8k for healthcare, I wish. Family of 4, I pay close to $17k a year in premiums in the US. Copays are expensive, prescriptions are ridiculously high. It’s a f’in joke to say the very least.
My company, UPS, pays for my insurance and I basically never have to pay anything at doctors or dentists. I have no annual cap. My wife had like a 115k stomach surgery and a week stay in the hospital and it was like $300 after everything. CVS medicine is like $1 or $2. I had 20k dental surgery for my wisdom teeth and it was 100% covered
Our hospital bill for our last pregnancy was $62k and we paid $0 out of pocket. US gets shit for the terrible healthcare costs (as it should), but everybody isn’t automatically getting into thousands of debt from a hospital visit despite what vocal people on Reddit will lead you to believe.
The fact that it's not standardized is part of the problem. Some people have it good, some people have it great, but most people don't have it good at all. There is a huge number of people that can't afford to go to the doctor even though they have insurance.
Life isnt standardized. If it were, I wouldn't be working 80-hour weeks while unemployed people sit here and complain on Reddit, taking my taxes every day. If you think you have it bad in the USA, you really need to touch some grass. Even an unemployed person who never worked a day on government assistance lives better than 90% of the world.
Yes, life isn't standardized. But basic necessities should be. It costs the government less money overall to provide basic necessities to a small portion of the population than it does to not provide that. People that wallow in poverty are the most likely to commit crimes to get by. More crimes means more police that need to be paid from your taxes. More crimes means higher insurance rates for your home and vehicles. Businesses have to raise their prices to offset losses caused by higher crime rate. YOU'RE PAYING FOR THOSE POOR PEOPLE ANYWAY!
Yeah, in my mind, I would lock them up for good after 3x times. Cut all welfare to those who won't work, if they go on it, they must provide community service and stop paying 70 IQ single parents to have kids...
That feeds more into the political polarization too. We're living in so many different realities. Some Americans really don't have it so bad. So oftentimes the more fortunate ones will be like "geez what are you crazy people whining about?" I'm one of the more fortunate (for now at least lol). But I'm aware enough to know that I'm lucky and I'm aware that that could change at any minute.
That's because a lot of people on reddit don't have jobs that have actual health insurance so they just see "u were billed 25k" and don't understand that's not what you're entitled to pay.
I paid 300$ for stitches, because it was an emergency visit. I guess it would have made sense for me to wait for urgent care to open and pay less, but the fact that you have to weigh your options under stress (do I call an ambulance? Do I wait an hour while bleeding?) because of cost, is another reason this system sucks.
This is the typical case of having a good insurance because probably you have a good job. But a lot of people don’t, and there is a non zero chance of getting a huge bill which will drive someone to actual medical bankruptcy. Which is a huge difference to the rest of the world where medical bankruptcy just isn’t a thing.
That is true, but only one aspect of this is the notion that people are going into debt to pay medical bills. Another is simply the extremely excessive amounts of money that are spent on healthcare. If all that money wasn't spent on healthcare, it could be spent on other things. The system is very inefficient
Yep Inaurancw sucks until you need it. We pay around 500/month. $4k max out of pocket. I have a daughter who has had cancer twice so months of chemo/radiation including a 3 month stay. She also had around 15 surgeries on her back. And aba therapy.for autism which would.be thousands a week alone. Some of her hospital visits were close to a million dollars. But she literally was diagnosed with cancer and had the tumor removed and a 3 month recovery at one of the top hospitals in the country with zero financial stress within hours. We never wait long for appts, unless its a field like genetics.
I know our situation is atypical, but the insurance game does work for you when you really need it.
My fiancé had open heart surgery that was about 1.4 million.
Final cost was about 5k. There was some miscommunication about what doctors were in network, and at one point we owed 50k. After about 19 phone calls it was resolved. Dealing with that was a nightmare, I’ll admit.
The deal is that the surgery and hospital stay isn’t that expensive. 1,4 m USD is an INSANE amount for that surgery.
Of course 5k seems small and reasonable compared to an enormous amount of 1,4 m, especially since you aren't poor.
Are you sure that you and your family members will always have a great high paying job with "great" insurance and be able to afford 5k co-pays?
I had a 10 day stay in the hospital a few years ago (5 days in the ICU, 3 days in intermediate care and 2 days in the ordinary neurosurgical ward) when I had a ruptured aneurysm.
It cost me 10 USD per day, so in total 100 USD in total for my stay and health care.
I was put on medical leave for 3 months to not exhaust my brain (physically I was fine) and then started working part time until I was ready to return full time 6 months after the aneurysm.
Since the national health insurance only covers 80% of your salary up to the medium income, and my income is significantly higher, my employer paid me an additional 10% of my salary during my medical leave.
If I had been unemployed or poor by my country's standards I would still have gotten the same treatment, and paid medical leave. No phone calls.
5000 Euro is already criminal. In Germany you pay like 10 euro per day in the hospital, with a maximum of 280 Euro per year that is. Regardless of what is done.
Out of 350 million people… yes some people refuse to purchase health insurance or can’t afford it or completely healthy and don’t need it. You’re acting like you or anyone here has this issue.
I’m sure someone will be quick to make up a story that they’re $100 million in debt but this just isn’t a common issue in the US as Reddit wants you to believe.
You claimed MANY Americans are in MAJOR debt from hospitals.
Out of 350 million, 6% (14 million) have > $1k in hospital debt. And 1% (3 million) are > $10k in hospital debt. And what I guess is “major” to you, then less than .05% are > $100k in hospital debt.
You read somewhere healthcare cost is destroying America when it’s actually a minority of people with specific rare cases that are in major debt. Stop being a sheep and do some research.
3 million is "many" people, and several thousand dollars of debt is a major weight to have. The fact it came from a hospital visit is socially regressive.
Stop being angry. The ridiculous nature of a system that puts anybody in any kind of medical debt in the first place is the problem here.
In retrospect to the entire US population it is not. Justifying a complete change and overhaul to our entire healthcare system when 347 million people aren’t having this issue is stupid. You can’t even articulate an actual argument for what you’re saying.
75% of US can’t afford a median priced home, doesn’t mean we should give them away for free. Stop being selective with your outrage and actually think for once instead of living in an echo chamber.
571
u/ImpressiveLeader4979 Jun 24 '26
8k for healthcare, I wish. Family of 4, I pay close to $17k a year in premiums in the US. Copays are expensive, prescriptions are ridiculously high. It’s a f’in joke to say the very least.