U.S. healthcare system horror stories?

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Puddles

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We all know that the U.S. healthcare system is terrible in many respects. Best high-end care in the world if you can afford it, but a miserable failure for tens of millions of Americans.

In this thread, I'm interested in hearing stories about how the system has failed specific people. If you, or someone you know, has had a horrible experience with the U.S. healthcare system due to being uninsured or under-insured, or getting screwed over when you thought you had insurance, post it here.

I'll start.

A good friend of mine lived without an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) for years, after tearing it in a football game in high school. He didn't have the money for a surgery. His knee stabilized on its own, but he couldn't play sports or do anything risky, and the knee was wobbly at times. Years later, he started earning enough money that he could pay for an operation on his own. Years of living with a wobbly knee that could give out at any time.
 
Puddles said:
We all know that the U.S. healthcare system is terrible in many respects. Best high-end care in the world if you can afford it, but a miserable failure for tens of millions of Americans.

In this thread, I'm interested in hearing stories about how the system has failed specific people. If you, or someone you know, has had a horrible experience with the U.S. healthcare system due to being uninsured or under-insured, or getting screwed over when you thought you had insurance, post it here.

I'll start.

A good friend of mine lived without an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) for years, after tearing it in a football game in high school. He didn't have the money for a surgery. His knee stabilized on its own, but he couldn't play sports or do anything risky, and the knee was wobbly at times. Years later, he started earning enough money that he could pay for an operation on his own. Years of living with a wobbly knee that could give out at any time.
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If I wasn't good enough to play in college/post college that would have been me with the cluster fuck of injuries I've had.



Basically for me it's the lack of anything preventitive. I can go to the free clinic for shit like when I know 99% I have strep throat. But anything else? No options besides going to the ER to bankrupt myself so I wouldn't go unless I literally was confident I was going to die.




Haven't been able to have a non sports related checkup in almost a decade.
 
With the OP's permission (up to you really Puddles) I'd like to also let people who have had good experiences have a comment.

As someone who lives in the UK all I ever get is a negative impression about the US healthcare system, but surely some people have had excellent care at a low cost, or some kind of loophole where they got free care or something?
 
Puddles said:
A good friend of mine lived without an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) for years, after tearing it in a football game in high school. He didn't have the money for a surgery. His knee stabilized on its own, but he couldn't play sports or do anything risky, and the knee was wobbly at times. Years later, he started earning enough money that he could pay for an operation on his own. Years of living with a wobbly knee that could give out at any time.
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That's not healthcare related - he's putting himself in danger on purpose IE smoking.
 
After my mom was laid of from her job, there went health insurance for her, my dad (he's self-employed), and me. My dad got on a super-expensive independent PPO for a year or so then luckily qualified for Meidcare and didn't have to keep worrying about it. I had a different light-coverage insurance plan per year for 3 or maybe 4 years, can't even remember now, before finally getting a fulltime job with great health benefits. My mom, even though she has no true "pre-existing conditions" and is generally in good health (never smoked, low risk for heart disease) despite typical issues expected from a woman her age, was essentially forced to go on Cobra as all the deductible plan quotes she has gotten so far were more expensive. This costs her over $500 a month which is waaaay more than any premium she's had to pay for employer-based coverage over time.

And even though this situation really sucks and is unnecessarily costly with no increase in quality of care.. at least it was simple and hassle-free. Oh no wait, I'm getting that wrong; it was extremely convoluted, requiring mounds of paperwork and leading to scary gaps in coverage several times.
 
I thought this was clever by my health insurer. My wife easily burned through her max out of pocket expense when she was pregnant with our youngest child. So everything involving the delivery, etc., should have been 100% covered. No no, you see, they decided to bill my daughter for her own delivery. Like I said, very clever.
 
Cat Party said:
I thought this was clever by my health insurer. My wife easily burned through her max out of pocket expense when she was pregnant with our youngest child. So everything involving the delivery, etc., should have been 100% covered. No no, you see, they decided to bill my daughter for her own delivery. Like I said, very clever.
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srsly? that's fucked up
 
My horrible healthcare stories deal with time and location. Being insured, the money aspect isn't really an issue, but the hassle of shuttling around to different specialists is a bit annoying.

