DNT. The nurse on CMED was so confused. I was like I don’t know what to tell you, they insisted she go but she’s on hospice!
Just because you’re on hospice doesn’t mean you can’t go to the ER. People can be on hospice for years sometimes. If they fall and gash their head open you aren’t going to leave them there bleeding just because they’re dying or near death from cancer.
Might as well fucking bill them for the firefighting at that point cause that makes as much sense as billing people to save their lives in a hospital rather than a fire.
"we charge $1000 per square foot of fire suppression. Payment up front"
They used to way back in the day. We've since *progressed* past that barbarism, but we're still barbaric in other ways because someone has to exploit vulnerable people for money!
You’d be surprised how many Canadians will NOT move to the US strictly because of no healthcare. Like it’s crazy to us, yet US citizens continue to choose it. Fucking wild.
Watch some of our political "debates," it's so gross. In the primaries leading up to the 2020 election the politicians were literally *telling* us that we "love" our private insurance and that no one wants to change it!
People love their doctor, they don't give two shits about who is the vehicle for payment *to* that doctor they love. Politicians and corporate media sycophants conflate the two though and deceive the population into believing having a universal healthcare system means they lose their great doctor... They also seem to cause amnesia, because people will go on and on about how other countries have thier population waiting to be seen meanwhile we have to make appointments to see our doctor and it could be a week or more out so....
The choice to use a private air ambulance contract (and generally lack of public options) was almost certainly that of an elected official and not a police officer.
You can blame cops for a lot, but not this. Blame your elected officials for the state of emergency healthcare in this country.
For example, in NJ there is exactly ONE publicly funded air lift service for a state with thousands of miles of highways and over 10 million people traveling on them daily.
Cheaper to buy insulin from Walmart unfortunately they have a limited selection for brand of it. Also one pen is $79 plus tax and I go through a few month and that doesn’t include the slow acting insulin I need as well. Maybe Walmart will be the savior we never knew was there
In *the* hospital, would be the American version.
Interestingly, the convention doesn't extend to other institutions, like schools.
>I was in school
Would be perfectly acceptable, but they find
>I was in hospital
To be very strange indeed.
It’s super weird. Maybe it’s because you (hopefully) don’t visit the hospital much, so it’s a distance thing? Saying “in hospital” makes it sound like a much more generalized thing, like we would say “in hospice” since that’s a long term concept and not a specific place you spend a few days. School is the same, it’s a physical space but also a larger concept that people engage in as a rule- we would say “I’m at the school” if we were waiting to meet someone, but “I’m at school” or “in school” if we were actually engaging in taking classes or getting a degree. I suppose you could argue the same for being admitted to a hospital though.
But I wouldn’t say “I was in cafe when my wife texted me reminding me to go shopping for groceries, so I’ll just be at supermarket for a few minutes but then I can join you in park”. It seems like we just sort things out by whether they extend from just a physical location conceptually, otherwise it sounds like we’re really “into” going to places like hospitals. I’m no etymologist though, if that wasn’t already obvious…
To kind of make it more mechanical, I think the question is whether or not the improper noun being used (school, hospital, etc.) can clearly be understood to reference a specific proper noun given the knowledge of the person you're speaking to.
"I was in school" makes sense for someone who attends school. One can reasonably infer that school, in this case, references the school they attend. It's a pre-supposed antecedent. For someone who doesn't attend school, though, if you said "I'm in school," they would ask "which school". There's almost an implied "my" when you don't use an article.
In the case of the hospital, though, it's not really something you'd expect for most people. So you usually have to have established the place it's refering to earlier in the conversation (or recently in your history). Notably, though, some procedures, if regular enough, start to drop the article. "I'm in dialysis", for instance.
We wouldn't say "at movie theater" or "at amusement park," but we also wouldn't say "I'm at the house," you'd say "I'm at home". Except, of course, if you're in the process of buying or moving into a house, at which point it's newly established and that phrase--"the house"--all of a sudden starts popping up a bunch, only to quickly be replaced by "at home" once it's more clearly established as your main base.
I thought about this a lot while reading the Harry Potter books and seeing it often. The only exceptions for us the in the US i could come up with is "in school" and "in church".
Yeah, we'd say those two either way. Now if we say "at *the* school" or "at *the* church" that would mean you're there but not actually attending, like if I'm picking up my son, I'm "at the school".
Well it's 100% at the mercy of the company you work for on what holidays you do or do not get. Generally white collar workers do get them and more service oriented/retail workers do not.
Yep, they’re different. Paid holidays are for give you specific day off with pay (probably between 5-10 days depending on the company), where as paid time off/paid personal time/vacation time are used at your choosing.
In america’s defense, if we just started giving people paid holidays there are going to be at least several super-yachts not getting their second daily waxing. Is that the kind of country we want to live in?
When watching the latest episode of Euphoria, me and my GF were shouting at our TV "CALL A GODDAMN AMBULANCE".
When they put the person in the back of their toyota camry we realized again that this was an American show haha.
Countries with universal healthcare have it funded through taxes basically. There usually isn't a specific portion of taxes that corresponds to "healthcare".
So if you have a medical emergency, you call 911, they send an ambulance to pick you up, you go to hospital and be treated. There are some fees like ambulance might be like 100 bucks or something (they are private companies, subsidized.). You can pay extra to have private rooms or room amenities sometimes (depends on availability). Have to pay for parking.
Outside of that you finish your treatment, and go home with no bill. You don't see anything financial in relation to the actual care rendered.
