Eww what in the hell?
I'll keep my system, thanks. I'm not going to have trouble getting medical insurance with my career anyway.
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Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France
- Thread starter ronito
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Eww what in the hell?
I'll keep my system, thanks. I'm not going to have trouble getting medical insurance with my career anyway.
slidewinder
Banned
What percentage of the American public does Jesus want to make sure don't have access to healthcare outside of the emergency room? Or does he not get that specific and just do more of a "go forth and withhold colonoscopy from them!" with a grand-but-vague sweep of his arm kind of thing?
And of those who are ostensibly covered, how does His desire that some among should be forced into bankruptcy because of medical costs square with the actual figures? How well is America living up to God's will here?
I think it's important that those of you who are so attuned to the will of the Lamb of God spread his Word in this regard, so that the simple-minded rest of us who might otherwise think that sick people should get treated can be set straight.
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
I didn't properly trim the quote (posting from a phone).
I meant ER at my country with socialised healthcare.
Sorry.
cuevas. PhD.
Member
Why would our economy grow more quickly?
evil solrac v3.0
Member
less bankrupcies, more money saved, more spending, etc. etc.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I hate to break it to you but chances are you don't have health insurance. You are just a member of your companies plan.
Might sound like semantics, but my wife recently left her job and her company were lax about canceling her insurance and we couldn't put her on my insurance until her insurance was cancelled. Only the group plan administrator ie her ex boss could cancel it, she could not.
You are probably thinking what's the problem, free insurance. Except the employer can cancel retroactively. With a 30 day window to get on my insurance, and a 90 day window to have pre-existing conditions covered, we could have been royally screwed. Luckily her ex-employer only retro-actively cancelled 15 days rather than the 45 days that they could. Made me realize how stupid the health insurance industry is.
cuevas. PhD.
Member
Wouldn't that just shift the money? Different people are going to have less bankruptcies, money saved, etc...
empty vessel
Member
Well maybe you should live within your means instead of splurging on removing organs?
ReBurn
Gold Member
No doubt. I should have just lived with the pain. Even if it killed me. Corporate healthcare is such a terrible idea. Kind of makes everyone who thinks the free market makes everything cheaper look foolish.
Translation: Fuck everyone else, I got mine.
Open Source
Banned
The health insurance industry may be dominated by monolithic corporations, but it sure as hell isn't a free market. It's been regulated and mandated out the ass for decades, and new and out-of-state competition stifled. I can't think of a less free market in the US than the one for health insurance.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
phosphor112
Banned
I work in Neuroradiology, you don't have to tell me what's wrong with this nations health care...
Bu bu bu but Socialism!
Give me a fucking break. Ones right to freedom of what the fuck he says has precedence over one not fucking dying a terrible death?
Priorities in 'Merika!
Also... allow a man to have a medicine to get a hard on for up to 4 hours and not allow the woman to have birth control to prevent his sperm from impregnating her.
"Life style pill!" they say about the birth control, the pill often used for several medical problems. Sure, Viagra is useful against pulmonary hypertension!...give me a break... we all know that majority of 40+ year old men who take ED medicine have just that. ED.
Anthem Blue Cross also has the balls to claim an insulin pump AND tubes are both "hardware" and that because they can be reused (indefinitely) they don't need to cover them! Someones never met a diabetic before! Hey, let's keep this guy running on IV fluids using the same tubes he had a week ago! Sounds sterile by the way!
I can fucking go on for hours, but I'll stop right there... /rant.
Damn near every colleague I've met through one of the largest and most renowned hospital networks in the world can agree that this nations system prevents us from doing what we need to be doing. Which is helping patients live a healthy life.
Bu bu bu but Socialism!
Give me a fucking break. Ones right to freedom of what the fuck he says has precedence over one not fucking dying a terrible death?
Priorities in 'Merika!
Also... allow a man to have a medicine to get a hard on for up to 4 hours and not allow the woman to have birth control to prevent his sperm from impregnating her.
"Life style pill!" they say about the birth control, the pill often used for several medical problems. Sure, Viagra is useful against pulmonary hypertension!...give me a break... we all know that majority of 40+ year old men who take ED medicine have just that. ED.
Anthem Blue Cross also has the balls to claim an insulin pump AND tubes are both "hardware" and that because they can be reused (indefinitely) they don't need to cover them! Someones never met a diabetic before! Hey, let's keep this guy running on IV fluids using the same tubes he had a week ago! Sounds sterile by the way!