Also dislike how ER's are arranged for double billing. you have to pay for the visut and also pay for the non-ER doctor to come visit you while you're there. This is why I avoid E/R's like the plague.
 
Cat Party said:
I thought this was clever by my health insurer. My wife easily burned through her max out of pocket expense when she was pregnant with our youngest child. So everything involving the delivery, etc., should have been 100% covered. No no, you see, they decided to bill my daughter for her own delivery. Like I said, very clever.
Click to expand...

Yep, this happened to us, too. We met our deductibles, but when our daughter was born, BOOM, additional $500 deductible created, I guess, at the moment of birth for the new human.

Of course, if we had to have another one NOW, when our medical plans are all tethered to a spending account no matter what, I can't even imagine how much it would cost. It's all about "preventative care" now, so a visit to anything other than a GP isn't covered until you hit some ridiculous amount.
 
We just had our first child. With my insurance, we had to pay almost $4,000 out of pocket to cover the doctors visits and the price of the c-section.

The other mothers on our floor on AHCCCS (Free healthcare for Arizona's lower income), paid almost nothing out of pocket. Many of them had multiple, multiple, multiple, children.

How fair is that shit? Sucks being the middle class sometimes. Breaks seem to be for the rich and the poor while we carry the burden.
 
I'm for a single-payer system, but even I think there have to be exceptions for injuries for shit like playing football. I'm sorry, but that is personal responsibility. I'm not saying he wanted to be injured, but you are putting yourself at an elevated risk by playing football, and you should pay accordingly for your own risky behavior. Genetics didn't force you to play football.
 
Tapiozona said:
We just had our first child. With my insurance, we had to pay almost $4,000 out of pocket to cover the doctors visits and the price of the c-section.

The other mothers on our floor on AHCCCS (Free healthcare for Arizona's lower income), paid almost nothing out of pocket. Many of them had multiple, multiple, multiple, children.

How fair is that shit? Sucks being the middle class sometimes. Breaks seem to be for the rich and the poor while we carry the burden.
Click to expand...

Be glad that you aren't poor, trust me. If you start comparing the two circumstances you are going to lose.
 
Tapiozona said:
We just had our first child. With my insurance, we had to pay almost $4,000 out of pocket to cover the doctors visits and the price of the c-section.

The other mothers on our floor on AHCCCS (Free healthcare for Arizona's lower income), paid almost nothing out of pocket. Many of them had multiple, multiple, multiple, children.

How fair is that shit? Sucks being the middle class sometimes. Breaks seem to be for the rich and the poor while we carry the burden.
Click to expand...

Welcome to America where the middle class is shit on because most of them think they will soon be filthy rich.
 
I met my $1000 deductible for 2011 on new year's eve. Happy New Year!

I usually pay a couple hundred dollars for every doctor visit. I can't afford to go as often as I should or would if I didn't have to pay so much for it.
 
shira said:
Yes but the % of injury and severity skyrockets with football.
No sympathy for his situation, he didn't get screwed by the system.
He screwed himself.
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loosus said:
I'm for a single-payer system, but even I think there have to be exceptions for injuries for shit like playing football. I'm sorry, but that is personal responsibility. I'm not saying he wanted to be injured, but you are putting yourself at an elevated risk by playing football, and you should pay accordingly for your own risky behavior. Genetics didn't force you to play football.
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Great. Throw away a hundred years of sporting tradition for the sake of an outdated ideology.

What if it had been a game of pickup basketball at the park? What if he had been skateboarding? Anyway, IIRC, the amount that his family was expected to pay came as a huge surprise, as his father had believed that such things were covered by his policy. It was a clusterfuck of a situation.

The logical conclusion of this conservative philosophy is that no one without health insurance would ever play any sports, since they need to take personal responsibility for their health. What a wondrous thing to encourage in one of the fattest nations in the world.

It makes far more sense to just cover every citizen for every possible illness or injury.

