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Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

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Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#31

Post by vikramkr »

aplummer wrote: post #24
excerionsforte wrote: post #6

Low cost home testing kits can go beyond SARS-COV2 and track other diseases all from the safety of your home. Why go to the hospital where you could possibly be infected by other people with infectious diseases or infect the people around you. Personally, if it is low cost enough that I don't need to use health insurance then I am all for it. Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you…

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

Yeah it's pretty common. There's a reason health insurance is such a big political discussion in the US

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#32

Post by whymauri »

aplummer wrote: post #24
excerionsforte wrote: post #6

Low cost home testing kits can go beyond SARS-COV2 and track other diseases all from the safety of your home. Why go to the hospital where you could possibly be infected by other people with infectious diseases or infect the people around you. Personally, if it is low cost enough that I don't need to use health insurance then I am all for it. Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you…

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

A close friend of mine's wife paid their health insurance for decades, without fail. Their employer changed the insurance provider without notification, but somehow they continued paying the wrong provider. She recently got breast cancer, and now the new provider is denying all claims on the basis that she was paying the wrong provider.

They are basically screwed now after maintaining a non-deliquent relationship with their healthcare provider for longer than I've been alive. If this is not emblematic of what's wrong with our healthcare... IDK what is.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#33

Post by xenospn »

aplummer wrote: post #24
excerionsforte wrote: post #6

Low cost home testing kits can go beyond SARS-COV2 and track other diseases all from the safety of your home. Why go to the hospital where you could possibly be infected by other people with infectious diseases or infect the people around you. Personally, if it is low cost enough that I don't need to use health insurance then I am all for it. Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you…

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

Not only does it happen, it's more likely than not.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#34

Post by mrosett »

29athrowaway wrote: post #20
fortran77 wrote: post #7

Bill Gates is a great man.

Sure. But foundations and philantropy also happen to be great for tax purposes.

You realize that if someone gives away X dollars, it reduces their tax liability by <X?

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#35

Post by xenospn »

whymauri wrote: post #32
aplummer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

A close friend of mine's wife paid their health insurance for decades, without fail. Their employer changed the insurance provider without notification, but somehow they continued paying the wrong provider. She recently got breast cancer, and now the new provider is denying all claims on the basis that she was paying the wrong provider. They are basically screwed now after maintaining a non-deliquent relationship wit…

My friend paid his health insurance for years. Got diagnosed with cancer (leukemia). Hospital said treatment would cost $750k. Insurance told him to go fuck himself and isn't covering anything.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#36

Post by ohazi »

aplummer wrote: post #24
excerionsforte wrote: post #6

Low cost home testing kits can go beyond SARS-COV2 and track other diseases all from the safety of your home. Why go to the hospital where you could possibly be infected by other people with infectious diseases or infect the people around you. Personally, if it is low cost enough that I don't need to use health insurance then I am all for it. Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you…

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

Not only can happen, this is often what happens by default.

You go to a doctor, then the doctor and the insurance have several months of ping pong during which you get about half a ream of "This is not a bill" documents that show a different set of things with different dollar amounts every other cycle, and then eventually you get an actual bill for the largest amount.

If it's wrong, you can spend another year fighting them to fix the billing codes.

It's a total shit show.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#37

Post by eeh »

fancyfredbot wrote: post #22

This is very admirable of Bill, but it seems odd that the world's biggest economy is reliant on hand-outs to keep its citizens healthy.

I think many countries could benefit from home testing.

The US is perhaps just easier to trial this technology for the Gates foundation, for whatever reason.

Perhaps the plan is to trial/roll this out elsewhere if it succeeds.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#38

Post by extralegos »

nostromo wrote: post #17
tanto wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why the people elect presidents and parties whom interestst clear don't align with theirs. They elect people which promise them they will basically destroy governmental institutions and THAN complain the the government doesn't work. That's like ordering poisoned food and than complaining about the cook...

*then Quite often people don't vote for their own self-interest because they believe in a greater good or a larger principle. This is a good thing.

What “greater good” are you talking about? You think people just love Bill gates so they want to live in a dystopia for him? Is the “greater good” Bill Gates’ bank accounts that keep getting bigger every day, despite his perpetual generosity?

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#39

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

glofish wrote: post #10

If anything sets a bad precedent, citizens starting testing themselves and each other, what could possibly go wrong (sarcasm)... Should we test for flu, cold as well? All other diseases? Should you only be allowed to be somewhere if you tested yourself within the last N hours ... etc .. because that is the next step, looking at each other with suspicion. When did you last test yourself? Did you not test yourself? Why…

You're not thinking clearly here. Home disease tests in the form of a thermometer are very common; the "next steps" you describe simply don't happen outside of pandemic situations, even though there's no technological or legal reason they couldn't.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#40

Post by jlarocco »

aplummer wrote: post #24
excerionsforte wrote: post #6

Low cost home testing kits can go beyond SARS-COV2 and track other diseases all from the safety of your home. Why go to the hospital where you could possibly be infected by other people with infectious diseases or infect the people around you. Personally, if it is low cost enough that I don't need to use health insurance then I am all for it. Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you…

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

It happens all the time here; it's ridiculous.

At my company's last benefits meeting (where they go over the yearly changes to our insurance coverage) a coworker described a situation where they had a surgery at an in network (accepted by our insurance) hospital, with in network surgeons and nurses, but was assigned an out of network anesthesiologist without his knowledge, and later got a giant bill for it (well over $1000, IIRC).

Even when a person tries to follow all the rules, they find a way to screw you.

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