I can fucking go on for hours, but I'll stop right there... /rant.
Damn near every colleague I've met through one of the largest and most renowned hospital networks in the world can agree that this nations system prevents us from doing what we need to be doing. Which is helping patients live a healthy life.
ThisWreckage
Banned
Are you kidding me? People still pay out their ass for procedures even if they have insurance in the U.S. Especially if their deductible hasn't been met.
It's like empty vessel stated, in the U.S. you have to pay out your ass for health insurance under the guise that you MIGHT become unhealthy in the future. So a certain amount of your monthly income is being poured into insurance that you might not need. Even if you need it, expect expensive bills to roll in (you're just not getting fucked as deeply as you would have been if you didn't have health insurance).
Zoe
Member
You don't have to go to a regular doctor either. There are urgent care facilities.
ReBurn
Gold Member
I'm much less concerned about the market for insurance than I am the market for and cost of treatment. That's what my free market comment was about.
No. What causes health care bankruptcies is the unexpectedly ginormous bill that you arent prepared for. I have no idea if this is true, but even if some of that cost was sprend to everyone just through everyday price increases, that would result in less bankruptcies due to that increase not be unexpected and financially crippling
phosphor112
Banned
Zoe
Member
We have many of them in my area--never heard anything bad, and the times I've gone were decent. Some are run by the area hospitals.
Flying_Phoenix
Banned
EDIT - Nvm.
I'm an idiot.
Quote this post to make fun of me if you wish.
I'm an idiot.
Quote this post to make fun of me if you wish.
Urgent care is just self-triage. If the ER is continuously receiving people with much more critical issues than yours then urgent care will probably help you quicker. If urgent care is full of elderly people who need constant attention then you might get there at 8 in the morning and wait until late afternoon for any care beyond a bed and tylenol. The latter is my experience, anyway.
holy balls. Thats absurd
No kidding. It is a huge strain on my family, I can't believe it is legal to charge these absurd prices. She can't just stop being insured either because her medical prescriptions would be even more absurd. There are people who I bet are in even crazier situations who will benefit in some way from the healthcare plan, so I can't wrap my head around the the reason those fucking repubs are doing this supreme court case.
Cobra insurance for me and my fam would be around $1,250 a month if I recall correctly.
Funny that my MRI cost $300 just by going to someone else other than a hospital where the rates are jacked up. There's choices out there and the hospital is always the wrong one in terms of price. Oh, and the financial assistance forms at hospitals actually work so a lot of my tests at the hospital were completely free even with insurance.
It doesn't take much to find a decent price when there's competition to the hospitals ALL AROUND. Hell, my insurance calls me to tell me the best place to have things done as well, and once my deductible is met, I won't pay a thing other than my normal insurance bill.
Note: I'm not saying the system is fine or I agree with it. I'm only saying that no one HAS to pay those prices. Hell, my uncle has had full surgeries written off too. Oh, and I have a chronic disease that has caused problems in every location of my body so in before someone says I don't deal with it. I've had more tests and surgeries than I could possibly count, but I still won't pay $1,000 for an MRI EVER AGAIN. Shop around people...Oh, my prescriptions cost about $2000 every 4 weeks but my insurance covers it with nothing out of my pocket once my deductible is met which is usually the beginning of February.
It's better than military healthcare...
It doesn't take much to find a decent price when there's competition to the hospitals ALL AROUND. Hell, my insurance calls me to tell me the best place to have things done as well, and once my deductible is met, I won't pay a thing other than my normal insurance bill.
Note: I'm not saying the system is fine or I agree with it. I'm only saying that no one HAS to pay those prices. Hell, my uncle has had full surgeries written off too. Oh, and I have a chronic disease that has caused problems in every location of my body so in before someone says I don't deal with it. I've had more tests and surgeries than I could possibly count, but I still won't pay $1,000 for an MRI EVER AGAIN. Shop around people...Oh, my prescriptions cost about $2000 every 4 weeks but my insurance covers it with nothing out of my pocket once my deductible is met which is usually the beginning of February.
It's better than military healthcare...
This. For being a country that supposedly encourages a strong entrepreneurial spirit, we sure as hell don't do much good for those who are self-employed.
lol this guy
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
I have great insurance in the Netherlands,
295 a month including dental for both me and my fiance, which work pays (but they pay it before tax) generally I pay roughly half of that amount to be insured. So around 1800 a year for 2 people with one of the highest grades of insurance. I realise that's a work benefit, but I still think it's better than whats going on in the states.