The point of that example was that a guy suffered for several years when in UHC countries he would have had an operation, and that would have been that.
 
Puddles said:
Great. Throw away a hundred years of sporting tradition for the sake of an outdated ideology.

What if it had been a game of pickup basketball at the park? What if he had been skateboarding? Anyway, IIRC, the amount that his family was expected to pay came as a huge surprise, as his father had believed that such things were covered by his policy. It was a clusterfuck of a situation.

The logical conclusion of this conservative philosophy is that no one without health insurance would ever play any sports, since they need to take personal responsibility for their health. What a wondrous thing to encourage in one of the fattest nations in the world.

It makes far more sense to just cover every citizen for every possible illness or injury.

The point of that example was that a guy suffered for several years when in UHC countries he would have had an operation, and that would have been that.
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LOL. You don't have a clue.
 
Whether it be a check-up or actual treatment for a condition, I've never had to pay more than $20-$50.

Now dental insurance on the other hand.... blows.
 
Meadows said:
With the OP's permission (up to you really Puddles) I'd like to also let people who have had good experiences have a comment.

As someone who lives in the UK all I ever get is a negative impression about the US healthcare system, but surely some people have had excellent care at a low cost, or some kind of loophole where they got free care or something?
Click to expand...

I had a huge kidney stone a few years back that got stuck in my ureter and had to be removed surgically. First surgery that goes up through the dong was a failure. They then had to cut in through my back and I was in the hospital for four days. A shitty experience but once the clusterfuck of finding out what the problem was in the first place my surgeries were scheduled for within a matter of a few days and they took care of me well. I'd spent maybe $1500 up until that point and then got a bill for $3000 for the rest. Before insurance it was somewhere around 60-80 grand. I wrote them a letter explaining my crappy financial circumstances and they just wrote it off. Overall I'd say it was a good experience as far as the treatment went and decent as far as costs, although I have no idea how it would have gone if I were in Canada or the UK or whatever. Would've been nice if I didn't have to pay anything at all (yes yes after taxes).
 
Meadows said:
With the OP's permission (up to you really Puddles) I'd like to also let people who have had good experiences have a comment.

As someone who lives in the UK all I ever get is a negative impression about the US healthcare system, but surely some people have had excellent care at a low cost, or some kind of loophole where they got free care or something?
Click to expand...

01laugh.gif
 
Cat Party said:
I thought this was clever by my health insurer. My wife easily burned through her max out of pocket expense when she was pregnant with our youngest child. So everything involving the delivery, etc., should have been 100% covered. No no, you see, they decided to bill my daughter for her own delivery. Like I said, very clever.
Click to expand...

I don't understand this. So they bill your daughter but not you, does that mean you're off the hook for paying it? Will collectors come after your 0-year old if she doesn't pay? Will it ding her credit? How does this work?
 
Not really a horror story since we have insurance, but when I had my kidney stone our bill would have been $8,000 and all they did was give me an I.V. and 1 short cat scan. I don't remember what the exact bills were for the other 2 ER trips I've had in the last couple of years. All I know is I would be over $50,000 in debt right now if not for that extension they put where you can stay on your parents health plan longer. If republicans get their way I better hope my health magically improves on its own.
 
I've posted this before but I will try to keep it short.

My ex-wife had a car wreck in September 2000. We were living separately when it happened but not legally separated. We were talking about divorce but hadn't gotten into the details.

She hydroplanes on a curve on a wet road, flipped the vehicle and she got thrown out. She wasn't wearing her seat belt which blew my mind because in the 6 years we were married she always wore it, but she didn't have it on that morning.

She broke 5 ribs, punctured lung, broke her hip and her right leg in 3 places.

They operated on her right leg that night, and put a metal rod in it. A week later they tried to stand her up and the metal rod collapsed. They had to operate again. Then she got a nasty staph infection in her leg and shit just snowballed and got worse from that point.

In the end, it took her a year and a half to recover. She had around 8 surgeries on her leg and hip and a ton of procedures to try and get rid of the infection. We had to have home health care, home rehab, and she had to have IV antibiotics administered to her at home 3 times a day.

