Since September my wife has had about ten CTs, three MRIs, two major surgeries (the last one 7 hours long), one emergency surgery, weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments and about 8 weeks hospitalised including some time in the ICU.
Total cost: $0
Unless you count the cost of parking when I visit her in hospital, in which case I’ve spent about $170 USD
This is in New Zealand with a publicly funded health system.
My wife’s experience and costs were about the same for similar breast cancer treatment in Canada.
Our parking fees are a bit more expensive…
In Canada and something similar. My aunt got breast cancer and my mum has since been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Of all the stresses they have dealt with, money has never been one of the things.
It’s absolutely cruel that we would do that to a human being in such a tough time. Why any nation would prioritize profit over someone’s well being is beyond me.
That said, Canada isn’t perfect either my son is diabetic and we still have a lot of profit inducing flaws. It’s just when you compare them with “the greatest country in the world”… Well nothing really compares.
Man what the hell is your wife going through…
A cancer diagnosis and complications from chemotherapy. It’s been rough on her but she’s an absolute trooper.
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I’m supposed to have a colonoscopy because of my celiac
This is why I don’t
Go, get your healthcare, ignore the bills.
I’d rather die than have collections on my ass again
7 years later, it’s irrelevant
What do you mean by this? They just erase your debt after 7 years? Are you sure?
Yeah after 7 years it falls off your credit report.
On top of that, most major credit bureaus don’t even calculate small medical debts(less than 1k I think) against your credit score.
I mean don’t quote me on this, verify.
I wish I would have known this when I thought my life was over after having appendicitis the one year of my life I couldn’t afford insurance. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll keep it in mind.
I’ve got to say there’s no way my debt would ever be less than $1k though. I’m pretty sure my deductible is $5k, but I’ve also given up on the whole credit score thing. I always get emails that it’s dropped or whatever, and I’m just numb to it at this point it’s just background noise
I edited my reply above with some sources.
The credit score system is bullshit, but it can be played. I opened like 13 credit accounts in my early 20s and keep them rotated, because of that my total line of credit is ridiculous. I don’t use it all very much, but on paper it makes my credit utilization look like 1-2% of my total limit, which raises my score significantly.
Goddamn… as a fellow celiac sufferer, I’m very sorry to hear that. If the blood tests are pretty conclusive, you can probably assume it’s celiac without the colonoscopy. The downside is that if you start a gluten-free diet now and decide to get a colonoscopy later, it might now show anything since you’re off the gluten. Best of luck!
Oh I’ve had the diagnosis for a few years, and I’ve totally adhered to the dietary restrictions I was given. If I so much as question whether cross contamination may have taken place, I don’t eat the food.
I’m pretty well stable now and no longer shitting myself. But I know I’m at greater risk of things like colon cancer, which is something that my family has a history of.
My insurance would “cover” it in that it would go towards my deductible, but that’s still thousands of dollars, and we had to buy a furnace this year because ours died. I’m thinking about going and having it done in Mexico. I have in-laws there.
My wife has a chronic illness with expensive drugs.
Healthcare is around 35% of our families gross income when you include in the cost my employer pays, what I pay, plus deductable and copays.
I avoid going to the Dr as much as possible because I have a separate deductible. If I went for everything I should it would be closer to 40% of our gross income.
That country is fucked up. You people really have to come together and demand universal healthcare, as impossible as that sounds.
We elected Obama on that promise and our reward was the current system 🫠
Obama improved a lot through Obamacare, but it’s really hard to get a good system in the USA as a lot of people are strongly against free and universal health care, even though it’d likely decrease the amount they have to pay for their own health care too. I really don’t understand it.
Oh, it’s very easy to understand. They’re worried their tax dollars might help someone who “doesn’t deserve it”, so they’d rather not help anyone.
I broadly agree with that, it’s better from the former system in the way that walking on glass is better than being on fire.
As with a large portion of our fucked up politics, the answer for why people are like this here IMO goes back to conservative talk radio post-Fairness Doctrine. For people who haven’t lived in the rural US, especially before satellite radio, I can’t emphasize enough how much the massive amounts of extreme conservative talk radio shows impact the stuff you hear every day. When the majority of Americans never travel abroad to see otherwise it’s easy to just accept the conservative propaganda that you half listen to for hours a day, every day, for decades.
Out of curiosity, why are they doing a colonoscopy rather than a gastroscopy for Coeliac confirmation? The disease affects only the small intestine, and so an upper small intestinal biopsy is sufficient and doesn’t require uncomfortable fasting/dietary practice before the procedure, and is a cheaper, quicker and safer procedure.
My confirmation was blood test and then gastroscopy - after the biopsy it was confirmed.
They did some labs and gave me my diagnosis. The way it was explained to me was that they wanted the colonoscopy to check for things like scarring and so forth.
To be clear, I’m not a medical professional, so my attempting to answer “Why would they…” is pretty fruitless. I have no idea; that’s why I was seeing my doctor lol
Ahh okay, so it’s not confirmatory for the diagnosis but rather assessing the impact of living with Coeliac? That makes sense. I’m having a full endoscopy/colonoscopy later this year for a similar purpose. Fingers crossed everything comes up clear for you mate!
I just paid over $2000 to find out I don’t have throat cancer. Also have insurance. That’s just the cost of a 5 minute laryngoscopy and a 10 minute CT scan.
You can get charged thousands just for showing up an an ER, seeing no one but the receptionist, receiving no treatment whatsoever, and leaving in exasperation after a multiple hour wait without any sign of anyone having any intention of administering to you in the slightest. I’ve seen it happen personally. America!