Also although it's privatised, people are forced to have it.\
Literally everybody in America that refers to 'Obamacare' in a negative fashion is a terrible person at heart. It's absolutely crazy thinking 'fuck poor people they should have go insurance like me'. It doesn't even benefit you to think like that, it negatively impacts your bills, the quality of life in your environment... pretty much everything. It's simply wrong, on every conceivable metric.
295 a month including dental for both me and my fiance, which work pays (but they pay it before tax) generally I pay roughly half of that amount to be insured. So around 1800 a year for 2 people with one of the highest grades of insurance. I realise that's a work benefit, but I still think it's better than whats going on in the states.
Also although it's privatised, people are forced to have it.\
Literally everybody in America that refers to 'Obamacare' in a negative fashion is a terrible person at heart. It's absolutely crazy thinking 'fuck poor people they should have go insurance like me'. It doesn't even benefit you to think like that, it negatively impacts your bills, the quality of life in your environment... pretty much everything. It's simply wrong, on every conceivable metric.
How so? I've had two free surgeries and free prescription medications. I haven't paid a cent for health care or dental for the past 19 years. I got a free eye exam and free glasses (which don't all suck style-wise like they used to). I've had 4 cavities filled and annual cleanings for free. I've had free physical therapy for back problems and post surgery for my leg which was screwed together with plates. Every year I get a free physical and free vaccinations.
I'm not saying that military health care is all roses, but it's not so bad for free.
mescalineeyes
Banned
We have "free" healthcare here. (Mandatory insurance).
I've not once waited 6 months for a specialist. Hell, not even one.
deathkiller
Member
What do you mean by single payer healthcare?
Private healthcare/Insurance do exist in almost every country, the biggest difference is that they have to compete against "free" (tax paid) so that brings their prices down.
For anything that requires actual medical equipment to fix you're pretty much just paying 50$ to be told to go to the emergency room. If it's dental related, have fun waiting a month or more to get treated, because dental is still low priority in this country in terms of care, even though you can have an infected tooth an inch away from your brain.
Emergicare and it's ilk are a half of a bandaid solution to the substandard healthcare system in the United States. We need single payer yesterday. Saying "it's fine that you can't have a family doctor because you can just drive to a local quasi-emergency room when things have gone to shit instead of having actual preventative care" is ignoring the issues we face. If people could schedule appointments, get preventative care, and actually want to talk to a doctor instead of being afraid of losing their home from going and seeing one, we'd spend a lot less on healthcare and healthcare costs in this country.
But trying to explain to conservatives that they'd actually pay less in taxes to cover healthcare costs for the entire country instead of the health insurance premiums currently taken out of their check is impossible because one is taken by their employer and one is taken by "the gubbamint", therefore the first one is FREE MARKET and the other one is EVIL SOCIALISM.
Lol yeah, I'm so silly, wanting the world to not suck.
I'm a healthy 27-year old self-employed male with a wife and a 5-month old and I pay $900 a month for health care.
Why?
Because in order to have another kid, we have to have maternity coverage even though we don't need it yet. We had to pay for 12 months of maternity coverages before having our first kid, and if we drop the maternity option, we have to redo it all over again.
It is not easy to pay $900 a month.
Why?
Because in order to have another kid, we have to have maternity coverage even though we don't need it yet. We had to pay for 12 months of maternity coverages before having our first kid, and if we drop the maternity option, we have to redo it all over again.
It is not easy to pay $900 a month.
Because while they'll run the tests and spend money, it doesn't change the skill level of doctors that are usually at the military hospitals and one neurosurgeon decided to tell me all about it. The average quality of doctors doesn't matter when they can just keep retaking the test all they want until they finally pass. Obviously some bases are better than others. Hell, they made me wait 14 hours in the ER room before they even got to me so sometimes free just isn't worth it with military healthcare.
Me and plenty of other of people have horror stories due to military doctors and it's not a fluke. They'll spend all the money on tests, but it doesn't mean they'll do shit with the results. Hell, it didn't take too long for civilian doctors to see what they did wrong with me either which was the funny part.
But like I said, no one should be paying for $1,000 MRI's here anyway unless they just want to have it done at a hospital instead of going to a place that only does those tests for a 1/3 of the price.
As a Canadian, it's such a foreign concept that healthcare shouldn't be be free (I know we pay taxes) for everyone. Yes, I pay more taxes, but I don't mind.
