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The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

thecity.nyc

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Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#41

Post by sagarm »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21
smacktoward wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO it’s not so much that they prefer the existing system as it is that they fear the unknown. No matter how bad their existing coverage is, they worry that some replacement would be even worse. It’s a downstream consequence of the collapse of faith in our institutions - as bad as things are, nobody trusts Congress to be able to design anything better. So they cling fearfully to whatever they’ve got. The Devil you k…

I am unsure how you cultivate courage and compassion at scale, but we have never needed it more as a society. Somehow we must get from "I've got mine, f___ you" to "I've got mine, how can I help you?" Otherwise, ruin awaits us.

There's plenty of evidence that single payer polls better than Sanders. Maybe a candidate without his baggage can get it done.

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#42

Post by tedunangst »

nimbix wrote: post #29

Just yesterday I was reading an interview with the CEO of a German company which produces coronavirus tests about how they charge 2.5EUR for a single testing kit and that reasonable cost for processing it should be around 10EUR. Where does the 1000x multiplier come from?

Huh? She wasn't tested. Whatever the ER charges, outrageous or not, why would you assume there's any correlation at all to the cost of a test that wasn't administered?

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#43

Post by platetone »

CydeWeys wrote: post #33
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An opposite example, went to the ER last year and spent a couple hours there. Paid a $100 copay. Haven’t seen any other bills.

Gonna go out on a limb and assume you have good health insurance. Many (most?) Americans do not. I'm on an HDHP for example, so the first several thousand dollars in medical expenses per year come directly out of my pocket before insurance starts helping at all.

i work for a tech company in the fortune 500 top 25... i would assume the best insurance possible, still killing us (paid nearly $7000 out of pocket last year + the actual premium costs of several thousand more). i've got three small kids including one with a heart condition, so it's particularly bad right now.

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#44

Post by toomuchtodo »

sagarm wrote: post #41
toomuchtodo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unsure how you cultivate courage and compassion at scale, but we have never needed it more as a society. Somehow we must get from "I've got mine, f___ you" to "I've got mine, how can I help you?" Otherwise, ruin awaits us.

There's plenty of evidence that single payer polls better than Sanders. Maybe a candidate without his baggage can get it done.

No other such candidate exists at this time. EDIT: We're going to have to keep waiting for older politicians and voters to age out of the system before meaningful policy progress can be made. Sanders is the best candidate if you value single payer.

"You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after exhausting all other options." -- Churchill

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#45

Post by munk-a »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #28
platetone wrote: post #15

We decided (slash "made the mistake") of going to the emergency room last summer. Spent less than two hours in an exam room before being dismissed with no conclusion and referral to another doctor. Got a $9500 bill about six months later and have been billed a 10% copay on that (insurance paid $5500 already at their negotiated rate). Still fighting it as absolutely absurd, but there's really no hope. This country is…

An opposite example, went to the ER last year and spent a couple hours there. Paid a $100 copay. Haven’t seen any other bills.

When I lived in the states I was on a medication I needed to get filled every month (Methylphenidate for the curious) due to life situation my cost to do so varied in this manner over the span of half a year:

30$ (1$/pill) while on uni insurance

0$ on state healthcare while unemployed (Green Mountain Care)

270$ (9$/pill) while employed and not qualifying for employer healthcare

120$ (4$/pill) while employed with my brand name uncovered (but discounted due to an Aetna preferred rate)

3$ (10c/pill) while employed after switching to the generic

Healthcare costs in the US are unpredictable, arbitrary and cruel.

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#46

Post by smacktoward »

mrguyorama wrote: post #30
smacktoward wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember studying political science as an undergrad two decades ago. My professors all said the same thing about the Electoral College: “it’s a relic that has long since stopped serving a practical purpose, but people live with it because it never rocks the boat. If there’s ever an election where the winner of the popular vote doesn’t actually win because they lost in the Electoral College, there will be a huge mas…

It's not about inertia. Look at which party benefits from the electoral college, and then recognize their attempts at voter disenfranchisement.

Indeed, this was a key misconception my professors and I all shared: we thought there was a broad consensus in American society that democracy is a good thing. It turns out there are a lot of Americans, disproportionately gathered on one side of the ideological spectrum, who care less about democracy than they do about their team winning.

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#47

Post by [deleted] »

CydeWeys wrote: post #33
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An opposite example, went to the ER last year and spent a couple hours there. Paid a $100 copay. Haven’t seen any other bills.

Gonna go out on a limb and assume you have good health insurance. Many (most?) Americans do not. I'm on an HDHP for example, so the first several thousand dollars in medical expenses per year come directly out of my pocket before insurance starts helping at all.

[deleted]

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#48

Post by munk-a »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #44
sagarm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of evidence that single payer polls better than Sanders. Maybe a candidate without his baggage can get it done.

No other such candidate exists at this time. EDIT: We're going to have to keep waiting for older politicians and voters to age out of the system before meaningful policy progress can be made. Sanders is the best candidate if you value single payer. "You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after exhausting all other options." -- Churchill

No such candidate could exist - Sanders' only baggage is being described as a socialist, they haven't dug up any moral failings or flip flopping or other BS rationales. Any candidate that embraces Medicare for All will instantly be branded a socialist by the MSM and be in exactly the same spot, but may lack the honesty and integrity that Sanders has cultivated.

Re: The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: A $10K ER Bill

#49

Post by baddox »

CydeWeys wrote: post #33
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An opposite example, went to the ER last year and spent a couple hours there. Paid a $100 copay. Haven’t seen any other bills.

Gonna go out on a limb and assume you have good health insurance. Many (most?) Americans do not. I'm on an HDHP for example, so the first several thousand dollars in medical expenses per year come directly out of my pocket before insurance starts helping at all.

Or the debt collectors haven't caught up yet. That happened to me around 2012 in the US. Went to the emergency room, had some tests done, got the hospital bill and paid a few hundred bucks. Then like 9 months later I get calls from a debt collector saying I owed $1,500 to a separate medical testing company that apparently provided the test I was given at the ER. I had never received that bill and it just took a while for them to send it to collection apparently.
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