American healthcare in a nutshell.
“Mr. Aita, who lost his job at a record store at the start of the pandemic and is uninsured, received a document at the end of his visit estimating he would owe $1,157. If the hospital had tested him for coronavirus, the federal fund could have covered the visit entirely.”
“Last week, he received a medical bill for the visit that was only $350. He initially thought this was good news — that the hospital had dropped his charge. But when he looked into the issue, he learned this was an additional charge from the doctor who saw him.”
“I understood that if it was related to Covid, it would be taken care of,” Mr. Aita said. “It’s a pandemic, I’m unemployed, and now I’m dealing with the stress of this situation.”
Medicynical note: the design of the American non-healthcare system is elegant. From its lack of disclosure of prices to the multi tier pricing (whatever the market will bear), to the oh so clever linking of coverage to employment and finally to the cynical price gouging patients with the most serious illnesses.
To clarify, by linking health insurance to work insurers have a sure fire mechanism of cleansing their beneficiaries. Those that cost the insurer the most are automatically eased out of insurer’s liability by them having to stop working when they become ill.
In reality what our system does best is collect revenue. Healthcare? Patient outcomes? Not really the primary concerns.
Obamacare (the affordable Care Act) tried to correct some of these distortions but the REPUBLICANS AND TRUMP have diligently worked to undermine its’ benefits and maintain our grotesque triad of ineffectiveness — 1. millions uninsured, 2. the most expensive health care in the world–by far, and 3. mediocre quality care.
That’s America in the 21st century, a fading, mediocre world power with a government that really really really doesn’t want to be responsible……….for anything. VOTE.
Medicynic 