I went without health insurance for years and I have epilepsy. The constant fear I was in daily, no Republican understands.
I made $17 an hour and health insurance was $400 a month. Now it would be closer to $1700 a month looking at my options.
Any time, any day I could have a seizure and would be homeless.
I suggest all people who voted to raise our premiums by 3 times should have their health insurance taken away.
I suggest all people who voted to raise our premiums by 3 times should have their health insurance taken away.
In a sense that is precisely what is happening. Just with a lot of collateral damage.
Bipolar disorder here. Without Medicaid I’d be dead
Better not make any more money. This shit is fucked. I’m a contractor so I don’t have health insurance. Mentally ill as well.
I contribute a lot to my 401k because it lowers your income for need based stuff in PA at least. I only work part time also
Major depressive disorder here. Not sure if I’d be dead, but I’d absolutely be welcome to my own demise.
My partner also has epilepsy and has to take anti-convulsants every day. If it weren’t for subsidized Canadian Healthcare, I don’t know if he would’ve been alive to meet me when he did.
Yet we pay for Israel to have free healthcare, free college, unlimited weapons for genocide and to bribe our politicians. Nothing will change in America until we end the Israeli occupation of our government
But by God we can carry a gun, puh-raise JEE-zuz-ah!
Oof. Remember just a few years ago when saying “the Jews control the country” would get you labeled as an insane conspiracy theorist and you would get banned on every social media platform?
Things certainly flip flopped quick!
Not the “Jews” a foreign government that is committing a genocide. Any ethnostate claiming a divine right to power should be considered dangerous.
Don’t conflate anti Jewish conspiracies with the state actions of Israel. That’s antisemitic of you.
But you’re not wrong I and a lot of other people were kept in the dark about this particular problem for most of our lives. The facts changed people’s minds en masse
For Ms Bannister’s family, the increased cost of healthcare means putting off other spending: “We were saving for a home, and saving money for that is going to take way longer if we have to spend $11,000 a year on healthcare that we barely use.”
That’s bananas, and that’s still not as much as some other people are gonna be on the hook for. Someone else in the article said they’re being charged $30,000 for insurance for the year. How the fuck are the upcoming generations supposed to afford to pay for housing, food, and essentials when half of their paycheck (or more?!) is going directly to health insurance?
It appears that the choice many are going to opt for is to simply forgo insurance. Which is really extra fun because that means even if they’re injured in an accident they didn’t cause, they can still be on the hook for thousands of dollars if they are taken to a hospital. Not to mention, it’s totally normal for a person to need to see doctors for various reasons, elective or otherwise. It might actually make sense to start figuring out what the non-insured charges are for my usual annual visits and see if we can try saving a few grand next year by opting out of insurance as well. What other recourse does one have except to try to secure a job that pays their medical benefits fully…
…and don’t forget, having insurance coverage doesn’t mean you won’t be paying anyway! I’m getting charged over $1000 for taking an ambulance to the hospital after being struck sitting in my truck at a red light. (Due to all kinds of other ridiculous rules regarding insurance, nobody’s insurance is covering it, leaving me to hope my health insurance will… They kicked in what they thought is appropriate and sent me a bill for over $1000)…I supposedly have pretty decent insurance and we’ve been paying about $700/mo for 2 people through my wife’s plan. Can’t wait to see whether that’s gonna double or triple! Perhaps that’ll just make our choice for us and we’ll start rolling the dice as well.
How the fuck are the upcoming generations supposed to afford to pay for housing, food, and essentials when half of their paycheck (or more?!) is going directly to health insurance?
That’s the cool thing! They aren’t!
Republicans want health care tied to employment so that you are forced to choose between your job and your life.
If you want a slightly based view on how this system got developed, the Acquired episode on Epic is a great listen.
The US system of healthcare was invented around the same time as the UK’s and we got a choice on how to handle it.
TL;DL: there was a salary cap on many jobs due to WW2 and companies offered health insurance as a way to make their jobs more attractive. Back then most people didn’t have health insurance nor was it needed so this was considered a fringe benefit. Labor unions, frustrated by the lack of political movement on salary cap, fully supported private health insurance.
It appears that the choice many are going to opt for is to simply forgo insurance. Which is really extra fun because that means even if they’re injured in an accident they didn’t cause, they can still be on the hook for thousands of dollars if they are taken to a hospital.
Added bonus: Less people on insurance means higher rates for the rest as the pain can’t be spread around any more.
It’s almost like that’s what the individual mandate was supposed to do. This country is so stupid, single payer just makes sense but no, dEaTh PaNeLs, as if that’s not what fucking Aetna has always done.
The country is not stupid, we are under siege from an aggressive oligarchy that is waging class war. We NEED to organize and fight back.
This country is absolutely in the midst of an ongoing class war. It is also incredibly stupid. This shit don’t work, son!