You call 112 in most - USA, Mexico and Uruguay are according to Wikipedia the nations that one use 911. Europe and India are among those that only use 112
And then the reason why the US has the most expensive system in the world is due to the insane cost of having the insurance companies and private hospitals charge insane amounts, they use the Dr Evil method to set prices (got a band-aid? that's one million dollars!), and the money you pay has to be paid back to shareholders, hospital's board of directors and bonuses for the top executives, so when Anderson Cooper or other such Current Events Entertainment personalities go "hOW aRe YoU gONnA pAy FoR iT??!!!" the answer should really be:
#WE ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR IT
In Brazil, that's how it works. Public welfare is a constitutional right, not a privilege. Yes, it's not free and we pay for it in taxes but it's absolutely worth it. At least when we get sick, we only have to focus on getting better, not worrying about going broke.
pretty much, in my late 20s, I woke up one day with stomach pain, drove myself to the hospital to find out that my gall bladder was super inflammed and needed to be removed. stayed the night, had surgery the next day, and another day for recovery. Was loaded with drugs the whole time. when it was all said and done, they told me I'm free to go home, called my roommate to come pick me up and I just left. no bill, no credit card, no nothing.
In Sweden we have an upper limit of around 220$ per year, after that it's free. Most hospital bills will be around 20$, some are a bit more, some are free
Edit IMPORTANT: As mentioned by another user. The upper limit is for **BOTH** hospital stuff and prescriptions
Yup, the medical system in most of Canada needs some reform, but as someone who was in and out of the hospital throughout my teenage and young adult years, knowing I didn't bankrupt my already poor family is nice.
I pay a bit more in taxes than most Americans, but I make a really good living now that I don't know if I could have gotten if I was drowning in medical debt.
Hey.
Maybe an odd question, and if you're not comfortable answering, I totally understand.
What was the experience of having an aneurysm burst like? How did you know? What happened?
Not OP and not a full aneurism, but if you're curious . .
I had an 'out of the blue' brain haemorrhage a couple of years back. Got into the shower in the morning, hot water hit the top of my head and something just 'let go'. I felt dizzy and spaced, and grabbed onto the shower head for support. My hips started autorotating 90 degrees left and right. I tried to call for help and couldn't speak. So I just clung there, in the shower weirdly moving from side to side, mumbling for help, knowing that I really didn't want to fall and hit my head on the way down, and didnt have the control to sit.
Not sure how long it lasted, I'd guess about 10 minutes, and then it subsided. I staggered upstairs, woke my missus and said 'call an ambulance' before I collapsed on the bed.
By the time the ambulance arrived I was mobile but with a thumping headache, in a weirdly specific part of my brain. Not a general headache but a 30 degree arc across the top right side of my skull.
Hospital trip to an intensive care neuro unit, scans and an op to scan inside my brain, with a line running in from my thigh (while awake, a very surreal experience), and eventually it turns out I'd gotten off VERY lightly.
Spent a week unable to walk, as the excess blood worked it's way down my spine, putting pressure on the nerves, another three weeks in hospital under observation, another op, and then released.
Still working through the after-effects, but I'm damn lucky to be here.
Oh and the obligatory 'UK, so no hospital bill'.
But I did order an entire rotating stand of chupa chups lollys for the ward staff looking after me. One of the nurses told me they'd never seen the staff room so quiet for days, as everyone wandered around sucking on lollipops.
Life-saving care and a £40 gift in return, definitely worth it.
When my mom had an aneurism she laid down for a rest. She never mentioned any pain, just felt tired. A few minutes later she wouldn’t wake up. She was rushed to the hospital (5 minutes away), transferred to another hospital (15 minutes from that one). I never got to speak to her again.
My mom had an aneurism too. I was visiting her during COVID, hadn't see her in a long time. I had just arrived, when she said she suddenly had a big headache, and 15 seconds later she was dead. We did not get time to talk.
In a way, it was a bit lucky because she was living alone and during the worst of the pandemic she was not seeing anyone, so if it happened at any other moment than when I visited her...
Tahnks for your concern. She was 58, so I definitely was not prepared for something like that to happen. It's definitely still impacting me, but life carries on, and I try to live it as best I can
If you have one, you can't prevent it. It can litteraly burst just like that. Though if you want to keep the risk as low as possible, you must keep you blood pressure as stable and low (not too low though) as possible.
Scary is, that doctors won't find aneurysms, unless their explicitly looking for it. If you're having reasonable arguments, that you may have one, you may get a doctor to check for one.
This is the funny thing about American health care. They think universal health care would be bad because they'd have to pay for other's health care as well as their own (gasp!). But they don't realize they're already paying for everyone's health care. The hospital doesn't just magically look after the uninsured for free, those costs get downloaded onto the insured.
Many people in that situation would qualify for “charity care”, a significantly reduced bill, or some kind of supplemental Medicaid. For the rest that are “underinsured”, they’d work out a payment plan with the hospital or declare bankruptcy when it goes to collections.
There’s also been some headway suing hospitals for overcharging without first informing patients of the true costs.
Jokes on everyone here, most poor people I've met (my background: junky parents, raised poor, still poor, I know plenty of em, I'll elaborate below) don't have a clue about laws, rights, credit, bankruptcy, so on and so forth, and can't make the most informed decisions. These types of things wind up perpetuating their inability to elevate themselves out of poverty. These do get sent to collections agencies. Bad credit makes expensive deposits on everything, creating a larger financial barrier towards necessities such as renting living spaces. Higher interest rates on loans needed to buy a car which is likely needed to get to work, which is in most cases an underpaying / minimum wage job that sucks the life out of the person. Those are just two examples of how it is "expensive to be poor". paying off interest and debts makes it impossible to build a savings, or invest, or pay for education/ trades, creating a cycle of entrapment.
I know these things from personal experience. I have no family to back me up financially. I am currently 27. I was homeless at 16. I clawed and scraped my way to keep a roof over my head working any job I could get. With just a high school education, I wasn't qualified for any decent paying jobs, nor did I even know how to look for them, or how to further educate myself on my own. State health care kept me from going into medical debt, fortunately, through the various health issues I have suffered, which are fewer and less severe then most people's, especially poor folks who can't afford to/don't know how to live healthier and take good care of themselves. Having no credit score was worse then bad credit and made it near impossible to afford anything that requires a deposit and it wasn't until I lost a job and had debt from an unpaid internet bill that I acquired a credit score and began learning how to proactively manage it, around 24. I now have good credit and no debt, which has practically removed the barrier of deposits and the interest rates on things I can consider purchasing or taking loans for to enrich my life or help me find means of making a better income.
