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How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

aphyr.com

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Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#31

Post by RecycledEle »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #13

Met someone coming from US to Australia to visit and was nicely surprised you can just go buy a CPAP, cheaply with no referral. Just like buying a dishwasher or something. Makes me wonder if in the US a trip to mexico or canada or somewhere could make this easier.

Bingo!

As someone with multiple "pre-existing conditions" who cares for a stroke survivor (my wife) and a stage 4 chronic kidney disease patient (my mother-in-law,) I suggest we do the following: 1. make private health insurance illegal 2. pass a Constitutional amendment allowing every human the unlimited and absolute right to buy, make, modify, and sell medical things including importing and exporting those items.

It is cheaper just to buy things than to use insurance. The stock holders need to loose all of their equity then go to prison.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#32

Post by onetoo »

thegrizzlyking wrote: post #17

Are there any studies estimating the cost of this kafakasque nightmare? End of the day users pay for this via higher premiums. I am sure doctor's offices also face something similar.

No, but, you see, the system is privatized, therefore it must be more efficient. /s

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#33

Post by londons_explore »

Please folks remember that it isn't compulsory to use a companies byzantine process.

Instead, check your insurance policy wording that you are covered, spend the money on a new machine, send a single letter to the insurer asking to be reimbursed, and when they don't reimburse within 30 days file in small claims court.

They'll pay. They don't want to physically show up in court or have you send bailiffs to their HQ over $3000 that they probably owe you anyway.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#34

Post by vertis »

Ekaros wrote: post #29
vertis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take the issues with Medicare (Australia) and the NHS (UK), both of which I have dealings with, over US healthcare problems any day of the week. Every healthcare system has issues, but universal healthcare beats the pants off the US system any day of the week.

I take resource constrained over purposefully obtuse system. I can understand that people and medicine is expensive and inefficient(compared to farming and factories or tech). But at least these public systems seem to attempt to do stuff. And not be piled with bureaucracy to avoid paying out or increasing the prices.

Indeed. The incentives are all in the wrong place in the American system.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#35

Post by p_l »

klabetron wrote: post #19
verytrivial wrote: post #16

You can now understand why the UK is holding on the its NHS with white knuckles despite the Conservative push to dissolve it by stealth.

Though it’d probably take 666 days to see a sleep specialist and get your first CPAP machine… (which I suspect you’d agree is part of the stealth dissolution plan)

Depending on how defunding worked so far in one's area, but NHS generally prioritised potentially dangerous issues.

Means it's easier to be frustrated waiting and then getting a 10 minute talk when it's flu or something similar, but get seen to in 10 minutes after arriving at a walk-in centre because you're worried of bine fissure in leg (turned out to be inflammation fortunately)

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#36

Post by eastbound »

onetoo wrote: post #32
thegrizzlyking wrote: post #17

Are there any studies estimating the cost of this kafakasque nightmare? End of the day users pay for this via higher premiums. I am sure doctor's offices also face something similar.

No, but, you see, the system is privatized, therefore it must be more efficient. /s

The upside of inefficient privatized process is that you can replace them.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#38

Post by p_l »

Ekaros wrote: post #29
vertis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take the issues with Medicare (Australia) and the NHS (UK), both of which I have dealings with, over US healthcare problems any day of the week. Every healthcare system has issues, but universal healthcare beats the pants off the US system any day of the week.

I take resource constrained over purposefully obtuse system. I can understand that people and medicine is expensive and inefficient(compared to farming and factories or tech). But at least these public systems seem to attempt to do stuff. And not be piled with bureaucracy to avoid paying out or increasing the prices.

An important metric in efficiency of systems is overhead. For health system, it would be how much money is spent on purposes other than the stated purpose of the system. Private insurance is never going to optimise for that, because low overhead means high utilisation of funds paid in, and low profits.

Commonly complained about polish NFZ (which, unlike NHS, operates through contracting to semi-private and private providers), has overhead IIRC of around 1%.

I don't have links on hand (maybe someone more recently versed on US insurance can check?), but I heard of common overhead levels in private insurers in USA being in range of 30%, mainly for claim acceptors/adjusters.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#39

Post by jawngee »

Yeah try importing a CPAP from the states into Vietnam if you want a real adventure.

A $650 cpap machine costs well over $2K here. So I thought I'd import one. Apparently you need a prescription in the states? Ok, get a "prescription" from an online service that basically just asks you if you snore over a video call. Amazing.

Buy machine and have it sent to a freight forwarding service. They fuck up the paperwork.

It gets held in Vietnamese customs for almost 4 months. Go down to customs once a week to argue with the guy. One week you can't have it because it looks used. It doesn't look used.

Next week you can't have it because they think I'm importing to resell it. Yes it's a very hot market right now.

Repeat same processes with different people next successive weeks.

Finally someone says to bring prescription. But they don't write prescriptions for CPAPs here. A lot of hand waving when you tell them that. Go back to cardiologist who told me to get the CPAP and ask for a prescription. Oh no, he says, we don't write prescriptions for that. Can you write a letter saying that you don't write prescriptions and that I need the machine? Oh no, he says, I can't do that.

A couple of weeks later finally get someone at customs to agree that my sleep apnea test is proof enough. Bring the test in. Nobody looks at it. They still release the machine to me.

I would still take this random bureaucracy over American insurance any day of the week though.

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