When it was all said and done her total hospital bills were around $1.25 million dollars. We had insurance but it capped at $1 million. Nobody at any of the hospitals would take a reduction or help us out at all. We ended up owing about $250,000 after insurance. I was making around $40k a year at the time. Several hospitals and doctors tried to sue me, so I ended up having to file for bankruptcy. I was only 26 years old when it happened. I had no money other than my income and certainly no assets at age 26. It ruined me good for about 4 years.
 
grap3fruitman said:
Do you? Do you understand the point of healthcare is to help the sick and injured? How is not being able to receive treatment when subject to illness or injury that own person's fault? You're an idiot.
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So you want a health care system where if I willingly choose to destroy my own body (IE football, smoking, obesity) The rest of society has to pay my bill and I don't pay anything.
 
Meadows said:
With the OP's permission (up to you really Puddles) I'd like to also let people who have had good experiences have a comment.

As someone who lives in the UK all I ever get is a negative impression about the US healthcare system, but surely some people have had excellent care at a low cost, or some kind of loophole where they got free care or something?
Click to expand...


I'd like this as well but the sad truth is there simply aren't any good experiences.
We are all sick and dying.
One of my teeth fell out while I was typing this.
 
I heard this story of that one teacher who got small cell BC and he had to sell drugs to make a living and support his family.
He got into a whole lot of trouble, even killed a few guys from the drug scene himself.
I think he got killed by some Mexicans.
Don't know where I got that from, but I found this news story horrible.
 
Nothing 'horror story' about my experiences...

But I pay $900 a month for an HMO w/maternity option. To see any doctors, i have to go through layers and layers of referrals to get it done. And I can't switch to a PPO because none of them cover maternity here (Las Vegas).

So it's just a lot of money to pay for 'whichever doctor will accept me'.

And I'm sure if I was in an emergency, the care would be fast, but to go through specialists it takes forever...

Small example...

My son was diagnosed with craniosynotis (soft spot closed way too early) and so we were referred from our pediatrician to a neurologist, and from there to a neurosurgeon and from there to a plastic surgeon (seeing them on Monday). So from diagnosis to getting anything done it will be around 2 to 2 and a half months.
 
demon said:
I don't understand this. So they bill your daughter but not you, does that mean you're off the hook for paying it? Will collectors come after your 0-year old if she doesn't pay? Will it ding her credit? How does this work?
Click to expand...

Usually you have a family and individual OOP and deductible. They will still bill the primary insurance holder.
 
Patrick Bateman said:
I heard this story of that one teacher who got small cell BC and he had to sell drugs to make a living and support his family.
He got into a whole lot of trouble, even killed a few guys from the drug scene himself.
I think he got killed by some Mexicans.
Don't know where I got that from, but I found this news story horrible.
Click to expand...

Did...did you just....dude...fuck you
 
Cat Party said:
I thought this was clever by my health insurer. My wife easily burned through her max out of pocket expense when she was pregnant with our youngest child. So everything involving the delivery, etc., should have been 100% covered. No no, you see, they decided to bill my daughter for her own delivery. Like I said, very clever.
Click to expand...
How did they explain that bill to you? They would at least owe you an awkward phone call.
 
shira said:
So you want a health care system where if I willingly choose to destroy my own body (IE football, smoking, obesity) The rest of society has to pay my bill and I don't pay anything.
Click to expand...

Yes I do personally. Someone choosing to be fat or smoke cigarettes shouldn't condemn them to death if they can't afford healthcare. The trauma they go through before/during/after treatment will be enough "punishment" for their actions and hopefully keep them on the right path afterwards if they survive.

And football isn't even a debatable thing I don't know why you put that there. Now we're denying people coverage based on common hobbies? Having a hobby where you light up dozens of fire crackers is one thing but football is another.

There's this real difference between the left and the right where the right cares more about punishing those they think have done "wrong" rather than preserving life and trying to help/reform those people.
 
shira said:
So you want a health care system where if I willingly choose to destroy my own body (IE football, smoking, obesity) The rest of society has to pay my bill and I don't pay anything.
Click to expand...