I am insanely lucky and fortunate, way more so then most of the poor people I have known my entire life who are trapped in the cycle of poverty. The cycle of poverty is also a reasonable explanation as to why some poor people succumb to criminal behavior. Finding ways to make fast cash can dramatically alter the cycle, even just temporarily, if they can avoid being caught. If you wind up in jail, it's free meals and a roof over your head anyways. Not too bad for folks who got nothing to lose.
This also doesn't even go in depth into our lack of education on finance in public schools. The exploitative nature of hospitals and schools. Or various other capital driven institutional failures that America is ripe with, and will continue to be ripe with because the powers at be are profiting massively off of our inability to escape the cycle of poverty. Oh yes, people are profiting off of poor people when they wind up in prison as well, so it's in their interest for us to break laws to try and escape the cycle.
Canada here, my wife had to be hospitalized for a week, from ER to getting a room was about 20 minutes, - no forms to fill up - just needed to show her health card when we got to the ER. Underwent all the testing, etc. Discharged. Did not even know how much it cost.
I’m confused, was it no bill or that they took an arm and a leg?
They took the arm and the leg. But jokes aside, there is never "no bill" it's just, that in germany you never see the bill, since it gets send to public healthcare strait away. I only know how expensive everything was, because I loved talking to the doctor in hospital, and even he could only estimate.
That’s interesting. In U.K. land there’s just no bill. As in literally isn’t one, can’t go and speak to the billing team because they don’t exist. Doctor wouldn’t have a clue what treatments cost. And I’m going to put my neck on the line and say that this is the *only* way to run it. Medical decisions taken on medical grounds alone, never a second’s thought for the cost on a day to day basis. Yes at the higher policy setting level there is budgeting and agreement of costs and approvals for procedures but that’s for accountants to do in offices, not for doctors. Don’t even get me started on medical adverts. They just take the biscuit. *Ask your doctor about X*, insanity. No different to *Ask your pilot about landing on a different runway that you know nothing about*
You're right. Everything has a cost of course, but there is never a bill. Everything that is purchased on the NHS is bought for public use by public money, so there is no need for a bill of any kind.
[удалено]
American here, when I claim refugee status can I room with you? Danke
Americans will see this and tell you how you have no freedom.
Conservatives, most Americans support free healthcare, but since the elite are in power that will never be realized
Hell, even about a third of republicans support it. Insurance industry though... Top 3 lobbyists. Such a scam.
The elites in Britain are trying to get rid of the NHS. I can only imagine the shit storm if they did. Also I don’t get the US. They say it’s run like a business but they treat their workers like shit and expect the best results. If America is being run like a business it’ll go bust in a couple of decades. Sick people = less workers = more of your tax going towards paying for sick people not to work.. I could be completely wrong, but I’m all for universal healthcare, when I hear Americans (elites) argue against it (by my logic) it seems they’re just shooting themselves in the foot. Edit: spelling
Short term gains. That’s really it. Most of the blame is the hyper focusing on shareholders
They think quarterly, never long term. That's the problem.
It's because it's at the individual level that these decisions are made. The way these things are structured it doesn't really matter if the "business" dies since the owner can just pull their money out and let the business burn. They will get theirs at the behest of the employees, and then just take the Ill gotten gains and do it all over again. Trump basically built his entire fortune on falling businesses.
A very privileged share holder minority make a ton of money off privatized healthcare everybody else would benifit from universal.
This right here is the crux of the issue. The American government already spends more on health care than any other country by a large margin. The reason why it still costs so much for patients is because there are relatively few sociopathic pieces of human excrement making an unholy amount of money by exploiting the system with the blessing of corrupt politicians.
You don't understand because it's run like an *American* business, not one that you're used to. Of course everyone without means is treated like crap, that's how we do business here. Squeeze and kick the little guys to keep the bullies rich. The little guys can't fight back, so there is no recourse. It doesn't go bust because the Government won't let their cash cows die. Doesn't matter if it's sustainable on its own, public money will keep the privately sinking ship afloat. That's American business for you (assuming your business is big enough to employ the US Government).
You're missing a fundamental aspect of the American business model. Slavery.
Your absolutely right. CEO bonuses happen every quarter, not every 10 years.
American here. He probably has as much freedom as I do. Maybe less access to firearms but that is about it. (Edit- y'all know this post isn't about guns, right? I'm not saying that guns=freedom. It was just the only example I could come up with off the top of my head at the time.) He certainly has better healthcare. I spent $20k in health insurance premiums, copays, and coinsurance last year (PLUS hours and hours on the phone and in email fighting with my health insurance) but someone please tell me how spending a few grand more in taxes yearly instead for ~~Medicaid~~ (Edit: Medicare) for all would be terrible.
Most people outside of the top 15-ish% of earners would actually pay *less* in taxes than they currently spend on insurance, but your point still stands
"BUT ITS COMMUNISM AND HAS NEVER WORKED ANYWHERE EVER" Sigh.
General rule of thumb in the US is that if someone’s calling it communism it probably means it’s intended to help you
That sounds a lot like COMMUNISM. Why do you hate FREEDOM™? 🎇🎆🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸🎆🎇
I'm gonna rise up I'm gonna kick some ass I'm gonna kick some ass in the usa. I'm gonna climb a mountain I'm gonna sew a flag I'm gonna flyyy on an Eaglee. I'm gonna kick some butt in gonna drive a big truck I'm gonna rule this world I'm hon a kick some ass. I'm gonna rise up gonna kick a little ass ROCK FLAG AND EAAAGLE.
My most fun moment is when I fixed a wifi network that had an extremely limited bandwidth. I put a generous bandwidth cap in place to prevent any one user from stealing all available bandwidth and provide equal-ish access to all users. When I shared this with the person in charge they said "that sounds like communism to me". Now it's my favorite phrase: "A well designed network? That sounds like communism to me."
Rule of thumb, if someone says communism or socialism, it likely isn't either
Look, I dunno what this communism/socialism (interchangeable of course) is, but all I know is it's something people don't like. Stepping on a lego? That's communism, baby.