When I visited the states, I went to a Buger King. I got a dollar menu burger. The total was actual $1 flat. I was surprised when I found out there was no sales tax at all. That's great, I don't pay an extra $0.13 for my burger. But in the end I would rather take me universal healthcare than cheaper shit.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. He survived thank god. However if we had to pay the medical bill, we would have been ruined. Instead I have a healthy dad 8 years later, and it was free.
When I visited the states, I went to a Buger King. I got a dollar menu burger. The total was actual $1 flat. I was surprised when I found out there was no sales tax at all. That's great, I don't pay an extra $0.13 for my burger. But in the end I would rather take me universal healthcare than cheaper shit.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. He survived thank god. However if we had to pay the medical bill, we would have been ruined. Instead I have a healthy dad 8 years later, and it was free.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Wild prices mean someone's ruined if they get sick without insurance. The high prices become a loaded gun leveled at the customer's head.
Montana or Oregon I'm assuming. Those are the only 2 states without a sales tax.
EDIT: Alaska and Delaware don't have a sales tax either.
Castor Krieg
Banned
Probably said many times in this thread, many books written on the subject, I will just say it again: free market is hurting American healthcare.
PET-CT scan cost $0 in Poland, as long as you get a doctor's order to get it. MRI is the same. Sure, they will investigate first, it's not like you will get it asap, but you will.
I think the system can be greatly improved, however the basis works fine - charge for beauty, non-essential procedures, life-saving ones should be free. It's not your fault you got cancer, or disease that cannot be cured easily. Could happen to everyone, so it is fair for everyone to pool resources together.
So by all means, continue to oppose Obama's health reform, and get ruined in the process if (God forbid) you get sick while not having private insurance.
PET-CT scan cost $0 in Poland, as long as you get a doctor's order to get it. MRI is the same. Sure, they will investigate first, it's not like you will get it asap, but you will.
I think the system can be greatly improved, however the basis works fine - charge for beauty, non-essential procedures, life-saving ones should be free. It's not your fault you got cancer, or disease that cannot be cured easily. Could happen to everyone, so it is fair for everyone to pool resources together.
So by all means, continue to oppose Obama's health reform, and get ruined in the process if (God forbid) you get sick while not having private insurance.
Actually it depends, the US is not really free market anyway.
If it cost less MORE people (customers) are going to have more money to spend elsewhere, especially the poor part of the population since they don't have enough money to hoard anyway.
While the providers have less money they'll be more efficient because they really want to stay in business.
While I said that MRI's are actually cheap at other places, one thing that definitely is out of control is prescription costs. Those companies basically make a shitload of profit because people NEED to take their shit, especially if it's a drug with no competition. My insurance pays $2000 a month for my prescriptions (less than that once they settle with them) and I had to quit one of my medications simply because it was $2000 a month for ONE drug. So that was $4000 a month in charges that my insurance wasn't going to like as much as $2000 so I decided to stop it before they increased my monthly rates for obvious reasons.
MRI's are just as cheap as $280 but prescriptions are left untouched which is the biggest money bleeder out there.
MRI's are just as cheap as $280 but prescriptions are left untouched which is the biggest money bleeder out there.
Boozeroony
Member
There is no such thing as free medical care. You will pay for it, one way or another.
Hell, I've paid thousand of euro's on health insurance. Still a much better way than in the US.
Hell, I've paid thousand of euro's on health insurance. Still a much better way than in the US.
Single-payer for all, or this problem is only going to get worse.
You'd think that, considering all the wage increases we would have seen in the 2000's had it not been for skyrocketing healthcare costs, people would get a fucking clue.
I can only blame the government half the time for us having such terrible health care.
An almost equal amount of blame falls on the yuppies who eat up the lies and distortions that prevents them seeing the bigger picture. Our health care industry is a giant scam. It's fascinating how even the mere thought of the possibility of the government oppressing us through legislation drives Americans insane, but actual oppression through privitazion? A-OK!
Sickening.
You'd think that, considering all the wage increases we would have seen in the 2000's had it not been for skyrocketing healthcare costs, people would get a fucking clue.
I can only blame the government half the time for us having such terrible health care.
An almost equal amount of blame falls on the yuppies who eat up the lies and distortions that prevents them seeing the bigger picture. Our health care industry is a giant scam. It's fascinating how even the mere thought of the possibility of the government oppressing us through legislation drives Americans insane, but actual oppression through privitazion? A-OK!
Sickening.
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