Hey all, I’m British so I don’t really know the ins and outs of the US healthcare system. Apologies for asking what is probably a rather simple question.

So like most of you, I see many posts and gofundmes about people having astronomically high medical bills. Most recently, someone having a $27k bill even after his death.

However, I have an American friend who is quick to point out that apparently nobody actually pays those bills. They’re just some elaborate dance between insurance companies and hospitals. If you don’t have insurance, the cost is lower or removed entirely. Supposedly.

So I’m just asking… How accurate is that? Consider someone without insurance, a minor physical ailment, a neurodivergent mind and no interest in fighting off harassing people for the rest of their life.

How much would such a person expect to pay, out of their own pocket, for things like check ups, x rays, meds, counselling and so on?

  • demesisx@infosec.pubEnglish
    102·
    3 months ago

    I’ll put it this way:

    At least 68,000 Americans die every single year due to not being able to afford healthcare.

    We pay an extra $450 BILLION annually to enrich unnecessary middlemen and ALL of our politicians are being bribed (or primaried) to prevent Single Payer. You’ll hear people like Kamala and Warren talk about “access” to healthcare while they receive massive bribes from healthcare companies to pull support away from Single Payer and offer a “choice” or “access to health care”. Remember 2016 and 2020? The DNC pulled out all stops to prevent Single Payer. Remember when Bloomberg ran for office and claimed , “under my governorship, New York had less uninsured people than at any time in history” while failing to mention that he enacted steep penalties for being uninsured? That’s neoliberal gaslighting 101! Kamala loves to do it too! But yeah vote for her because she’s “one of the good guys” and certainly wasn’t one of the people that was tasked with preventing Bernie Sanders from winning the primary two cycles in a row, offering “Medicare for All who want it” so stacked with asterisks and legalese means-testing that probably like 50 people would qualify.

    Edit: In my opinion, anyone who is paid to run for office and vote against Single Payer is a murderer guilty of (or at least partly responsible for) the slow, often-painful execution of these 68,000 American citizens per year.

    I have student loans that I’d love forgiven but I don’t even mention that issue because true Single Payer (and Gaza obviously) are my moral lines in the sand that almost everyone in Congress except Rashida Tlaib has brazenly trampled.

    https://www.newsweek.com/medicare-all-would-save-450-billion-annually-while-preventing-68000-deaths-new-study-shows-1487862

    https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Fact-Sheet_Medicare-for-All-2023.pdf

    • laverabe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      In 2017, Harris was the first senator to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ bill, the Medicare for All Act of 2017. “Here, I’ll break some news,” she said that year at a town hall in Oakland, California. “I intend to co-sponsor the Medicare-for-all bill, because it’s just the right thing to do.” 15 other Democrats eventually joined her.

      That bill, if enacted, would have abolished private health insurance for all age groups (including Medicare beneficiaries) and replaced it with a government-run single-payer system to benefit “every individual who is a resident of the United States,” including undocumented immigrants.

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoodman/2024/08/13/why-health-policy-problems-rarely-get-solved/?

      yeah too neolib, better to stick with Trump, he’ll really get the single payer socialist healthcare going with the fascism and stuff, cause he really cares about people. /s

        • laverabe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          You’re the one telling people not to vote for her.

          That’s neoliberal gaslighting 101! Kamala loves to do it too! But yeah vote for her because she’s “one of the good guys” and certainly wasn’t…

          Until Nov 2024 she is the only option. She’s not perfect but now is not the time to seek a perfect Bernie. Political realities matter. Criticism is fine but anyone saying “do you really want to vote for her” is either a Russian mouthpiece or very clueless.

            • laverabe@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              And regardless of differing opinions, calling someone an asshole and moron is not at all condusive to productive discussion, and is downright rude and disrespectful.

              How does that help anything? We’re both for single payer healthcare as a human right, and support for the neolib right now is quickest path to get there. I don’t like it either, but infighting only helps fascists.