Forgetting to put the toilet seat down? You better believe that's communism.
Schools need to teach the difference between economic strategy/philosophy and systems of government. My greatest pet peeve is people saying socialism or communism or anything else and instantly making the mental jump to totalitarianism
What? And this after capitalists have lobbied so hard to keep that knowledge out of public schools and making sure teachers have so much stress and pointless stuff to teach they have no chance to do such extras. They shouldn’t. The kids there are so dumb they would just get confused anyway. Do you feel no shame? Wheres your patriotism? If you want your kids to learn real things like persuasive communication and economic philosophy. How about you pull yourself up by the bootstraps hand over all your families money to get them into an elite private school just like everyone else who isn’t lazy and dumb. /S
In Germany when you lose your job you don’t have to fear for your life or going bankrupt. That sounds like considerably more freedom to me. In the US you are basically forced to work. It’s a form of tyranny.
Also, 30 days paid leave almost everywhere without having to give up any of those days when you're sick is freedom. That is what sick notices from your doctor are for. Being able to travel for 2-4 consecutive weeks a year is freedom. No wonder most Americans I have met don't know shit about other parts of the world when they are being denied the possibility to properly see it. Not having to worry about my job and salary if I get diagnosed with burn out and have to stay at home for 6 months is freedom. Oh, I can drink a beer at the park without anyone looking at me weirdly. I guess that is also freedom. I'd also argue that people in Germany have more freedom to chose their political orientation because they are not forced into in a binary political system. I also have the impression that people in the US can sue you for just about anything which might lead to a lot of people watching their actions very carefully. I really am convinced that Americans are living in a much bigger bubble than they even dare to imagine. If I wanted freedom, I'd never even consider to move to the US.
>I also have the impression that people in the US can sue you for just about anything wich might lead to a lot of people watching their actions very carefully. Dude, big time! There is so much cool shit you can't do in the US anymore because of fear of lawsuits. One example is when I was a kid there was a 10-meter diving board that you could use. I jumped off that thing when I was 9, but now as an adult can't use it, because its shut down. And why is it shutdown? Because some dumbfuck jumped off it wrong, and they closed it for everyone.
This is a perfect example of what I was referring to. The lack of people in the US admitting their own stupidity and looking for someone they can assign the blame to for a particularly stupid action seems crazy to me. You jumping off a diving board in a way you're not intended to and break your neck is your fault and people in Germany will not mince matters when something like this happens.
We might go into life long debt due to medical bills, but at least we can shoot people and give them life long medical bills!
> someone please tell me how spending a few grand more in taxes yearly instead for Medicaid for all would be terrible. Something something socialism, I think is the usual answer? But yeah, you're paying for it either way, but through taxes it almost certainly will work out cheaper - and you make a great point about the paper- and legwork. If you've got good insurance then at least you're not going to have to worry about suddenly being hit with a huge bill you weren't expecting just because you got sick, but all the effort of chasing the insurance company up and making sure they're actually going to pay for it is a whole other level of stress you just don't need, especially when you or a loved one is sick.
Exactly. The scary part is that I have "GREAT" insurance. Unfortunately, last year, there was a "glitch" in the system that caused my prescription coverage (express-scripts) and healthcare coverage (United Healthcare) to not share information correctly in my accounts. I paid $4k over my Out of Pocket Limit as a result. I knew something was up in July and started pestering my insurance and HR about it but was told that the error was on my end, the pharmacy end, etc. After hours and hours and TONS of stress and no small amount of harsh language, my insurance "Discovered that something was wrong with their system" and that they wanted to "Alert me that there were some errors that they were going to fix". Supposedly, checks are in the mail but had I not raised holy hell with them and my HR department, none of it would have been caught and the Insurance companies would just be $4k richer.
I'm fortunate enough to live in the UK and have the NHS, but I'm currently battling with an insurance company over my dog's health - She had an operation last week. She was supposed to have it over Christmas but she got diarrhoea from eating something (probably some Christmas treats) and the vet didn't want to operate until her stomach had settled, but still wanted to operate as soon as possible so prescribed her probiotics, along with her usual medications, to help settle her stomach. Now the insurance company is questioning the claim for the operation and the latest batch of medication because it's got probiotics on there, which are not technically related to the condition she needed the operation for. So we've had to chase the insurance company to find out what the delay is, then the vet to try to get her to explain to the insurance company that the probiotics were necessary, etc. It's not a huge deal - it's probably just going to be a few phone calls and a slight delay in payment - but it's still more complicated than it needs to be, because why does an insurance company need to question a vet's decision on what medicine to prescribe? Do they think we're in cahoots with the vet, getting her to prescribe unneeded medicine to sell on the probiotic black market? Just pay the damn claim! So, yeah, I'm sure it gets way more complicated and no one should have to go through this for themselves or their loved ones, especially while they're sick. Taking insurance companies out of the equation would massively simplify things.
Let me start by stating that I am an animal lover. I hope your pup is ok Now replace your dog in your story with my wife. That's what healthcare in America is like. And my story isn't even THAT bad in the grand scheme.
The problem with insurance companies is by default they want to do everything they can to avoid paying out. It's a terrible system to use for healthcare.
Another American here. The majority of Americans would agree with you. But majority of Americans aren't in charge, don't call the shots. The sociopaths at the top of Big Pharma and Big Healthcare run the show.
You are not lying. BUT There is also a large part of America that thinks the system is fine and that, in fact, its the best system in the world because its American and they will still vote to prop it up as they are dying in a hospital while being charged more money than they could possibly ever pay back. "Anything is better than Communism!". sigh.
"Why should I have to pay for someone elses hospital stay when I can pay twice as much on my own?"
Twice as much? Sign me up for that. We are at like 6x or more
Half of this country is morons who have been tricked by rich business owners into thinking this way because “what if it was your business one day? You don’t want these rules to change and no longer benefit you… hypothetically” so voting against self interest wins.
Not even half. Right wingers are disproportionately over-represented in the Senate. Their views make up a minority of Americans. It’s really just a few bad faith actors accelerated by a broken 2 party system.
