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Our health is our most valuable treasure, so we trust the government to help protect it by ensuring access to quality services. When that trust is broken, we’re left feeling vulnerable, frustrated, and sometimes even helpless.
In the U.S., these emotions have reached a boiling point during the ongoing trial of Luigi Mangione, who is being accused of killing the CEO of the health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare.
Intrigued by the widespread public interest in the case, we delved into online discussions to understand why so many people are invested in it. What we found were entire threads of individuals sharing their disappointments with the system. Here are some of their stories.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Had a precancerous lump growing in my chest, my health insurance said it wasn't developed enough to be covered and would be considered cosmetic unless it became larger.... so i had to pay for the entire procedure myself in order to prevent a possibly cancerous lump from growing.
F*****g jerkoffs.
Beth Wheeler 3 hours ago
I've been a medical scheduler for over 25 years and have never heard of this idiotic reason for denying surgery. It sounds like you have really crappy insurance. It really sucks that you had to pay for a surgery so that the mass wouldn't turn into cancer.
RELATED:
#2
Went into an ER for a possible miscarriage. I told them I'd had losses before and that I'd like an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. I'd had these cramps before with my loss before that one.
They refused to check and make sure everything was ok, only did a dipstick pregnancy test, even though I told them I was pregnant. And then they wouldn't listen when I said I had no UTI, that I was going to lose my child. THEY TESTED FOR A UTI ANYWAY. (It came back negative like I said it would.)
They also decided to have the nurses press and squish my uterus to see if I was actually pregnant. I was roughly 8 weeks my uterus isn't even big enough to feel in my abdomen.
They sent me home said I was fine and there was nothing wrong with me even though I insisted.
Why did they not listen you ask??? I wasn't established with a doctor at that hospital, didn't look to be in pain, and was texting my husband and I's roommate.
I ended up in another ER on the fourth of July (two days later) from heavy heavy bleeding and lost my second child.
( I will forever be holding a grudge against that ER. V-day was my due date and my husband's birthday. I should have a child right now.).
These stories reflect a broader picture—Americans' opinion of the quality of healthcare in the country is now at its lowest point since 2001, Gallup found.
Currently, 44% of U.S. adults say the quality of the system is excellent (11%) or good (33%). This figure has dropped by a total of 10 percentage points since 2020 after steadily declining each year.
Between 2001 and 2020, the share of people who viewed it positively ranged between 52% and 62%. However, the majority — 54% — now describe it negatively as fair (38%) or poor (16%).
#3
I work in healthcare, I see the worst things almost every day. The amount of wasted resources trying to get an insurance company to pay for a normal service for a patient is mind boggling. Knowing it doesn’t have to be this way, but because so many people have the attitude that business can do no wrong, I just shake my head.
We could spend so much less money and help so many more people, but the prevailing “I’ve got mine, f**k you!” Attitude continues to hold us back as a nation from being something great.
SCamp 2 hours ago
As an outsider looking in, this lack of wanting to do things for the social good or because it’s the right thing to do for the collective good has resulted in this monstrous healthcare system that has lost its way as to what it’s primary purpose is - to help people. The problem is you now have a ‘leader’ who is going to make it worse by extending the ‘me me me’ philosophy to every facet of American life. Good luck.
#4
I was in a horrible place mentally. I was s**cidal and having anxiety attacks for the first time in my life.
Acting on the advice of my mother, I walked my broke a*s into the nearest hospital and checked myself in. Keep in mind I have no money and no health insurance.
2 hours laying in a hospital bed and a xanax or two later I was released. The next month I received a bill for over $7,000. I was in shock. How could a 2 hour stay at the hospital amount to that much? Especially when it felt like I could get better accommodations at a Motel 6. To this day, I am still in debt. It disgusts me.
#5
One year, my insurer decided to stop covering my doctor.
Prior to this things were pretty seamless. The doctors office submitted all my forms; the instance paid them, and I just put the copay in when I left the office or when I got the bill.
That year, I paid more, filed the forms myself, had to fight to get a basic annual checkup covered, and my doctor was subtly encouraging me to find a new personal doctor if the situation persisted.
