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SpartanIvy posted:US end of life healthcare is designed to stop any generational wealth from being passed down. With the technology we have today, if they find out you have money they will force your dead heart to beat until everything you own is theirs through medical bills. it's this
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Nov 7, 2019 17:29
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Which is a good reminder that if you have elderly parents, it’s going to be hard, but convince them to get their resources situated cause if they have to go into a facility they will take everything they can.
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Nov 7, 2019 17:38
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How do you suggest you get your resources situated? My dad's going into a nursing home pretty soon and while my mother has power of attorney and everything I'm still worried about what they could do to gently caress with their finances beyond what is agreed to be paid to the facility. Fwiw my dad does have a DNR and wants to die. E: my dad has issues which my mom can't handle physically or mentally anymore, even with outside help. We're not just dumping him in a home.
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Nov 7, 2019 17:42
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Boxman posted:Serious question - I assume the US has incredibly stupid end of life costs relative to other countries (just because I assume the US always has stupid high costs relative to other countries). If I'm right, how did that happen? How did the US get so bad at end of life planning? Do you mean things like funeral costs? Super high, and the reason is like 75% of funeral places are all owned by the same person
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Nov 7, 2019 19:15
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SpartanIvy posted:How do you suggest you get your resources situated? My dad's going into a nursing home pretty soon and while my mother has power of attorney and everything I'm still worried about what they could do to gently caress with their finances beyond what is agreed to be paid to the facility. Fwiw my dad does have a DNR and wants to die. It’s different state to state, if they have any appreciable resources they don’t want to lose IE: house, property, retirement funds. Talk to a lawyer that specializes in it. It will be worth the time and money spent on it. Lawyers I deal with know some loop holes I never knew about and even if you have to give up some of it they won’t take it all. Sooner the better.
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Nov 7, 2019 19:42
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As far as I know, any medical debts (or other debts) your parents have will be paid by their estate when they die. So if you plan on getting your parent's plot of land or their house or whatever, it would likely better to get that sorted out now rather than once they pass. I made sure that my dad gave me his mineral rights before he dies (always his intention) for that very reason. I'm not a lawyer, though.
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Nov 7, 2019 21:23
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My concern is my dad goes to the nursing home and somehow they eat through the money we have saved for that and take money my mom needs until her death. I don't know how that would happen and my dad probably only has a couple years left at this point, but it's still a concern. I'm doing fine on my own, although an inheritance would be nice.
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Nov 7, 2019 22:20
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For years I got bloodwork done at in network megalabs like Quest and paid a token amount after insurance payments. My most recent allergist convinced me to get it done in house at their office, and even though it cost more overall ($181 in "laboratory services" vs. $20 at quest) insurance covered the tests 100%. The inconsistency in employer paid insurance means my employer incentivizes me to charge them more while someone else would get turbofucked by having no coverage for the same tests at all.
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Nov 9, 2019 20:18
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Our system is so opaque, and on top of that you have corporate groups doing things like refusing to sign contracts with insurance companies so they can charge out-of-network billing rates for their physicians and then balance-bill the patient. It's criminal.
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Nov 9, 2019 23:18
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No, it's the patient's fault! They need to make smarter healthcare shopping decisions despite the fact that pricing for care is a total mystery until the bill arrives!
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Nov 9, 2019 23:47
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tetrapyloctomy posted:Our system is so opaque, and on top of that you have corporate groups doing things like refusing to sign contracts with insurance companies so they can charge out-of-network billing rates for their physicians and then balance-bill the patient. It's criminal. We're going through that at work. We just had to pick our benefits for all of 2020 while the major health care network in this area is till negotiating with all of the insurance providers that matter. Americans are loving morons; they will raise holy hell at the slightest hint of a tax increase and gladly allow billionaires to contribute nothing to society while paying hundreds and hundreds a month for "good" commercial insurance on top of ridiculous co-pays and prices for any medicine or procedure... that's called "freedom", apparently.