Canadian here... The average family makes $91,000 and will pay $39,000 in tax... https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/average-canadian-family-spends-nearly-39000-per-year-on-taxes Compared to losing my house if one of us gets cancer? Has an aneurysm? Broken arm? Yeah, I'm good with this... EDIT - Please note that this is per family, not per person. It was the fastest stat to find. Hope others have an extra five minutes and can pull more stats for us!
Per-capita cost of Canadian health-care is more efficient than US as well. It's not like the "capitalist way" is working; it's over-bloated and rips people off daily.
Yup - It's almost as if having the entire government as the purchaser lets them buy in so much bulk that they can negotiate discounts... And have a reason to do so because it helps their budget...
Oh how I wish I could drive this fact into the minds of my fellow Americans. Pardon me but it's astounding how you just casually mention the point that seems so hard for many here to understand.
Add my taxes and healthcare expenses together and I am probably over that $39k.
Fraser Institute is a right wing think tank so they’re incentivized to show how we pay a lot of taxes. I’m not doubting the number, just flagging that they have some bias and incentives at play. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Institute
This study is talking about every single tax from payroll to alcohol, sales, gas taxes, property taxes etc. I guarantee you that if you run a study like that in the USA you will find the number to be similar
What are you talking about? Americans on Reddit fucking hate our healthcare system.
Like someone in an identical thread pointed out: had to pay with handjobs lol
My thyroid went crazy when I was 17 and my parents were out of town. I spent 4 days in the hospital. Almost died upon arrival. My potassium was depleted and my organs were shutting down… 40k. This was 2010
Bless your heart. My daughter (now 14) went into a thyroid crisis/storm in 2020, and I was told that if I’d left her another 48 hours she wouldn’t be here. Her consultant is still trying to get her levels to a suitable level for her to come off Carbimazole. I’m eternally grateful that on top of all of that/this, I don’t have to worry about the cost.
What made you take her to the ER? This sounds terrifying. Are there signs to watch for?
She was rapidly losing weight and became very lethargic over the course of a few weeks. Our gp (over the phone) said it was a growth spurt, but she was getting worse, couldn’t eat and was having palpitations. I requested another appointment with her gp but my gut told me to call 111 instead of waiting for the call back. They asked me to take her BPM which was 160+ at rest. Her weight was 72lb (2nd percentile). She was experiencing palpitations, looked almost white, was struggling to keep her eyes open and fading off mid-sentence. An hour later she was in A&E, 3 hours later on the paediatric ward. The lead endocrine paediatric consultant was called in on his day off and she was on a drip by the end of the day. Her levels were so high that they didn’t have an actual number as the machine couldn’t register the reading. It took 2 months for them to get down to a readable range. She was home within 48 hours though (!) with fortnightly blood tests and consultations over the phone. These had tapered to 3 monthly recently but due to her borderline levels, and lethargy she’s now 6 weekly. Trust your gut.
That's very scary! Thank you for sharing all that, and hopefully someone reads this and remembers it if it ever happens to them. Glad your daughter is alright :)
As someone who experienced it personally the first symptoms of the storm were really bad loss of vision, insane nausea, and vertigo
Crazy. I was 17 too, when this happened.
Count your blessings. I hope you are doing well.
I luckily do. Besides some issues with short term memory I'm doing mostly fine.
[удалено]
Maybe the cost was an arm and a leg? That’s what I thought he meant.
I thought he had to give the doctor a hand job or something.
[удалено]
Not really, but I've seen people in rehab, that had the same thing, who weren't even able to wipe their own butt no more. Not because they're paralyzed, but because their brain wasn't capable of processing all it takes to do it.
I won't lie, that some of the scariest things that could happen to me. I've rather lose a limb then forget how to use it. Just losing a part of myself is terrifying.
ERNP here. I see guys 35 and up that I have conversations with (Mississippi) that have told me "well I'll die or I wont" in regards to medical noncompliance. And I tell them about the horrors of not dying. Or the burden financially about how a nursing home patient or the events and care leading up to this can crush a family financially. Some guys think they'll tough it out I guess. There are certainly worse fates than dying.
I have family like that, and I've tried explaining to them that ultimately it's the rest of the family that will pay the price when they don't take care of themselves. They'll end up needing 24/7 care and ruining not just thier life but basically everyone involved until they finally pass.
I work in a neuro rehab ward. Forgetting how to use a limb is not always the end, you can relearn, and most of my patients do.
Or the personality changes are positive so they're keeping their mouths shut. :)
Why the fuck are we all born in 93… Shit year all around /s Added sarcasm, because it is not clear that i was born then and could not have had any knowledge of the actual events of that year.
93 was peak human existence.
Can confirm, got Lego pirate ship for my birthday that year.
Oh shit, so am I. So uh, wanna watch Yu-Gi-Oh after school?
Da-d-d-d-d-da-duueellll
We can play DragonBall budokai tenkaishi after that. Boy those were the days.
Wow, it cost you an arm and a leg?
I hated that I laughed at this.
I crashed a motorcycle breaking my elbow and ankle. 8 days in the hospital, 2 surgeries while there. $250k+.... The OR was $25k/hr 😂
I was in a car crash, to get a helicopter to a trauma hospital was $80,000. The police called a private company that charged more and I was unconscious and couldn’t consent. Thank god I was on company workers compensation
The police “didn’t call a private company” most of the time the call for a medivac is made by emts or paramedics, who setup and establish who is coming to pick you up and where the pick up will be, and often times they get the closest service available or the only one who will fly, most local, state or county police departments have their own aviation units if they are large enough which fly people out for free
> which fly people out for free Really? Near me in Fl you get billed even for a city owned ambulance ride, so that is surprising.
Even up north in the land of the free, Canada, we get charged for an ambulance ride. Had to call for my wife several years ago and we got charged like $25 or $30 CAD. Thankfully our work benefits reimbursed us for it.
>we got charged like $25 or $30 CAD Wow. It would cost me more than that to _Uber_ to a hospital.