They kissed and made up by spitting the baby at some arcane level that only makes sense to the MBAs involved, but it was a pain in the a*s and *squarely* the fault of the insurer for trying to save a buck.
That year, they got smacked by a HHS regulation because they were spending *too little* on patient care and therefore dropped my premiums a bit the next year.
They made every medical task a pain for a year, then got caught spending *too little* and had to lower premiums.
Single-payer, yesterday, and tax the rich a******s for trapping us in this hell for decades in the name of "consumer choice." I didn't have a f*****g choice in any of that, and paid a s**t-ton for the privilege.
Uncommon Boston 3 hours ago
Members of Congress have the best health insurance in the country -- for life!! They don't understand how bad health insurance is here. Getting rid of the Affordable Care Act? Any replacements planned?
As has been the case throughout the 24-year period, Americans rate healthcare coverage in the U.S. even more negatively than they rate quality. Nowadays, just 28% believe it is excellent or good, four points lower than the average since 2001 and well below the 41% high point in 2012.
Additionally, less than one in five Americans — 19% — say they are satisfied with how much healthcare costs.
#6
The bill.
SCamp 2 hours ago
This seems to be the most frequently reoccurring issue with US healthcare - absolutely ridiculous out-of-proportion bills to the care given. I simply don’t understand how a ‘care industry’ has evolved this way. It’s greed, I know, but it seems so grossly disproportionate as to be immoral
#7
Aetna, in a word. They low-balled on all bills, refused to pay ambulance and ER Doc bills, and told me “well, we don’t think you owe the hospital anything”. Plus the hospital had a very aggressive collections policy (not for profit, my a*s), threatened to turn it over to collection agency, etc. I wrote 4 complaints to the state department of insurance that year, Aetna had to pay bills on 3 of them. F**k them.
Uncommon Boston 3 hours ago
They were the worst. I was in a car accident, not my fault -- the woman who hit me was uninsured. State Farm refused to pay the full $50,000 medical expenses I paid for, Aetna refused to pay anything. I was stunned, I paid for full coverage with State Farm and Aetna was one of the biggest health insurance companies at the time. We had one of their "better plans." - This was 1993, sounds like nothing has changed.
#8
Paying $550 / month at age 31 for healthcare that literally covers nothing until I hit my $8500 deductible.
Beth Wheeler 3 hours ago
You would be better off as self pay. Everywhere will give you a self pay discount. My cousin used to have a really crappy insurance that she had to pay the bill and file it with them herself for reimbursement. They hardly paid anything back to her. It took 3 or 4 mins for me to talk her into dropping the almost $500 a month cost. She was shocked at how much cheaper it is for her being self pay.
#9
Trying to afford Epi-pens. Nothing like a few hundred bucks for a one time use device that is necessary to stop anaphylaxis.
Dusty's mom 3 hours ago
I keep my epis three years. They lose effectiveness, but I can't afford a new one yearly. I just hope it's enough until the EMTs arrive.
#10
Working in a s****y a*s pharmacy and having to witness people die inside when they discover the price of the their d***s.
Seriously, just two more years and I'm out of this.
#11
I had back issues and it was radiating down my arm even. So I had to get an MRI. Turns out they ordered the MRI for my middle back (where I felt the pain) but in reality it was coming from my neck. So I had to get another one. I’m fully insured but found out each of those scans cost $800. Oh also the results were I have some minor slipped disks. Rest and stretching is really all I can do. So yea I had to pay $1600 for them to confirm I have a reason that my back hurts... well no s**t.
Bonus:
Last year I dislocated my arm. couldn’t get it back in so I went to the ER. It was pretty busy so I had to wait a while. I went outside and layed on a bench and popped it back in myself. I went back in and told them I no longer needed a doctor. I received a $170 bill...
#12
I'm tired of being a womam and having everything being blamed on my vagina or reproductive system. Both female and male doctors like to brush off pain as being normal, when we know our bodies and we know it's anything but normal. And then you end up with bills for UTIs when you go in for intense acid reflux and food blockages. "We don't know what's going on but you have a UTI, bye." And I have to pay for that s**t because my insurance won't cover it for whatever f****d up reason.