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Nov 10, 2019 01:12
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Rhesus Pieces posted:No, it's the patient's fault! They need to make smarter healthcare shopping decisions despite the fact that pricing for care is a total mystery until the bill arrives! IF ONLY THESE PEOPLE TOOK CARE OF THEMSELVES HEALTHCARE WOULD BE CHEAPER. *promptly ignores hundreds of thousands of untimely, expensive and unavoidable sicknesses due to cancer, trauma, preventable disease, poverty, genetics, et cetera, ad nauseam*
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Nov 10, 2019 03:57
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https://twitter.com/whysimonewhy/status/1197550990532251649
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Nov 22, 2019 01:28
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Horrifying Guardian piece on how people with insurance are still going bankrupt:quote:Having health insurance is often not enough to save Americans from massive debts when serious illness strikes
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Nov 24, 2019 09:26
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Willa Rogers posted:
Yes, that is the entire point of insurance companies. You pay them and in return get nothing.
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Nov 24, 2019 18:17
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The whole concept of "insurance" for something that everyone needs at all times is in itself ridiculous. Of course premiums and deductibles are high, the whole premise of insurance is that you pay a fraction of what you're at risk to lose with a large population of others so that if one of you needs the funds, it's spread out over others over time. How do you do that when even the healthiest people in the system need several doctors visits per year for just normal checkups and such? Everything from the foundation of the current system is hosed.
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Nov 24, 2019 20:00
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SpartanIvy posted:The whole concept of "insurance" for something that everyone needs at all times is in itself ridiculous. Of course premiums and deductibles are high, the whole premise of insurance is that you pay a fraction of what you're at risk to lose with a large population of others so that if one of you needs the funds, it's spread out over others over time. How do you do that when even the healthiest people in the system need several doctors visits per year for just normal checkups and such? Everything from the foundation of the current system is hosed. There are plenty of people who pay into health insurance and never bother going to the doctor. Insurance companies love these people and it’s why the individual mandate was the only thing they liked about the ACA.
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Nov 24, 2019 21:12
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Rhesus Pieces posted:There are plenty of people who pay into health insurance and never bother going to the doctor. Insurance companies love these people and it’s why the individual mandate was the only thing they liked about the ACA. My husband for one. Never gets sick, usually too busy for an annual check-up. What a boon to our insurance company he is!
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Nov 24, 2019 21:48
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BarbarianElephant posted:My husband for one. Never gets sick, usually too busy for an annual check-up. What a boon to our insurance company he is! When I had “good” health insurance through work pre-ACA I went years without seeing the doctor at all. Now I have a high deductible HSA plan with a different employer and it’s pestering me to pick a primary care doc and get my “free” physical (which is only free as long as there’s nothing to treat, making it a giant waste of time.)
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Nov 24, 2019 22:09
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Rhesus Pieces posted:When I had “good” health insurance through work pre-ACA I went years without seeing the doctor at all. Now I have a high deductible HSA plan with a different employer and it’s pestering me to pick a primary care doc and get my “free” physical (which is only free as long as there’s nothing to treat, making it a giant waste of time.) If you work for a large employer your insurance company is your employer, the "insurer" who issues the card just handles all the claims paperwork and negotiates pricing. This is just them shifting more of the burden of medical bills to you and hoping you don't notice them cutting back. The value of employer insurance as a "benefit" is quite absurd, I worked for a company that shelled out over 70k a year to pay for crohn's treatments for a coworker but her cash wage was just $11/hr.
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Nov 24, 2019 22:19
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CAPS LOCK BROKEN posted:If you work for a large employer your insurance company is your employer, the "insurer" who issues the card just handles all the claims paperwork and negotiates pricing. This is just them shifting more of the burden of medical bills to you and hoping you don't notice them cutting back. The value of employer insurance as a "benefit" is quite absurd, I worked for a company that shelled out over 70k a year to pay for crohn's treatments for a coworker but her cash wage was just $11/hr. I wonder if hospitals will add on X% to bills if they know its a big corp going to pay for it.
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Nov 24, 2019 23:41
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Brigham Young University is requiring that students purchase crappy private insurance in order to stay enrolled, and is rejecting Medicaid as an acceptable alternative:quote:The Obama administration required that most university plans comply with the new law by covering a wide array of essential health benefits, including maternity care and prescription drugs, and eliminating annual benefit caps.