Uneducated and brainwashed, maybe, but you can’t fix stupid and I choose to have more hope than that.
The people are not terminally stupid, but the situation we find ourself in is. Stupid can also mean vexatious.
Fair enough
Yes but also this country is stupid as fuck. I’m not particularly bright but I swear to god I’m fucking Einstein compared to the average mouth breather you encounter in the day to day. I legitimately can’t understand how some of my co-workers don’t manage to drown in the shower they’re that fucking stupid. And that’s like the average person, not even the really fucking dumb ones. Go talk to people at Walmart for an hour. Americans are stupid as fuck.
I’m not in the US so any comparisons are pretty much worthless, but 30k/year sounds just ridiculous. Myself and my wife make slightly above average by local standards but if we’d need to cough up another 2k/month for insurance that just wouldn’t happen. With mortage and other living expenses with kids there’s practically nothing left from what we make. Sure, we could cut our expenses a bit, we’re living pretty comfortably, but there’s no way we could squeeze 2k/month out of our “non necessary expenses”.
But, again not being in the US, that’s taken care of via taxes. 30+% is a lot out of salary but at least I don’t have to save for college fund nor worry about visit to hospital/doctor.
That’s the wild thing to me: we are taxed nearly as much but we don’t get jack shit in return. I’d gladly pay even more taxes if it guaranteed things like health care and education.
That’s the wild thing, your taxes are used to support the tax cuts for Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Yeah, my household tax rate last year was ~32% after Federal, State, and Local. That’s not counting the other taxes I paid on gas, or fees for my car, or property taxes. I would not be surprised if 50% of my income was taxes.
Bezos paid like 0.9% I think. Fucking ridiculous.
Can you explain to us noobs in Europe why you guys continue to let this happen and continuously vote in people who keep selling trickle down fairy tales?
Because an uneducated bible-thumping yeehawdist’s is given the same (if not more) weight than a well-researched and rational vote.
My unpopular opinion from the last 26 years is that equality in voting means pandering to bottom half of the population. If you want an intelligent and effective government, it needs to be run by intelligent and effective people. Democracy is representative of the people, so if you have everyone voting equally, then at best, you’re going to end up with a 50% intelligent and effective government.
I honestly don’t know how to solve this problem. I can’t see a way that you can weight a vote by intelligence or “connection to reality” without having a system that is very vulnerable to oppression, and still protects the rights of the morons and sheep who want to get rid of social services while they are receving substantial welfare.
I’m not advocating for removing or watering down anyone’s right to vote, I’m just calling attention to a fundamental flaw in the system.
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That bites. I had insurance offer to pay 900$ for my 4k ambulance ride (involuntary) , despite my insurance clearly stating 50$ co pay. I signed the check to the ambulance company from my insurance and they kicked me a bill for the 3k$ and change remaining. Send that to BCBSRI, they denied it. I had to appeal and remind them of the policy I had where JT clearly stated 50$ co pay for ambulance and they finally coughed up the rest as a “one time exception”. Fucking racket this shit is they were just hopeful I wouldn’t go through the 3 months or so of bullshit and being harassed by collections companies to pay. Never gave the collections a penny and medstar ems can SUCK MY DICK fuck those guys.
they can still be on the hook for thousands of dollars if they are taken to a hospital.
And the only way out of that is to never give your name if you go to a hospital. The problem with that plan is they have no records to work from like medical history, allergies, etc, so the outcomes will be worse.
Don’t do this if you’re a brown person. You’ll find yourself in an ICE facility.
That’s a good tip! I would hate to be in a position where i needed to use it but what else are you supposed to do? It’s absolutely bonkers how much they charge for this shit
I’m getting charged over $1000 for taking an ambulance to the hospital
It’s $5000+ here.
Reread the post. Theirs was $4000
Reread the thread. I’m replying to frunch not innermachine.
Right on, thanks
Worlds greatest country ladies and gentlemen 🤦🏻
Because universal healthcare is socialism and you don’t want to pay too much taxes.
ftfy: Because universal healthcare is socialism and you don’t want billionaires to pay
too muchtaxes.
I’ve been either self employed, or worked for a very small company for 25+ years, and never had reasonable access to insurance.
With the covid era subsidies, we finally had insurance for the first time for the last few years.
Between the policy doubling in price, and the loss of subsidies we would have been paying way almost $2000 a month, so now we don’t have insurance again.
I’m self employed. I haven’t had health care in nearly 7 years. It’s idiotic for me to pay 700$ a month for something I rarely if ever need. It would be nice to have for the occasional use, but it’s far cheaper to pay cash then bother with the scam.