So aggravating. Luckily I was finally diagnosed, but then insurance won't cover the medication because it's "experimental.".
#13
Going to the pharmacy (CVS) and being told my generic medication that I am paying cash for is $216. When I say I can get it at Costco for $7 (true), they say hold on, just a minute, then come back and tell me ok, it will be $9.99. Wait, so you're making more than $200 profit on this generic medication? That's sick.
Uncommon Boston 3 hours ago
CVS is very profitable. They have the highest co-pays. I thought prescription co-pays were set, like doctor appointments. I was paying almost $1,000 / month co-pay. Had I gone to the CVS two miles away, it was much less. Yes, co-pays are set by location. Walgreens one block from my old CVS charged a fraction of that. Less than $300. 10 years ago, has the situation improved!
#14
Went to the hospital when I thought I broke my ankle a few months ago. I’m in that fun income gap where I make too much for assistance but not enough to afford insurance through my employer or on my own. They checked my ankle, made sure it wasn’t broken, put an ace bandage on it, and sent me home. Got the bill a few weeks later and it was $4500. No idea how I’m going to pay it.
Uncommon Boston 3 hours ago
Negotiate. I have heard you can get hospitals to lower bills. Health insurance companies don't pay $4500. Why should you pay more? Not sure if this is still possible -- anyone try to negotiate?
#15
The fact that half the country or more is in debt because they went to the hospital and either they don’t have insurance or their insurance won’t pay the bill.
One big giant joke of a system if you ask me. They charge you 300 dollars for an ibuprofen and even for Using the TV at some hospitals.
#16
My mom got cataracts at age 50 and insurance said she was too young to have them so didn't want to cover them.
#17
Mine's small compared to others, but the uncertainty. Every time I go to the doctor, I never know what I'm going to pay.
I've had lab tests ordered by the doctor, done *in the same office* but it was technically a separate company, and then I turn around three months later and here's a bill for 45 dollars.
No big deal, I can afford it, but... why? Why can't I see up front what things will cost me? And it's constant. Every time I go to the doctor I'm never really sure what I'm going to end up paying.
I honestly get better up front estimations of cost when I take my cat to the vet.
#18
I paid $800 for two bags of saline, after insurance, when I was hospitalized for dehydration.
Warren Peece 3 hours ago
Hospitals pay about $2.50 to $3.00 per one-liter bag. And anybody can order it from online sellers starting at about $10.00.
#19
Getting a bill from a hospital for a procedure that I never had, for several thousand dollars. Call the hospital, talk to the billing department, they realize it of course could not have been me having this procedure because the person who had it was 30 years older than me, and they will correct the bill. Only to get another notice the next month. Call the hospital again, problem will be corrected. Then a late noticed the following month. Call the hospital again, told the problem will be corrected. Then get another bill the next month, rinse, repeat for 18 months.
Darius S. (he/him) cis/grey 2 hours ago
this happened with my dad, both while alive and after. over & over.. oh yeah, with my mom after she died.. a year after she died she was seen by a doctor I never heard of... and they Wanted "their" money.
#20
I've had type one diabetes since I was 7 years old. When I was 13 I elected to start using an insulin pump instead of injections with hopes of better control. My endocrinologist was happy with where my numbers were, but it was a huge pain to keep them there. My a1c was around 7 at the time, and my insurance company decided that unless my a1c was over 8 I didn't need a pump. So we actually backed off on my care and let my blood sugars run higher for a few months until I hit an acceptable a1c for insurance.
#21
I've got gum recession on my molars. My dentist told me I'd need to get it fixed surgically or eventually my teeth would fall out (not to mention the pain of having the roots slowly expose themselves).
As this was a necessary procedure, the dentist and surgeon assumed my insurance would cover it. What actually happened was that, since my teeth weren't already falling out, the surgery was classified as elective. Aetna Dental and Aetna Medical passed the buck back and forth between them until eventually telling me to go f**k myself and pay the ~$1500 out of pocket. Good thing I opted to stay awake during the surgery! That would have cost me another two grand.
