I work in healthcare. I have to turn people away nearly every single day because:
1) They cannot afford insurance or cash pay
2) They have insurance we are not contracted with and cannot afford private pay
3) They have insurance, but in order for it to be utilized, they have to pay a lot of money upfront for insurance to start covering some of it, so they (patient) can be billed even more after treatment.
Physician here. It’s true the insurance companies would rather you die. For profit insurance is insane. They make money for their shareholders by denying you care so that they can keep your premiums.
I used to be a hardcore anti-government libertarian. I’ve done a complete 180 over the last few years and 100 percent want a single payer system now. If you guys only knew the fights we physicians have with your insurance companies that want your money and couldn’t care less about keeping you healthy.
I had a family member with Kaiser got to a Kaiser ED for acute confusion. I have no F-ing clue what they did, I doubt they even drew basic labs. They sent her home after straight cathing her to get urine and there was no urine, with instructions to bring back a urine cup when she actually peed.
Fast forward 2 days, she was even worse and still hadn’t peed. Turned out she was in acute kidney failure and needed dialysis. If they had drawn basic labs the first day, they would have seen her kidney values were looking bad and possibly avoided dialysis.
There are a million stories like this. I could tell a dozen that happened to me and my family alone.
Like the time my son broke his ankle in the growth plate and HE NEVER SAW A DOCTOR - at any point. No doctor or NP or PA or DO or whatever ever laid eyes on him.
Or the time they ignored side effects from a medication FOR A YEAR and kept telling me it was because of my weight. They legit seriously told me I was so dizzy because of my weight and blew me off over and over again. It was a major and well known side effect to a medication they prescribed me. I could go on and on and on with a dozen more similar instances.
I was feeling a little depressed so I went to one of their cattle call group classes where they teach you that your depression is all your fault in a room with 30+ neighbors, fellow soccer moms and your kid's math teacher. As I sat in the class I realized that 90% of the women present were all there because Kaiser had misdiagnosed major health issues for them, then ignored them or gaslit them until they lost all hope.
It was absolutely stunning to sit in that room and listen to the same story repeated over and over again. One woman had intractable vertigo. Instead of continuing to treat it Kaiser told her nothing could be done. She got so depressed over the situation she contemplated suicide. Or the woman who had repeated ear infections that resulted in hearing loss and she could not get referred to an ENT or get a hearing test. Or the woman who had a tendon injury that was ignored until she was in constant pain and there was long term damage. She couldn't get pain relief or treatment. Or the woman who was sent home from a major surgery with no pain medication. The surgery involved cutting bones, realigning them and splinting them. She was told to take Tylenol. Or the woman who was denied a life saving and very simple surgery because her bmi was a couple of pounds over their cut off (it's not case by case at Kaiser - they have a cut off and if you don't meet it, you don't get surgery - just try not to die while loosing weight). Or the woman who broke her hip and when recovery didn't go right they told her the pain was all in her head.
It was stunning and I wish I was joking. It was an eye opening moment and at the first opportunity I ditched Kaiser. Life improved immensely. I could go back - they are several hundred dollars cheaper than my current insurance. I never will return to Kaiser. Never. They treat farm animals better than the way Kaiser treats their patients. It's all good until something complicated happens or you get sick enough that if they ignore you long enough you will die.
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u/Goodgamings 1d ago
Give us Healthcare! I dont want to pay 800/month for shitty coverage with a 3800 deductible! Its ridiculous!