Ironically, insurance companies are shooting themselves in the foot by alienating people like you. If they had a reasonable cost option, healthy folks would be more likely to go, “Eh, it’s worth having the coverage just in case.” But when they make it this absurd, they’re limiting their customers to those more likely to depend on insurance, i.e. those most likely to file expensive claims and/or hit their deductible.
But hey, that’s the kind of thing that happens when you can’t see beyond short-term profits. Late stage capitalism at its finest.
There is also the misconception that the penalty still exists.
It’s honestly starting to look like your better off without insurance. When the hospital kicks you the bill, pay 20 a month max so they can’t kick it to collections and ruin hr credit and just do 5-20 a month untill you croak. Fuck em theyll never get paid in full this way but u don’t have to financially ruin yourself in the process.
The USA has $961 billion defense budget for 2026 and a piss poor healthcare system.
I think that’s called ‘war budget’ nowadays. . .
Isn’t it nuts that the USA spends over twice that on Healthcare and its still shit?
Nuts? No. It’s logical when the entire system is built to the benefit of heartless capitalists. What it is is enraging.
Luigis unite??
Vote for Republicans, lose affordable healthcare.
Vote for Democrats, gain affordable healthcare.
I implore anyone who didn’t vote, voted conservative, or voted 3rd party to write that down on a piece of paper and keep it in your wallet so the next time you vote you have a cheat sheet with you.
Won’t help.
2028: “Oh, I just can’t vote for [candidate]. They’re not a True Progressive. I’m voting Green to feel real clean!”
Is anybody else seeing Christopher Walken’s face in the top left of this picture when you look at the bottom right of it? I think I need a nap.
That nap sounds like a great idea :D
Uhhhh no?
Did you figure out what it was? I’m experiencing the same symptoms!
Ah, this must be all the greatness I keep hearing about.
Paywall.
Just like at the hospital!
Worked fine for me.
Give me your phone, then.
Come and get it. I can’t explain why it works on mine but doesn’t on yours. In the future, you can go to archive.ph and paste the address from the paywalled link. Most of the time they will serve you the page with the paywall removed.
Thanks for this link!
No prob! It’s a real game changer. It rarely fails to produce the paywall-free article.
Just VPN to the UK if you can, BBC News is free without ads here
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Removed by mod
You don’t care that 340 million people are just kind of fucked? Well, that’s an interesting position.
To be fair, whereas 30% of the population voted against this horrible outcome, the other 70% were either actively in favor or passively indifferent to it.
It was already bad, just worse now. When massive corporations push extremism in their algorithms and the education system is that terrible, there’s been more surprising things that have happened.
They really just revealed how they feel about either Americans or humans in general. Either way, it’s a weird statement to go out of their way to make. Guess they want to get in a fight or piss off some strangers? Perhaps they were disappointed with their Xmas? We may never know, lol
Americans keep voting for people who keep giving them worse health care and education… It’s sad, but it is what it is.
Imagine being an American and you didn’t vote for this, and you protest, but you can’t change the minds of the people that voted for this and who’s immediate reaction to any sort of protest is revulsion at being slightly inconvenienced, no matter what the protest is about.
Now imagine you feel your vote is less and less important because the people you DO vote in to stop this barely put up a a fight, and end up rolling over anyway. Imagine being that American.
Imagine living your life everyday doing everything you can to live up to the ideals that have been drilled into you since birth about what it means to be a good person, a good American, and a good citizen of Earth. And your neighbors elect a felon, a pedo, an insurrectionist.
Imagine doing all of that and you still get worse healthcare.
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you didnt care about cuts to foreign aid, you didnt care about immigrants being arrested, you didnt care about the people of Gaza, you didnt care about the people of Ukraine, so i’m sorry i don’t care about how you don’t get healthcare anymore.
Well, I did. I’m not the US government. I think it’s a little weird to speak to an individual as if they’re a monolith, no? Reminds me of the way many Americans view Russia and Russians. Interesting.
Lol, get fucked troll.
OMG so i just did a little very mild detective work and discovered this bozo is salty because i responded to another shitty stupid comment they made elsewhere (and subsequently deleted) yesterday!!! Can’t make this shit up, LOL
Well, as long as you’re here @tehsills why don’t you tell us how your holidays were? 😆
it’s the same thread… and i didn’t delete it, mod did. your detective skills need some work… jesus thats embarassing
Omg i need to stop drinking champagne in the morning lol.
Either way, you sound like an exceptionally pleasant person to be around. I imagine your holidays probably were stuck in a lonely basement somewhere because you have driven away anyone that might once have cared for you. I’ll brush up on my detective skills if you’ll work on your misanthropism.
i’m not the one drinking in the morning
laughs in european
you didnt care about cuts to foreign aid, you didnt care about immigrants being arrested, you didnt care about the people of Gaza, you didnt care about the people of Ukraine, so i’m sorry i don’t care about how you don’t get healthcare anymore.