The thing that really grinds my gears about this is that my insurance company is basically saying that the correct thing to do would have been to spend another year or so in pain until my mouth was really f****d up, and then they would have considered the procedure necessary enough to help. How is it even in their best interest to discourage people from solving small problems before they turn into huge and more expensive problems?
#22
I worked for one of the top four largest insurance companies in the US for a number of years. My department was outsourced and my team was let go. I was eventually hired back as a contracted worker and was denied health coverage by the same company I devoted so much time to. So yeah, our system is total s**t.
#23
Going without a fairly important medication for over a year because my insurance company wouldn’t. Several appeals and back and forth between me, the doctor and the insurance company. Aetna’s customer support bureaucracy is more byzantine than anything I’ve ever seen. It was an unbelievably degrading and frustrating process.
Uncommon Boston 3 hours ago
Worse, when the advertisements say the company is here to help people who can't afford their medication, they mean only those getting no money from the government -- including Social Security. I didn't listen further, there are probably more requirements. There are much better medications than what I take, I can't afford them
#24
Dad wasn't on blood pressure meds because of no insurance and couldn't afford the doctor and meds. Wound up having a stroke. Hospital pressured me for a couple weeks to get him out of the hospital and into a nursing home, but a couple of them wanted $10k-15k up front which we didn't have. Most nursing homes didn't even know how much they charged uninsured patients or just wouldn't even talk to us. Eventually the blood clot in his brain broke up enough that he was able to do a little bit on his own so he could just stay with a friend who was a nurse until he had enough rehab to live on his own.
Eventually got a bill from the hospital for several hundred thousand dollars for his 3 week stay. When he told them he had no insurance and couldn't afford it, they dropped it to about $65k as if the first bill was just a wild guess seeing if we'd pay it. He'll be paying it out of his retirement savings until he goes broke or dies.
#25
My boyfriend (36) needed an amputation because he had a blood and bone infection, the bone was softening up like a marshmallow. The doctor stressed how time sensitive it was to have it removed but in the next breath told us she wouldn't be able to perform the surgery if we didn't have 25% down. We spent 2 months of our rent money trying to get his surgery taken care of. She tried to reschedule when we were $100 short. Our insurance doesn't cover preexisting conditions, which they claimed his condition was.
#26
I have known two separate people who both refused to marry the loves of their lives, not because of an aversion to commitment or anything like that, but because they knew they'd die first and they didn't want their loves to inherit their crushing medical debts. (One had terminal cancer, the other chronic heart problems.).
#27
Got an absurd bill from our pediatrician. We have pretty good insurance so I called to see what was up. Turns out, or pediatrician was covered under our plan 100%, but the office where we saw him was not—so all the vaccines and materials from that visit (from the pharmacy of said office) were “out of network” so we were responsible for 100% of those.
The biggest kicker? Our pediatrician also practices out of a different clinic ACROSS THE STREET that would have been fully covered under our insurance plan. We just didn’t know at the time, and because there was a delay in billing we made another visit to the non-covered office before we found out.
#28
Skin cancer runs in my family so I have to go in for full body checks at the dermatologist every six months. My insurance considers it cosmetic and will pay nothing towards biopsies when my dermatologist needs to shave a mole off. As if I’m going to get my lips Botoxed or something. When in reality all I’m trying to do is prevent my death.
#29
I have a 6 year autistic son. It originally took about 8 months to get him into see a doctor to diagnose him officially. After that it has been a constant battle between me and the insurance company to get him the hours he needs at his ABA center after school, which they don’t want to cover as it is out of network but the closest one for at least 40 miles. Had to file paperwork for an exemption due to hardship for him to be able to go to the center, that included a phone interview where they tried to convince me it would be easy for him to be driven an hour away every day after school instead of 15 minutes. Ended up saying that it is ridiculous to think any of us including my son could handle that, it would be wasting valuable time and resources and the center we wanted has a staff of amazing people. We argued for 3 months until it was finally settled and he started going there.
He’s been there for just over 2 years and his progress is astounding, and I still have to fight with the insurance company who are looking for any reason to say he does not need to ABA therapy anymore. It’s completely insane and I f*****g hate it, but I will always endure any shitstorm for my kid. My son was able to tell me exactly what he wanted to do today using full sentences, was vocal about how he wanted to do things, made idle conversation, played with his brother, is fully potty trained, just able to sleep on his own in his own bed, and is currently working hard learning to read and write. It’s extremely hard to teach him things as he learns in a very different way than most children, but once you make the connections he keeps learning until he’s perfected everything about it.