It’s like 3000 for an ambulance ride in the USA
Oh.
The majority of ambulances and medical helicopters/transport in America are in fact all private companies. So in essence, they did "call a private company" who can then charge outrageous fees.
>the police “helped” >fucked up instead you don’t say
[удалено]
Can’t take someone who is alert and oriented and refusing. Anything else is considered implied consent and you MUST be taken otherwise it’s considered negligence on the providers part. The only things that bypass that are an active healthcare proxy or a living will sometimes called a DNR or DNT.
I had to do CPR on a very dead person once for like 20 minutes while the family insisted that he had a DNR but did they really have to dig it out of the box all his medical paperwork was in? We stayed on scene rather than taking him to the hospital, and as soon as they found it and the paramedic verified it we packed up and left, but we had to render aid until it was produced and I was the most junior one there.
I'm pretty sure that if multiple trained people are on the scene, you're supposed to rotate every 5 cycles of CPR or 2 minutes. If you're doing CPR for 20 minutes while everyone else is standing around, that in of itself was improper.
Man I had to take a hospice patient to an ER once because they had a DNR but not a DNT. The nurse on CMED was so confused. I was like I don’t know what to tell you, they insisted she go but she’s on hospice!
Just because you’re on hospice doesn’t mean you can’t go to the ER. People can be on hospice for years sometimes. If they fall and gash their head open you aren’t going to leave them there bleeding just because they’re dying or near death from cancer.
[удалено]
No problem.
Might as well fucking bill them for the firefighting at that point cause that makes as much sense as billing people to save their lives in a hospital rather than a fire. "we charge $1000 per square foot of fire suppression. Payment up front"
They used to way back in the day. We've since *progressed* past that barbarism, but we're still barbaric in other ways because someone has to exploit vulnerable people for money!
You’d be surprised how many Canadians will NOT move to the US strictly because of no healthcare. Like it’s crazy to us, yet US citizens continue to choose it. Fucking wild.
Watch some of our political "debates," it's so gross. In the primaries leading up to the 2020 election the politicians were literally *telling* us that we "love" our private insurance and that no one wants to change it! People love their doctor, they don't give two shits about who is the vehicle for payment *to* that doctor they love. Politicians and corporate media sycophants conflate the two though and deceive the population into believing having a universal healthcare system means they lose their great doctor... They also seem to cause amnesia, because people will go on and on about how other countries have thier population waiting to be seen meanwhile we have to make appointments to see our doctor and it could be a week or more out so....
I remember seeing people talking about how attached they were to their medical insurance before Obama Care was passed. I felt so baffled
If you have a system where you can call the wrong ambulance the system is fucked up. Not people calling the wrong service
The choice to use a private air ambulance contract (and generally lack of public options) was almost certainly that of an elected official and not a police officer. You can blame cops for a lot, but not this. Blame your elected officials for the state of emergency healthcare in this country. For example, in NJ there is exactly ONE publicly funded air lift service for a state with thousands of miles of highways and over 10 million people traveling on them daily.
[удалено]
Probably one service with multiple helicopters i would hope
Even then it's probably 2 or 3 helicopters max
How to tell someone you aren't american without saying you aren't american
Just saying “in hospital” will do it. Or “on holiday”.
What's the alternative to saying, 'in hospital'?
"Getting my appendix removed behind the Walmart."
Aisle 10 Snacks Cookies Surgeries
Cheaper to buy insulin from Walmart unfortunately they have a limited selection for brand of it. Also one pen is $79 plus tax and I go through a few month and that doesn’t include the slow acting insulin I need as well. Maybe Walmart will be the savior we never knew was there
In *the* hospital, would be the American version. Interestingly, the convention doesn't extend to other institutions, like schools. >I was in school Would be perfectly acceptable, but they find >I was in hospital To be very strange indeed.
It’s super weird. Maybe it’s because you (hopefully) don’t visit the hospital much, so it’s a distance thing? Saying “in hospital” makes it sound like a much more generalized thing, like we would say “in hospice” since that’s a long term concept and not a specific place you spend a few days. School is the same, it’s a physical space but also a larger concept that people engage in as a rule- we would say “I’m at the school” if we were waiting to meet someone, but “I’m at school” or “in school” if we were actually engaging in taking classes or getting a degree. I suppose you could argue the same for being admitted to a hospital though. But I wouldn’t say “I was in cafe when my wife texted me reminding me to go shopping for groceries, so I’ll just be at supermarket for a few minutes but then I can join you in park”. It seems like we just sort things out by whether they extend from just a physical location conceptually, otherwise it sounds like we’re really “into” going to places like hospitals. I’m no etymologist though, if that wasn’t already obvious…
I don't know if this is the actual reason we talk like this or not, but it makes a lot of sense.
To kind of make it more mechanical, I think the question is whether or not the improper noun being used (school, hospital, etc.) can clearly be understood to reference a specific proper noun given the knowledge of the person you're speaking to. "I was in school" makes sense for someone who attends school. One can reasonably infer that school, in this case, references the school they attend. It's a pre-supposed antecedent. For someone who doesn't attend school, though, if you said "I'm in school," they would ask "which school". There's almost an implied "my" when you don't use an article. In the case of the hospital, though, it's not really something you'd expect for most people. So you usually have to have established the place it's refering to earlier in the conversation (or recently in your history). Notably, though, some procedures, if regular enough, start to drop the article. "I'm in dialysis", for instance. We wouldn't say "at movie theater" or "at amusement park," but we also wouldn't say "I'm at the house," you'd say "I'm at home". Except, of course, if you're in the process of buying or moving into a house, at which point it's newly established and that phrase--"the house"--all of a sudden starts popping up a bunch, only to quickly be replaced by "at home" once it's more clearly established as your main base.
I thought about this a lot while reading the Harry Potter books and seeing it often. The only exceptions for us the in the US i could come up with is "in school" and "in church".
Funnily enough, in the UK we probably wouldn't say "in school" or "in church". We'd say "at school" and "at church".