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Nov 25, 2019 00:54
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happyhippy posted:I wonder if hospitals will add on X% to bills if they know its a big corp going to pay for it. Ultimately there is an unhealthy amount of buck passing that goes in when it comes to payers and their money. Hospitals will inflate bills knowing that major health insurance networks will still keep them in network. Health insurers don't really care all that much because it's not their money and only make a token effort to curb costs by threatening to drop people from networks. Employers will keep on funding employer sponsored plans because each dollar of health spending is tax free. Everyone else can pass the ultimate responsibility for keeping costs contained to someone else.
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Nov 25, 2019 01:20
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Willa Rogers posted:Horrifying Guardian piece on how people with insurance are still going bankrupt: My employer now offers two forms of secondary insurance because of precisely that reason, so now I can buy insurance for hospital costs not covered by my insurance, and insurance for healthcare related expenses in general that are not covered by my insurance. It's obvious why the healthcare costs are increasing so fast, because every failure of the existing market is covered by another layer of bureaucracy and overhead. happyhippy posted:I wonder if hospitals will add on X% to bills if they know its a big corp going to pay for it. When I had to have a sinusotomy some 6 years ago, I ended up looking at the claim history, and the hospital essentially kept charging for things and being denied until it got to the point the insurer said ok. It started at like a 20k claim and ended up at about 5k once the insurance finally accepted their claim.
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Nov 25, 2019 01:29
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https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1201299944365338630?s=20 It's so weird that these vicious billing practices can end overnight as soon as some muckraking journalists start publicly asking questions. It's almost like aggressively ruining patients like this is totally unnecessary and they were just doing it because they got away with it without any pushback.
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Dec 2, 2019 02:06
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edit: double post
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Dec 2, 2019 02:07
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Good data on billing/reimbursement and out-of-network charges in these links that I thought some of you might like to review. https://www.healthcostinstitute.org...AukDfWQANnbRe1Y https://www.healthcostinstitute.org...k_WmMVqznxd0XE0
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Dec 3, 2019 10:57
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tetrapyloctomy posted:Good data on billing/reimbursement and out-of-network charges in these links that I thought some of you might like to review. Interesting info, but I would love to see info for surprise/balance billing by type of insurance: medicare advantage, marketplace plans, group private insurance, and group employer-administered private insurance.
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Dec 3, 2019 20:57
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A record 25% of Americans say they or a family member put off treatment for a serious medical condition in the past year because of the cost, up from 19% a year ago and the highest in Gallup's trend. Another 8% said they or a family member put off treatment for a less serious condition, bringing the total percentage of households delaying care due to costs to 33%, tying the high from 2014. Gallup first asked this question in 1991, at which time 22% reported that they or a family member delayed care for any kind of condition, including 11% for a serious condition. The figures were similar in the next update in 2001, and Gallup has since asked this question annually as part of its Health and Healthcare poll. This year's survey was conducted Nov. 1-14. Americans' reports of family members delaying any sort of medical treatment for cost reasons were lower in the early to mid-2000s when closer to a quarter reported the problem. Since 2006, the rate has averaged 30%. The pattern is similar for the subset of Americans postponing medical treatment for a serious condition. The rate rose from 12% in 2001 to an average of 19% since 2006. However, the current 25% is the highest yet, exceeding the prior high-point of 22% recorded in 2014. Reports of delaying treatment for a serious condition jumped 13 percentage points in the past year to 36% among adults in households earning less than $40,000 per year while it was essentially flat (up a non statistically significant three points) among those in middle-income and higher-income households. As a result of the spike in lower-income households this year, the gap between the top and bottom income groups for failure to seek treatment for a serious medical condition widened to 23 percentage points in 2019. The income gap had averaged 17 points in the early years of Barack Obama's presidency, but narrowed to an average 11 points in the first few years after implementation of the ACA, from 2015 to 2018. https://news.gallup.com/poll/269138/americans-delaying-medical-treatment-due-cost.aspx
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Dec 11, 2019 02:34
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A good friend of mine often talks to me about Bernie’s M4A bill and how a “one size fits all” solution will not best serve the needs of the American people. She is not so much of a proponent of the status quo (she works as an Aetna agent for DSNP) but believes that his bill will strip the poorest Americans of existing beneficial services — “At Risk” populations should not be mixed in with “Non At Risk” pools. After watching Sen. Sanders’ Coachella rally, she sent me this:quote:Canada although citizens can go to the doctor “for free,” they still have to pay for their prescriptions out of pocket. Meaning that low-income families rarely have the extra money to get their prescriptions, or must seek other medical coverage to cover prescription costs. I am still learning the ins and outs of Sanders’ bill outside of his usual stump speech, but I’d like to refute these points (if at all possible). What do you guys think? Is Sanders “making promises he can’t keep to Americans”?