Amazing kid, I love him, but f**k the American health system, it sucks and if it were not for the ineptitude of the system he would be much further along. One of the things that really saved him mentally during the whole mess with getting him diagnosed and fighting the insurance company was raising him to be bilingual because it taught him to multitask and have critical thinking skills inherited from being able to think and speak in 2 different languages.
Edit: before he started to go to ABA therapy, he was going to a learning disabled district school for preschool and to a daycare. He had severe confidence issues and had learned to stop trying and would have constant meltdowns out of pure frustration from not being able to understand things but also from being almost nonverbal. Once he started his ABA therapy we started noticing vast improvements. So he started from a nonverbal screaming child not wanting to try new things to a kid who accepts new things and ideas all the time that is trying his best every day. Also, his learning day starts when he gets on the bus at 7:30 a.m. when he leaves for the district school until 7 p.m when he gets out of his ABA center along with 4 hours at the ABA center on Saturdays. Before anyone says that is too much, he is super happy every day, unlike the few times we have had to drive past his old daycare which makes him scared and panicked saying things like “I want to learn at the ABA center, please take me there, don’t go to the daycare”.
#30
$700 bill for a doctor to tell me that blood in my urine ”isn’t an infection, might be bladder cancer - but don’t worry-it’s very treatable“ and see a urologist if it happens again.
#31
I cut open my finger. Bled profusely. Wrapped it up hoping it would stop. Checked it a few hours later and still bleeding. Decided to sleep on it. Woke up and still bleeding when the bandage came off. Went to the ER and was told they dont treat a cut if it's over 12hrs untreated because of possible infection that would fall on them if they were to touch it. So they gave me a bandaid. Month later got a bill for $500. For a fucken bandaid!
Beth Wheeler 3 hours ago
Ohhhhh I am so biting my tongue right now for that hospitals BS on that.
#32
I have had (nearly) daily headaches and overall health issues (nerve pain, fogs, dissociative episodes, panic attacks, bowel issues, trouble sleeping) for 15 years and so far, no answer. I have been to tons of doctors and most of them seem to think I'm faking for pills. Even when I say I can't take narcotics with my heart condition.
#33
Took myself to a psych ER.
Was sent to a ward.
Intake manager lady asked me various incredibly insulting questions. "Do you have friends?" "How?" She also tried to convert me to a religion, saying "it helps with mental health you know." She threw a box of icebreakers at me. There was other f****d up s**t she said, but I don't remember it. It was a while ago. I just remember I attacked her credibility and professionalism for the "do I have friends" question and she claimed it was "a legitimate line of questioning often used to determine if a person might have Borderline Personality Disorder."
She got fired for how she treated me, btw. None of these other people did, though...
Eventually I got dispatched to the corresponding unit in the ward for me.
My assigned psychiatrist again tried to convert me to a religion, with the same claim. He further completely disregarded the diagnoses my years-long psychiatrist had assigned to me "because she's a woman" and proceeded to misdiagnose me. Advocating for myself by resisting him for disregarding my Bipolar diagnosis nabbed me a "Narcissistic Personality Disorder" diagnosis. Somehow, he also was convinced I had ADD, so he put me on amphetamines. For those who don't know, people with Bipolar mix *especially* poorly with amphetamines. I spent 3 days completely unable to even keep a thought in my brain long enough to write it down before forgetting it.
In that same psych ward, a code was once called on another unit, and all our staff members minus one were dispatched there, because this was a severely understaffed hospital. This left ~20 patients with one staff member, who had just returned from a week off b/c broken ribs. That was the precise moment our unit's "local" sexual harrasser chose to try and rape that one staff member. Same dude had shoved his a*s in my face several times, rubbed his d**k everywhere, and had been restrained & drugged so many times that one time the on-call doctor just looked down at him writhing in resistance to the straps he'd been placed in and said "I don't know what to do, I can't give him any more sedatives without potentially killing him." Anyways, the near-rape got so bad that us patients had to restrain the guy ourselves until that one staff got the chance to get behind the desk and call a second code on our unit.