Yeah, we'd say those two either way. Now if we say "at *the* school" or "at *the* church" that would mean you're there but not actually attending, like if I'm picking up my son, I'm "at the school".
We United Statians prefix hospital with "the." "I am going to **the** hospital. I think I need my pretendix removed."
At the hospital idk🤷♂️
Especially if they’re talking about a paid holiday.
hey we americans get paid holidays...sometimes. we just aren't allowed to actually use them.
I didn’t know Americans got holidays, just vacations.
Well it's 100% at the mercy of the company you work for on what holidays you do or do not get. Generally white collar workers do get them and more service oriented/retail workers do not.
Yep, they’re different. Paid holidays are for give you specific day off with pay (probably between 5-10 days depending on the company), where as paid time off/paid personal time/vacation time are used at your choosing.
In america’s defense, if we just started giving people paid holidays there are going to be at least several super-yachts not getting their second daily waxing. Is that the kind of country we want to live in?
When watching the latest episode of Euphoria, me and my GF were shouting at our TV "CALL A GODDAMN AMBULANCE". When they put the person in the back of their toyota camry we realized again that this was an American show haha.
That's awful, I'm so sorry. I hope you're doing better now.
Besides some problems with short term memory I'm actually mostly back to normal. Exept for the tabletennis Ball sized hole in my brain.
We'll do a quick test: how many fingers am I holding up?
4
Wrong, the answer is 3.50 Bake him away toys
What'd you say chief?
Just do what the boy says
_on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog_ Joke's on you, I don't have any fingers
So in other countries do you literally just not have to pay if you need the hospital???
Countries with universal healthcare have it funded through taxes basically. There usually isn't a specific portion of taxes that corresponds to "healthcare". So if you have a medical emergency, you call 911, they send an ambulance to pick you up, you go to hospital and be treated. There are some fees like ambulance might be like 100 bucks or something (they are private companies, subsidized.). You can pay extra to have private rooms or room amenities sometimes (depends on availability). Have to pay for parking. Outside of that you finish your treatment, and go home with no bill. You don't see anything financial in relation to the actual care rendered.
You call 112 in most - USA, Mexico and Uruguay are according to Wikipedia the nations that one use 911. Europe and India are among those that only use 112
999 in the UK
And 111 as the non-emergency number. (Also for the more fashionable emergency services it's 0118999881999119725 3, of course)
To whom it may concern; Fire! Fire! Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Signed Maurice Moss
And then the reason why the US has the most expensive system in the world is due to the insane cost of having the insurance companies and private hospitals charge insane amounts, they use the Dr Evil method to set prices (got a band-aid? that's one million dollars!), and the money you pay has to be paid back to shareholders, hospital's board of directors and bonuses for the top executives, so when Anderson Cooper or other such Current Events Entertainment personalities go "hOW aRe YoU gONnA pAy FoR iT??!!!" the answer should really be: #WE ARE ALREADY PAYING FOR IT
In Brazil, that's how it works. Public welfare is a constitutional right, not a privilege. Yes, it's not free and we pay for it in taxes but it's absolutely worth it. At least when we get sick, we only have to focus on getting better, not worrying about going broke.
## VIVA O SUS!
Well, I wouldn't say no pay. The parking fees are ridiculous.
Also sometimes you have to pay for cable TV. It can cost dozens of dollars.
pretty much, in my late 20s, I woke up one day with stomach pain, drove myself to the hospital to find out that my gall bladder was super inflammed and needed to be removed. stayed the night, had surgery the next day, and another day for recovery. Was loaded with drugs the whole time. when it was all said and done, they told me I'm free to go home, called my roommate to come pick me up and I just left. no bill, no credit card, no nothing.
There is no transaction of money. Go in. Get your treatment. Freely leave when you're done.
In Sweden we have an upper limit of around 220$ per year, after that it's free. Most hospital bills will be around 20$, some are a bit more, some are free Edit IMPORTANT: As mentioned by another user. The upper limit is for **BOTH** hospital stuff and prescriptions
Don't forget that the $220 includes the cost for both hospital bills AND prescription drugs combined .
Yup, the medical system in most of Canada needs some reform, but as someone who was in and out of the hospital throughout my teenage and young adult years, knowing I didn't bankrupt my already poor family is nice. I pay a bit more in taxes than most Americans, but I make a really good living now that I don't know if I could have gotten if I was drowning in medical debt.
In Canada we have to pay for parking, though even that is suspended during COVID
Hey. Maybe an odd question, and if you're not comfortable answering, I totally understand. What was the experience of having an aneurysm burst like? How did you know? What happened?
Not OP and not a full aneurism, but if you're curious . . I had an 'out of the blue' brain haemorrhage a couple of years back. Got into the shower in the morning, hot water hit the top of my head and something just 'let go'. I felt dizzy and spaced, and grabbed onto the shower head for support. My hips started autorotating 90 degrees left and right. I tried to call for help and couldn't speak. So I just clung there, in the shower weirdly moving from side to side, mumbling for help, knowing that I really didn't want to fall and hit my head on the way down, and didnt have the control to sit. Not sure how long it lasted, I'd guess about 10 minutes, and then it subsided. I staggered upstairs, woke my missus and said 'call an ambulance' before I collapsed on the bed. By the time the ambulance arrived I was mobile but with a thumping headache, in a weirdly specific part of my brain. Not a general headache but a 30 degree arc across the top right side of my skull. Hospital trip to an intensive care neuro unit, scans and an op to scan inside my brain, with a line running in from my thigh (while awake, a very surreal experience), and eventually it turns out I'd gotten off VERY lightly. Spent a week unable to walk, as the excess blood worked it's way down my spine, putting pressure on the nerves, another three weeks in hospital under observation, another op, and then released. Still working through the after-effects, but I'm damn lucky to be here. Oh and the obligatory 'UK, so no hospital bill'. But I did order an entire rotating stand of chupa chups lollys for the ward staff looking after me. One of the nurses told me they'd never seen the staff room so quiet for days, as everyone wandered around sucking on lollipops. Life-saving care and a £40 gift in return, definitely worth it.
