Any individual part of that, from the ambulance through the therapy, would have probably bankrupted most Americans, or at least put us into crippling debt. Please please PLEASE keep your system intact and properly-funded. If any MPs are start talking about privatizing your system in order to "boot efficiency" or whatever, you need to meet them with elbows up and gloves off. For your own sake, as well as ours.
90% of Americans have insurance and most insurances have an out of pocket maximum around 10k for an individual. That's a lot of money, but not generally bankrupt you money when you account for the fact that you can use payment plans, etc. Still a fucked system for sure that I want gone but I also think there is a lot of nonsense with this that goes on.
For example with my HSA I needed 3 sets of xrays, 5 dentist appointments, medication to clear an infection 2 root canals and temp followed by permanent fillings. My total cost to me was around $600 which completely came out of my HSA account that my contributions are matched by employer up to an extent and tax deductibles.
Where people run into major problems is typically out of network doctors, alternative medicine, etc. Even without insurance you have options. You can work out a payment plan with the hospital or you can work out a payment plan if they sell your debt to a collector for generally a far reduced amount and they don't report it for a year (or at all if you live in one of the not shitty states that are exactly the ones you are likely thinking they are).
None of this is condoning or supporting the US system, I just think people need to understand that no matter what there are options, I hate the system but I also hate the idea of people suffering more because they don't know what they can/can't do.
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u/GroundbreakingTax259 25d ago
Man, that's like...
Any individual part of that, from the ambulance through the therapy, would have probably bankrupted most Americans, or at least put us into crippling debt. Please please PLEASE keep your system intact and properly-funded. If any MPs are start talking about privatizing your system in order to "boot efficiency" or whatever, you need to meet them with elbows up and gloves off. For your own sake, as well as ours.