In that same psych ward, many nights, I couldn't sleep, and would stay up talking to one of the frequent night staff. He was an MMA fighter and took great pride in it. He also had a sick fascination and itch really for conflict, violence, and restraining patients. One night, he told me it was the 5 year anniversary or so of a patient killing themselves at the hospital. He proceeded to tell me in vivid detail how the patient would manage it. Being in there for suicidal ideation I was bewildered, and couldn't help but ask the guy what the f**k he thought he was doing by telling me that. He openly admitted to wanting me to attempt it, so that he could be the guy to catch me, and then went on a second long monologue in vivid detail of all the various points throughout the hospital in which he could catch me, and how, on my way up to the roof (that patient had jumped off).
Other miscellaneous nightmare stories from this unit:
* Also getting sexually assaulted by another fellow patient, this one female and twice my age. "I hear Italians have especially big c***s" she said, while groping me.
* A staff member there, supposedly a professional mental health care worker with a bachelor's in psychology, told me I "have nothing to be depressed about," "other people have it way worse," and then went on for 10 minutes telling me about how s****y his life had been growing up in a gang-infested neighborhood "and yet [he isn't] depressed."
* Almost got HIV/AIDS due to staff carelessness and an HIV/AIDS positive roommate who was also a sociopath.
* Patient advocacy office stopped responding to my complaints because " I can't just f*****g fire half the staff in this place."
Got discharged after ~3 weeks maybe, because the doctors and mental health workers said "I don't think psych wards help you, I think you're one of those people who just get worse from being in a place like this." They weren't wrong, at least not regarding that particular psych ward. I had went in with suicidal ideation, somehow managed to come out feeling worse, and that whole ordeal cost my folks... several thousand dollars.
Sara Frazer 2 hours ago
The one time I ended up in a psychiatric institution (also for suicidal ideation, don't worry I'm in a good place now!) a staff member was also trying to push christianity bullshít on me. Very annoying. I've been atheist since I was a kid
#34
Went into the emergency room with chest pain and shortness of breath after having a c section 4 days prior. I was having horrible chest pain and high blood pressure and a fever of 103.8. The nurse and doctor I had kept acting like I was faking everything but, did a urine test and ct scan. The urine test came back first so the doctor came in told me I had a bladder infection and laughed saying I’d be sent home with antibiotics. As she walked away I looked to my boyfriend and said “I’m no doctor but, my bladder isn’t in my chest” she then came back 5 mins later and said the ct scan showed I had a blood clot in my lung and said the nurse would be by with pain medicine and I’d be admitted. I waited for 2 hours for pain medicine then the nurse ask where my pain was and I told her and she laughed at me and said “that’s funny because, your blood clot is on this side” again... acting like I was making up the pain. I finally got admitted and moved to my room where I had a wonderful nurse who understood everything. I almost ended up in icu and was on oxygen and morphine the entire night and my temperature kept jumping to 103. Thankfully the nurses I had were great but, the emergency room nurses and doctors were complete trash and kept acting as if I was faking everything even after seeing what was wrong. Basically almost got sent home with a blood clot in my lung and no treatment for it. (Now on blood thinners for the next three months after spending 4 days in the hospital getting injections of blood thinners in my belly).
Beth Wheeler 2 hours ago
File complaints with the hospital, call patient relations and let them know everything. Hospitals really do want honest answers when they send you a visit survey.
#35
I was 2. Literally dying because I could hardly breathe at 2 AM but the whole ER was held up because some Karen decided to take her kid to the ER at 2 AM because they had a sore throat. Their diagnosis was they cried too hard that night.
#36
Had been to the doctor once in a 15 year span and for a check up. Go to an urgent care because I was in week 3 of nervous breakdown, had lost 20 pounds in 9 days and could no longer drink water without vomiting. The doctor told me "anxiety doesn't affect your stomach" and treated me like a rx seeking junkie and sent me on my way without so much as advising I call a crisis hotline. It took everything in me just to leave the house and make it there so I couldn't even express my shock. My insurance expired that day and I didn't know I'd be rejected by another nine doctors and psychiatrists or I might have just killed myself to make it stop. A friend with depression who was prescribed xanax she had no use for saved me and I self medicated for 6 weeks and carefully weaned off it to recover. Thanks US healthcare.
