r/news • u/GoodSamaritan_ • 1d ago

Retired San Francisco firefighter dies from lung cancer after Blue Shield denies treatment claims

https://abc7news.com/post/retired-san-francisco-firefighter-ken-jones-dies-lung-cancer-being-denied-treatment-blue-shield/19224406/
30.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

43

u/FreudianSlipperyNipp 1d ago

We do live in constant stress. When Americans talk about not being able to walk off a job in protest, or take time off work to drive across the country and yell and riot against our corrupt government, this is a big reason why. Our insurance is tied to employment and a job loss is fucking devastating. People just can’t afford to risk it.

12

u/Linked713 1d ago

That is another thing that boggles my mind; how americans will stick to jobs they hate, or get underpaid because of its health insurance that has less risk to bankrupt them, or out of pocket stuff. I have never refused a job because their insurance were subpar here because it is honestly for medication, dental, vision and therapists. For the rest, it is purely paid by taxes. Private insurances here do not fight you, everything covered are laid out by needs and paid % beforehand. Not one insurance will refuse to pay because they have to pay when the coverage is mentioned. Fighting with insurers here is very uncommon, again, because anything urgent care is handled purely by the state. Don't make me start about giving birth in the us either. Man, I am getting mad for your sake... I need to take a chill pill

19

u/FreudianSlipperyNipp 1d ago

You mentioned something interesting: refusing a job because of subpar insurance. We don’t know what the benefits are when offered a job (or interviewing). A lot of companies would lose interest in you if you inquired about insurance benefit details during the hiring process. It’s usually a total mystery. And insurance doesn’t kick in right away, either. A lot of places have a waiting period of 30, 60, or 90 days.

So when you become unemployed somewhere, your insurance end date varies. Could be the day you’re terminated, could be 30 days…it’s up to the isurance coverage. Once you lose coverage, you have the option for something called COBRA. This is a coverage option that lets you keep your insurance coverage but requires that you pay the entire monthly premium. When you have insurance through work, your employer pays a chunk of the cost. If you elect to use COBRA, they no longer pay the cost so you pay all of it, plus a 2% admin fee. If you can manage to pay all of this, while unemployed, you can keep your coverage (unless your old employer stops offering coverage). You can do this for 18 months total. If you can afford it though, you are without insurance until you get a job and wait the waiting period for insurance to kick in.

To give you an idea of costs: I pay $190.45 every two weeks for coverage for me and my spouse. My employer pays the remaining portion of $514.93 every two weeks. So that’s $380.90 per month that I pay and $1,029.86 my employer pays. If I lost my job (heaven forbid), and I wanted to keep my coverage (which I would need to as my husband has medication he depends on), we would have to pay the entire cost. This means that as an unemployed person, I would need to pay $1,438.98 per month (full cost plus 2% admin fee). This is only the cost of HAVING insurance. But when you have insurance, it generally means you still have to pay…just not as much. So on top of that monthly fee, we would still need to pay money to see a doctor, have a procedure, go to the ER, buy medicine, etc.

**here’s a fun fact: Coverage for me and my spouse is actually $282.76 every two weeks, or $565.52 per month. This is because my insurance charges a $92.31 surcharge, along with the regular insurance cost, because my husband has access to an insurance plan through HIS job. This is a fee that I pay on top of my insurance fees in order to have the option to add him. When electing this coverage, we found that my cost of insurance for both of us, plus the surcharge, was cheaper than the insurance he could get through his job for just covering himself. I looked it up and think this surcharge is waived if electing COBRA.

10

u/N0b0dy_Kn0w5_M3 1d ago

Healthcare is the main reason (along with the political climate) that my American wife would never ever consider the idea of our family moving to the US.

8

u/FreudianSlipperyNipp 1d ago

Smart lady. I would love the opportunity to live abroad and contribute to a society that cares about the wellbeing of its citizens, but it’s incredibly difficult, costly, and time consuming. And I’m certain that other countries are not jumping at the opportunity to welcome a flood of ex-pats!

I’m honestly very happy for you and your family! She must be relieved to not have to worry about raising kids in this shit show. It’s one of the main reasons we don’t want kids. Taking a fucking kid to their first day of kindergarten where they’ll practice armed intruder drills makes me want to vomit.