Friend of mine became extremely sick. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong, but his life became pain and insomnia. After many torturous years, he was tired of being bedridden and miserable. He couldn't end it; his wife would lose her health insurance through his employer. So he walked off into the woods.
He's been legally missing for a few years now. He made sure to bring his ID with him, in case he is found one day.
That's the American healthcare system.
Why do we still live here: if we could leave, we would. We've been trying.
Off the top of my head, these are the kinds of things my conservative family members or distant acquaintances would say and agree with:
What if somebody else gets more than me?
What if somebody who doesn’t “deserve” benefits gets them?
Why should I give a shit or have to pay for other people? (Unaware of how insurance itself works)
The economyyyyy!
Even Go Fund Me came out and said, uh, wait, funding health care isn't what we really intended for the platform.
I recall one of the coaches of a major league baseball team had some major illness and had set up a GoFundMe for it...the team decided to cover it, fortunately, but...come on.
I don't know how anyone can seriously claim there's nothing wrong with our system, but they do.
One guy said, in earnest, that it's a good thing that our medical system is so expensive - because that means it's a good system. (This was in response to me saying that I think our technology and care are pretty good; it's how we pay for it that's the main issue.)
How do you even respond to that? I just ignored him. Does he think Europe has cut-rate health care? Canada?
The US healthcare system is a hostage situation.
Everybody in this country needs to lift themselves up by the bootstraps and do what I did: have a chronic disease that is so ridiculously expensive to treat that the pharma company pays your deductible and out of pocket max for you so that you’ll stay on it. Then you get actual coverage for the rest of the year!
I’m a software engineer and my health insurance pays out significantly more than my gross pay every year. U-S-A!
I've already had this talk with my daughter. I'm not presently ill or anything, but I see this as the new American version of estate planning.
Somehow, I've managed to build up a few meager assets to leave to my daughter and I'll be damned if I let American healthcare take it all.
(And please refrain from bringing up misinformed statements on estate tax. I'm a tax accountant. I'm more astute on that stuff than most of the population, and my little pile of shiny trinkets is well below any threshold for any of that to kick in)
My roommate lost his job and his insurance (which both he and his husband rely on) with it. Coverage under COBRA would cost $700 a month, which he's actually considering paying since they at least hit their deductible. Otherwise the marketplace plans are all about as expensive and/or have an $18k deductible (yes really) before they cover even part of the cost.
Currently trying to get approved for Medicaid, but it's difficult since he has income for this year on paper.
Fucking hell, this is brutal
That's my exit plan too. Once my joints only allow me to pull a pin, I'm going to eBay to find me a nice unused WW2 grenade or maybe a tank mine.
I was just telling my wife last week that I would go end it in the woods before wasting or life savings on treatments that probably won’t cure me.
This was just a hypothetical convo I’m not sick.
Yep, that tracks.
I… damn.
First corporate job. There was a lifetime maximum...wtf? I spent more on my first house.
My father is having a lot of health issues and I am worried every day that he is going to choose this path too.
Well fuck
