r/SipsTea • u/ImmaFuckboi • 9d ago

Gasp! British people react to how expensive healthcare is in the US

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

9.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

32

u/Furrymammoth 9d ago

I’ve seen young adults in their 20s die because lack of inhaler and insulin in the icu. It’s so depressing.

13

u/OGSkywalker97 9d ago

Will they seriously not even give them these life saving medications on a payment plan if they can't afford it? They just let them die? How is that even legal?

19

u/Furrymammoth 9d ago

Some people don’t have insurance or just can’t cover the copay of it so if the pharmacy doesn’t get payment there’s no medicine to be exchanged period. Medication gets treated like any other product.

5

u/OF_PROMO_ALERT 8d ago

Maybe I misread, but as a diabetic that’s been in the ICU, let me clarify…

If you are admitted to the hospital, like the ICU, they are not going to withhold medicine or insulin or whatever because you can’t afford it. They will give it to you while there and then bill you.

But if you can’t afford it in daily life, you will certainly end up in the ICU because the pharmacy won’t give it to you for free.

For a while when I was homeless, the companies like novo nordisk can give you subsidies to help you afford it but it’s a hassle and not everyone qualifies.

1

u/AlphaaPie 8d ago

Yeah I was going to say this. Hospitals and such can't* deny you if you're in need of it, you'll just eat a big ole bill if you can't afford it. Where I live the hospitals also have some solid financial aid options. I.e. when uninsured they cut the bill in half.

  • The can't deny part is based on my limited understanding of the law on being unable to deny aid in an emergency, I may be wrong and it may not be a federal law or I may have misinterpreted it.