This.


It frustrates me to no end that obese people and football players get healthcare while I have to pay the bill.


I'd rather pay €300 for a dentist visit than have to live with the above.

Fucking government and their healthcare.

-sarcasm-
 
The_Technomancer said:
Did...did you just....dude...fuck you
Click to expand...
If that's a spoiler to what I think it is, I want him banned.

As for this thread, lots of people don't understand the concept of solidarity and the fact that if everyone pays, the costs go down. If some people can't pay because they play football and their fucking premiums are 1500, that's only going to hurt the system and society later on.
 
Angry Fork said:
Yes I do personally. Someone choosing to be fat or smoke cigarettes shouldn't condemn them to death if they can't afford healthcare. The trauma they go through before/during/after treatment will be enough "punishment" for their actions and hopefully keep them on the right path afterwards if they survive.
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Look at the bigger picture. DM2 is an epidemic. 3 million new cases a year and growing; healthcare will be bankrupt.

Now what???
 
Don't worry guys, Technomancer didn't spoil Breaking Bad.

Wazzim said:
This.


It frustrates me to no end that obese people and football players get healthcare while I have to pay the bill.


I'd rather pay €300 for a dentist visit than have to live with the above.

Fucking government and their healthcare.
Click to expand...
Aren't you dutch?

People should get healthcare if they are playing regular school sports like football or wrestling and such. If you disqualified them, then millions of middle school, high school, and colleges students would be screwed.

I really don't see any alternative.
 
Wazzim said:
This.


It frustrates me to no end that obese people and football players get healthcare while I have to pay the bill.


I'd rather pay €300 for a dentist visit than have to live with the above.

Fucking government and their healthcare.
Click to expand...

So can you give us a list of hobbies or acts people can do, where if they're injured they should receive healthcare? Should people not go to the gym now? What if someone gets hurt working out or jogging and doesn't have insurance?

You do realize that this system you pay into will also help you in case you're injured right? Or maybe you're superman, or maybe you never go outside so there's no potential danger to you? Or are you one of those people who say 'well I have money to pay for my own insurance, fuck everyone else who doesn't'? So now whoever can't pay for their own helathcare is fucked because you wanted to keep the extra money to buy a new TV?

Giving up money for everyone ALSO goes back to you if you end up hurt and you'll still have your own money to pay for whatever extreme treatment you need like cancer treatment or something. This isn't some fucking con job where someone's trying to swindle you out of your money for nefarious purposes. Universal healthcare exists because it makes fucking sense and only the most morally repulsive people wouldn't be able to understand that.


shira said:
Look at the bigger picture. DM2 is an epidemic. 3 million new cases a year and growing; healthcare will be bankrupt.

Now what???
Click to expand...

I don't know what DM2 is.
 
I wouldn't call it horror story since I've heard far worse.

One Sat morning I had massive abdominal pain. Sometime around 10pm or so I gave in and went to urgent care. $50 copay got me a script for Vicodin, diagnosis of a hernia and go to an ER in the morning. After 6 hours in the ER, they did a CT (because they didn't think it was a hernia) and sent me home saying it was a hernia I should go to my primary (note not once did I see a doctor at ER).

Since I never go to doctors, primary set me up for an appt. in three weeks. Wife endlessly bitched to them, got appt moved to Wed of that week. Popped vicodin all week, PA at doctors office put in a request for urgent surgical care, said I should hear back in a week or two.

On Friday I didn't sleep was in so much pain. Called doctor, he referred me to the ER. In the ER again for 8 hours or more, Sonogram done. Finally see a doctor, he says it is an irreducible hernia, I am going to need surgery then. General Surgeon is called in looks at the charts and says I never should have been sent home the week before. Have surgery that Sat. night.

My cost out of pocket is about 2500, not to mention the missed work for the one week. Fighting the hospital to have it lowered as the first CT was questionable for a hernia diagnosis, much less the fact they could have killed me from sepsis if anything got twisted.

Sorry for the wall of text.
 
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