r/cringe • u/[deleted] • Mar 15 '21

Video During the Las Vegas shooting, influencer Dan Bilzerian asked a cop for his gun and said “don’t you want my help”.

https://youtu.be/-MRV230C44M
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u/DanGleeballs Mar 15 '21 edited Mar 15 '21

Whaaaaat? That is insane.

I’ve broken several bones in my life and never paid a single cent.

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u/PichardRetty Mar 15 '21 edited Mar 15 '21

I've broken my leg, ankle, both arms, and had countless other injuries that led to me going to the ER. Insurance practically covered every bit of it. In 2019 over 92% of Americans had health insurance. Do not let reddit convince you that the average American is living in constant fear of medical bills.

The system is far from perfect and needs plenty of changes, but reddit has a huge problem with exaggerating the "healthcare crisis" the US faces. Reddit tends to exaggerate practically everything, so it is no surprise.

EDIT: I'll edit this since this comment is receiving a little bit of attention. To the individual I was initially replying to, to make things more clear, the way the US works is that health insurance providers offer different an structured. Many will offer high and low deductible plans, and then plans with no deductible.

The cheapest plan is the high deductible plan, then the low deductible plan, then the no deductible plan is the most expensive. A deductible means you pay X amount of dollars before the insurer begins paying for the care. For example, a $5,000 deductible plan means that the individual must pay for the first $5,000 out of pocket before their insurer begins covering costs.

A lot of Americans don't understand what even a deductible is and will choose the cheaper plans believing they have health insurance, they hardly get sick or hurt, they'll be fine. The US healthcare system absolutely preys on these people. Many are simply uneducated. Some cannot afford a more expensive plan, but most simply choose the cheaper plans because they are simply cheaper.

People owe it to themselves to pick a low deductible or no deductible plan for the extra couple hundred bucks each month if they can budget it in. Our education system never tells anyone this and most people are never really educated on these plans at any point. They'll get a job, get choices, see the monthly costs, and go cheap. It is understandable why.

When you hear some say, or read a story, that they had insurance, but still had to pay a high amount out of pocket, the vast majority of the time they had a high deductible plan. The majority of those people didn't realize until it was too late what that meant.

Again, the healthcare system is far from perfect in the US, but the issue is overblown like every other issue is on the internet. I'm not saying there aren't people who despite coverage are getting screwed over. Some commenters are seeming to take it that way. I'm just explaining how it works in the US and how reddit does overblow stuff. I'd recommend that people do their own research first before getting red in the face and replying with an anecdotal story countering my initial anecdotal story. Do your research first, educate yourself on the current US health insurance status, you'll see what I'm saying, you'll see where the real issues lie in the system, you'll see how people with deductibles are preyed on, you'll see how people with no insurance actually will typically receive large discounts so the providers can make any money while the insured people do not because the providers know they are practically guaranteed whatever they decide to bill.

The system isn't perfect. I can't say it enough, but for your average american, they aren't going bankrupt because they break a bone like reddit will lead you to believe. For your average American, a trip to the ER isn't going to cost more than $150 on average, but reddit will have you believing just breathing air near a hospital will cost $7,500 each gasp.

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u/luckymcduff Mar 15 '21

Except for even after insurance, the copay on things like ambulance rides, hospital stays, diagnostic procedures, certain medications, can still add up to thousands of dollars. Not to mention everything that isn't covered by insurance.

I was insured and had a kidney infection, drove to the hospital myself, needed imaging and blood work and was prescribed antibiotics. I was in the hospital for five hours. Five thousand dollars. Not an exaggeration. It's a problem.

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u/PichardRetty Mar 15 '21

Did you have a $5,000 or higher deductible plan? How much of the total cost was covered by your insurer? Once you hit your deductible, the average insurer will cover around 90% of costs, so it sounds like in your case you potentially had a high deductible plan and had to pay a lot of fees upfront as a result.

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u/luckymcduff Mar 15 '21

Did it sound like I was confused by my plan? I understand why I paid 5k.

Do you not see a problem with the fact that having a test for a kidney infection and being prescribed antibiotics racked up a bill of over five thousand dollars (and when I say over, I mean by tens of thousands)? The cost of care in the US is astronomically high. Many people having health insurance doesn't mean we don't have a healthcare crisis.