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Dec 17, 2019 19:12
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Nobody can fully keep their campaign promises. That’s an argument against precompromising, not for it.
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Dec 17, 2019 19:17
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Jesus loving christ, an asthma inhaler and 200 doses is loving ~$100 in this shithole country that's loving at least 50c a god damned breath gently caress this place fuuuuuuuck this place.
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Dec 17, 2019 21:29
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bootleg robot posted:A good friend of mine often talks to me about Bernie’s M4A bill and how a “one size fits all” solution will not best serve the needs of the American people. She is not so much of a proponent of the status quo (she works as an Aetna agent for DSNP) but believes that his bill will strip the poorest Americans of existing beneficial services — “At Risk” populations should not be mixed in with “Non At Risk” pools. After watching Sen. Sanders’ Coachella rally, she sent me this: One thing that is wrong about that is the VA is kept in its current form along with Medicare's ban of treating injuries from war.
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Dec 17, 2019 21:34
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i am harry posted:Jesus loving christ, an asthma inhaler and 200 doses is loving ~$100 in this shithole country that's loving at least 50c a god damned breath gently caress this place fuuuuuuuck this place. That’s why I get albuterol from India. Literally cheaper for them to ship me ventolin across the world than it is to buy with insurance here ($30 copay)
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Dec 17, 2019 21:38
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Is there quick and easy explainer on prescription drug prices? I'm arguing with a dude who seems to think that the FDA is the reason why prices are high and reimportation would fix everything.
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Dec 18, 2019 18:38
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There is no quick and easy explainer for anything in US Healthcare.
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Dec 18, 2019 18:45
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Prices are high because there are no loving generics for drugs and if there are, the manufacturers can simply charge $200 instead of $50 because the non generic is $300. The fact that there isn’t a regulator to set drug prices is the literal reason why they are high. If you find one American to buy your $300 asthma medicine, you only need to find that one buyer. If you’re charging $50 for the same dosage you need to sell it to 6 people. In America you simply make more money and work less by raising your prices and that’s it.
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Dec 18, 2019 18:46
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Jaxyon posted:Is there quick and easy explainer on prescription drug prices? Rx drug prices are high because A) deregulation and lack of price controls, B) drug patent extensions artificially suppress generic market and C) consumers are literally powerless to negotiate fearing their untimely deaths.
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Dec 18, 2019 18:54
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Jaxyon posted:Is there quick and easy explainer on prescription drug prices? https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/108th-congress-2003-2004/reports/04-29-prescriptiondrugs.pdf
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Dec 18, 2019 18:56
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Basically importing from Canada is a work-around that says “we’ll let Canada regulate prices for us and then add extra distribution steps that burn fuel.” It’ll actually work better than the current system, at least to the degree that it’s not full of caveats and restrictions and roadblocks, but it’s a loving stupid “solution” and it’s certainly not “free market” or however the loving Republicans are going to try spinning it. E: I should also throw in that on top of government-enforced monopolies and our complete lack of price regulations, pharmaceutical research benefits from a massive amount of public funding. Gobbeldygook posted:Drug reimportation works until pharmaceutical companies stop tolerating it and implement rationing in Canada. CBO estimated it would reduce prescription drug spending by 1%. Yeah, this as well. We need to regulate our own pharmaceuticals, not outsource it overseas and pretend like Pharma won’t respond. That and I imagine running an giant export business that undercuts Pharma’s US prices would weaken Canada’s negotiation position enough that they might ban exports rather than face price hikes for subsidizing our own lovely unregulated system. Stickman fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Dec 18, 2019 |
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Dec 18, 2019 18:59
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