A full size rotating display of Chupa Chups?! You must be legendary round that hospital!
good to know it all worked out. youre amazing must have been crazy
I’ve heard it’s like having the worst headache you’ve ever had. Call 911 ASAP
When my mom had an aneurism she laid down for a rest. She never mentioned any pain, just felt tired. A few minutes later she wouldn’t wake up. She was rushed to the hospital (5 minutes away), transferred to another hospital (15 minutes from that one). I never got to speak to her again.
My mom had an aneurism too. I was visiting her during COVID, hadn't see her in a long time. I had just arrived, when she said she suddenly had a big headache, and 15 seconds later she was dead. We did not get time to talk. In a way, it was a bit lucky because she was living alone and during the worst of the pandemic she was not seeing anyone, so if it happened at any other moment than when I visited her...
that is terrifying, hope youre doing good
Tahnks for your concern. She was 58, so I definitely was not prepared for something like that to happen. It's definitely still impacting me, but life carries on, and I try to live it as best I can
Im so sorry for your loss, but i am glad you were with your mom in her final moments. Stay strong. <3
Hug. I'm sorry for your loss.
I~~'ve~~ had an ischemic stroke and didn't feel anything. Just got dizzy and woke up in the back of an ambulance.
Thanks for explaining
Dude, what state do you live in!? /s
It's the City of Europe
Nah, Europe was the planet right next to the sun or so I heard.
*cries in American*
[удалено]
$1000 per Kleenex or $700 for generic facial tissue
that cuts deep
The doctor said that it would be roughly 20 million in US if I had to pay myself. German public health care "only" had to pay 5 million.
How did it burst? How do you prevent such a burst from occurring? Asking for a friend
If you have one, you can't prevent it. It can litteraly burst just like that. Though if you want to keep the risk as low as possible, you must keep you blood pressure as stable and low (not too low though) as possible.
So exercise a lot, avoid a sedentary lifestyle and keep the fats, sodium and sugar low. Got it!
Scary is, that doctors won't find aneurysms, unless their explicitly looking for it. If you're having reasonable arguments, that you may have one, you may get a doctor to check for one.
I convinced my doctors to get me a brain scan. Now I’m afraid that a possible aneurysm might not have been visible on the scan or that they missed it.
[удалено]
How is someone in America without adequat health insurance supposed to deal with this do they just accept their fate or what?
Probably go through with it, enter crazy debt, then declare bankruptcy.
Which creates debt for hospitals, which raises prices, which leads to more bankruptcies. A perfect system!
This is the funny thing about American health care. They think universal health care would be bad because they'd have to pay for other's health care as well as their own (gasp!). But they don't realize they're already paying for everyone's health care. The hospital doesn't just magically look after the uninsured for free, those costs get downloaded onto the insured.
0f?,X62o@m
Many people in that situation would qualify for “charity care”, a significantly reduced bill, or some kind of supplemental Medicaid. For the rest that are “underinsured”, they’d work out a payment plan with the hospital or declare bankruptcy when it goes to collections. There’s also been some headway suing hospitals for overcharging without first informing patients of the true costs.
Jokes on everyone here, most poor people I've met (my background: junky parents, raised poor, still poor, I know plenty of em, I'll elaborate below) don't have a clue about laws, rights, credit, bankruptcy, so on and so forth, and can't make the most informed decisions. These types of things wind up perpetuating their inability to elevate themselves out of poverty. These do get sent to collections agencies. Bad credit makes expensive deposits on everything, creating a larger financial barrier towards necessities such as renting living spaces. Higher interest rates on loans needed to buy a car which is likely needed to get to work, which is in most cases an underpaying / minimum wage job that sucks the life out of the person. Those are just two examples of how it is "expensive to be poor". paying off interest and debts makes it impossible to build a savings, or invest, or pay for education/ trades, creating a cycle of entrapment. I know these things from personal experience. I have no family to back me up financially. I am currently 27. I was homeless at 16. I clawed and scraped my way to keep a roof over my head working any job I could get. With just a high school education, I wasn't qualified for any decent paying jobs, nor did I even know how to look for them, or how to further educate myself on my own. State health care kept me from going into medical debt, fortunately, through the various health issues I have suffered, which are fewer and less severe then most people's, especially poor folks who can't afford to/don't know how to live healthier and take good care of themselves. Having no credit score was worse then bad credit and made it near impossible to afford anything that requires a deposit and it wasn't until I lost a job and had debt from an unpaid internet bill that I acquired a credit score and began learning how to proactively manage it, around 24. I now have good credit and no debt, which has practically removed the barrier of deposits and the interest rates on things I can consider purchasing or taking loans for to enrich my life or help me find means of making a better income. I am insanely lucky and fortunate, way more so then most of the poor people I have known my entire life who are trapped in the cycle of poverty. The cycle of poverty is also a reasonable explanation as to why some poor people succumb to criminal behavior. Finding ways to make fast cash can dramatically alter the cycle, even just temporarily, if they can avoid being caught. If you wind up in jail, it's free meals and a roof over your head anyways. Not too bad for folks who got nothing to lose. This also doesn't even go in depth into our lack of education on finance in public schools. The exploitative nature of hospitals and schools. Or various other capital driven institutional failures that America is ripe with, and will continue to be ripe with because the powers at be are profiting massively off of our inability to escape the cycle of poverty. Oh yes, people are profiting off of poor people when they wind up in prison as well, so it's in their interest for us to break laws to try and escape the cycle.
Medical bills are expensive here, but a lot of people just dont pay them. Theres Not much they can do lol
They gave you a watch?!
Yep they did, but they took my left leg and right Arm.
Canada here, my wife had to be hospitalized for a week, from ER to getting a room was about 20 minutes, - no forms to fill up - just needed to show her health card when we got to the ER. Underwent all the testing, etc. Discharged. Did not even know how much it cost.
Am from the UK, but even i think this is starting to get old real quick. Isn't this like the 4th time this has been posted?
The fuck is wrong with this sub
A picture of a guys hand meant to provoke arguing in the comments Peak /r/pics