Land of the fee.
In Sweden there is no cost for this whatsoever. Most things are free or have tiny bills. I’m not saying it to make you feel worse, just pointing out that America is bordering on not being a civilized country anymore.
As a bonus, we don’t have any Musks here.
As a bonus, we don’t have any Musks here.
Don’t we? The “IF Metall” union would probably tell you otherwise
I mean, who are we talking about? I admit I don’t follow news much but which Swedish guy is rich like Musk? I know we have wealthy bank families and so on of course, or Axfood etc.
Fisk is talking about the Musk. He’s there, trying to eat your labor rights.
Ah yes. But he didn’t succeed. :)
That’s great! I haven’t been keeping up with the news on that. What was the outcome?
I haven’t followed it but it’s hilarious to read about:
unions across Sweden banding together against the carmaker, blocking imports at ports and refusing to repair damaged Tesla chargers, among other actions.
Postal workers have stopped delivering mail to the company, including license plates. A local court of appeal also overturned Tesla’s attempts to have license plates directly delivered from the Swedish Transport Agency.
unions in Norway, Denmark, and Finland have now said they’re also ready to stop unloading cars from ships, according to the Financial Times.
Respectfully, punching down does nothing but make people who are suffering feel worse. Posting here about how much better you have it than us isn’t helpful. We already know how messed up it is here.
Yeah I know. It’s just such a contrast between how the country markets itself VS reality. We have almost exclusively American and British TV here and it really is quite a shock when you see what the country actually is.
But if there is a world war, we will appriciate support from the US of course. One thing they are awesome at is armies and weapons.
One thing they are awesome at is armies and weapons.
You say that, but we couldn’t defeat a bunch of horse-riding semi-nomads with Kalashnikovs after 20 years in Afghanistan.
No but the US has always been bad at guerilla warfare. Same in Vietnam. Whatever nomads the US are fighting at the time are using intelligence rather than raw military power, and it’s the only way to fight a more powerful force.
Do you know that though? Because the internet is flooded by Americans defending their shitty system.
Land of the fee
Hhh. Nice.
just pointing out that America is bordering on not being a civilized country anymore.
Looking across Pacific Bathtub USSA seems to be shitshow in every aspect of life. Meanwhile about EU I mostly say “EU, I belive in you!”
As a bonus, we don’t have any Musks here.
We do, but we call them Rogozins.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but shit like this is what prevents people from taking preventative measures.
Its purposeful. It’s done this way so that there are legal ways of justifying the death of millions per year as they are deemed unprofitable.
Can confirm. Had my mammogram last month and they recommended an ultrasound because my breast tissue is dense. I’ve had it once before with no problems, but my husband’s company switched insurance providers and it kicked in January 1, so now the lab where I normally go isn’t in-network and every lab that is in their network wants to charge me hundreds of dollars. This is with good insurance. (My husband always picks the most expensive insurance package because we’re getting older.)
Money is a little tight right now because I’m in between jobs, so at this point I’ve given up. I’ll look into it again when I’m employed again but it’s just not affordable at the moment.
Oh, but we have the best healthcare system in the world (which is why I’m thousands in medical debt despite having good insurance with no sign of a diagnosis or treatment) and you have super long wait times in other countries (which is why I had to wait almost a year to get a new neurologist when my old one retired).
But hey, we keep the health insurance industry making money for its shareholders, so there’s that.
Empire aka “The Land of the Free” “sarcasm”
America is well overdue for a revolution.
the idea of a revolution is dead. there’s no way people are going to keep their digital limb aside for a moment to think that they are getting scammed by corporations everyday.
we’re frogs in the boiling waterThe “frogs in water slowly brought to a boil” meme is totally false. The frogs jump out when the water gets too hot for them, which is long before it’s boiling. Just saying ;)
thank you for the heads up, dark grey colour(or is f4 some musical note?).
All I can say is that there was once some site where I had great difficulty finding a valid username that wasn’t already taken, and this name worked.
Congrats tho. Just lost a friend to breast cancer that was suspected years ago but not confirmed until december. Seriously, congrats.
Wtf, as a Canadian who had a breast reduction and a revision for free this sort of thing seems like a nightmare to me.
My wife and I have 'the best insurance in the city" we’ve been told by practitioners. Standard bloodwork costs me several hundred dollars.
*Best for them :p
I think this is one those situations where “I did all that for nothing” is way better outcome
I feel like you are missing the point of OPs post. I think OP is complaining about the price.
I mean yeah by all means that amount is ridiculous and not acceptable in any level
Sometimes it feels like you should get something for all that money. Like maybe just a little bit cancer, to make the tests feel worth it.
This is sarcasm, obviously.
I thought a yearly mammogram was always covered with insurance after the ACA was passed? Or maybe that’s only after a certain age?
An annual screening mammogram is automatically covered. If it’s a “diagnostic” mammogram following up some specific issue or complaint, then it would then fall into whatever normal policy rules you have with your insurance company for imaging tests. That’s more likely the case here since this person had to go on to have an ultrasound as well.
If you have insurance but get billed for an annual screening mammogram, it’s possible it was coded improperly by billers and you should definitely check up on that before paying.
It’s only after like 35 or something, iirc
Healthcare can’t be left to the free market. Simply because the demand part of the market isn’t free.
My country screens like 10% of total (mostly) boob-havers per year for free (the number would heve been higher if more ppl decided to get tested). So basically everyone is invited, with mobile test units (just big containers/trucks) roaming around the country for the elderly, or fit a bit more remote villages, or just to spread awareness & make someone get screened out of convenience.