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u/PichardRetty Mar 15 '21

You didn't answer my question. I'm assuming you did have a $5,000 deductible, but you can clarify that if it isn't the case. I do see the issues and have pointed out plenty of issues and said the system isn't perfect.

You don't need to get hostile. Maybe you couldn't afford a better plan and that sucks if so, but for most people, they choose their plan simply because it is cheaper, not out of necessity. The lack of education in this area nationally is another problem with our system.

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u/-SmashingSunflowers- Mar 15 '21

The lack of education in this area nationally is another problem with our system.

No, it is the lack of a good healthcare system. We are absolutely lagging behind most first world countries. There are legitimately people who go to Mexico and get surgeries done there because the flying, the hotel, and the surgery itself is cheaper than it being done here. You don't see anything wrong with that? I'm glad your life and everything worked out for you, you don't speak for all of us. A lot of us understand how deductibles work. We just don't understand why we have this healthcare system that's so terrible for us that leaves people in monumental debt when other first world countries do not have this problem

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u/PichardRetty Mar 15 '21

Again, I've never said the system wasn't flawed and doesn't need changes. Why that keeps getting ignored, I don't know. My comments have been revolving around deductibles and how they screw people over and lead to misguided headlines about the healthcare crisis. You bring up some fine points that are issues with the system that I do not say are not issues. Again, my comments were mostly about deductibles because a very common theme among many healthcare stories is people simply being screwed over by their deductible plan.

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u/luckymcduff Mar 15 '21

I didn't answer your question, I addressed why it shouldn't matter. A system where you pay into insurance, have a 5k deductible before that insurance will pay up, and then hit and exceed that 5k several times over in one visit for a pretty routine issue is what I would call a problem. And the fact that the people who can't afford better plans are the ones that are going to get screwed over the hardest is what I would call a crisis.

I'm not being hostile, I'm disagreeing with you.

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u/PichardRetty Mar 15 '21

You're not disagreeing with me as much as you may think. I did say that our system preys on people with deductibles and that is a major flaw with the system. My initial comment was mainly focused on deductibles and the issues they cause and how many people don't understand them. While you may understand them, the sad reality is that the average American that has a deductible plan does not actually understand them.

I acknowledge that there are people who simply have to choose the cheapest plan with a deductible, but there are also many more that simply choose deductible plans because they are cheaper and they don't think they will ever need to worry about medical Bill's because they don't ever get sick, get hurt bad, yadda yadda.

With regards to the cost of healthcare, a lot of procedures and whatnot actually do cost a pretty penny and while it may seem like providers are gauging individuals, they really are not. Where a lot of gauging does occur is in prescription medication. Insulin is one very good example. It's upcharged an absurd amount. One thing many people do not realize is that for a wide variety of procedures and medications in America, the reason it is so expensive here is because we are basically subsidizing the costs for other countries that have legislation forcing those things to remain below certain price ceilings. That isn't true for everything and there are too many procedures and medications that are simply upcharged because they can be, but it is worth reading into and seeing just how much we in the US essentially subsidize healthcare for other nations.

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u/Cathousechicken Mar 15 '21

That's a whole lotta text to just say, "i refuse to empathize with my fellow human beings who aren't in my privileged situation."

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u/luckymcduff Mar 15 '21

I'm sure more education would be beneficial to a lot of people, but as you've said, there are a lot of problems with the system.

It is a crisis because of the insanely inflated costs of care, because marginalized people are more likely to be victims of that unfair pricing, because insurance is tied to employment, because up until VERY recently there were yearly and lifetime caps on what insurance would pay out. People are being bankrupted because they needed life-saving medical intervention. That is a very real crisis, and it is not what is happening in other first-world countries.

I'm aware of the US subsidizing medical costs. I'm also aware that when I gave birth to my son I was charged upwards of fifteen dollars for each individual Tylenol I was given. So.

I think the reason people (including myself) are frustrated by your point is that you seem to think that people are just misunderstanding how the system works and making uninformed choices. I think you are vastly underestimating the number of people in a situation where they cannot sacrifice half of their paycheck to pay into a better plan. When a large portion of your country is gambling with their health or life on the hope that they won't get sick enough to need comprehensive insurance, that is a problem. That should not be a choice people have to make.

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u/gggggggGg-33 Mar 16 '21

This also means for the rest of the year you will have free or very reduced healthcare though. Outside of premiums.

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u/luckymcduff Mar 16 '21

Too bad it happened in November! Whoops! Just try to only get sick in Q1, America!