Maggie Fulton 1 hour ago
Anxiety doesn’t affect your stomach? Are sure you saw a doctor and not some confused person who walked in by mistake?
#37
Where to even start... I suppose my worse experience (aside from the bill) was when I went in to a doctor complaining about my wrist hurting after I fell off an ATV. He said it was just sprained and to give it a couple weeks. About a month went by and nothing was done even though I still told him. Finally I ask for him to get a second opinion. He does and turns out, a bone in my wrist is broken and I need surgery to fix it. All that time him saying "Nah, you're fine." and it was f*****g broken.
TL;DR: My doctor basically said "Nah fam, it's a sprain" to my broken wrist.
#38
I was in ER waiting room for hours with a massive kidney stone, writhing with pain, because multiple people were ahead of me with sprains.
They finally fast tracked me when I threw up in front of them from the pain.
Beth Wheeler 2 hours ago
If at all possible don't go to the ER until late night or very early morning. I went to the ER Monday morning at about 5:30 because the pain woke me up about 4:30. I let the dogs out, fed them, gave them some sedation meds because 1 has. Separation anxiety, took a quick shower and woke my son up at 5:00. The CT showed a large obstructing stone and UTI caused by it. The ER Dr asked me if I had a Urologist because he was going to admit me if I didn't. He talked to Dr Kim who told him he would take care of it as outpatient this week. As I was getting IV antibiotics and fluids Dr Kim's nurse called asking if I could be in the office at 1:00. I had lithotripsy yesterday (Friday) and feel so much better today. I didn't have a day all week without some level of pain. I can't take anything with codeine in it so doctors figured out a few years ago the only pain med script they can give me and I never end up taking all of it. Like last year I had hand surgery I only took half of it
#39
Had to have a mass removed from my breast. I did all the leg work to be absolutely sure that the procedure, hospital, and surgeon were all covered. Personally called all these same places to verify copay and deductible amounts and began making payments before day of procedure. So basically doing all the right s**t. Three months after surgery I get a bill for $2500 for an out of network surgical tech. No I don’t think so. Started with the hospital by telling them they needed to resubmit to my insurance as I had no control over who was in the surgical suite once I was unconscious and they were nah you don’t want to pay it you figure it out. Same issue with my insurance, you need to talk to the hospital about the bill because this was out of network. Took over a year of back and forth with both to finally get it sorted and cleared. They also sent tissue from my mass to a pathology lab in NY (I’m in TX) and then tried to stick me with the bill.
My oldest child’s medical bills for the whole of his short life were 1.3m. At the time I had amazing employer insurance that had no lifetime cap so we never had to worry, unlike some of the other families that were in the hospital at the same time we were who had million dollar lifetime caps. Meaning their helpless children would lose their coverage and then be saddled with a ‘pre-existing condition’ that would then make them ineligible for coverage anywhere else (this was before they got rid of pre-existing condition exclusions).
#40
I was sick with the flu and feeling dehydrated so I went to the grocery store for Gatorade and soup. Well I worse off then I thought and overheated and passed out in the checkout line.
I woke to paramedics checking me out. Paramedics advise me even though I am sick someone of my age shouldn’t passed out in public. So I should go to the hospital for tests. I took the ambulance to the nearest hospital.
Arriving by ambulance it took 1 1/2 hours till I was checked in a got a bed. Now I just want something to drink and go to sleep. The nurse says I can’t have anything to drink till the doctor sees me but you can lay down to go to sleep. 30 mins later a lady rudely wakes me up asking for my insurance. I give her my insurance card and she leaves. She comes back 20 mins later demanding my $325 co pay. I explain I am not very coherent so please call my wife or send me a bill because you can’t refuse service. She got extremely mad and starts going off on how my insurance demands my co pay immediately. At this point I tell her to leave me alone and mail me a bill.
About 20 mins later doctor comes in and orders a slew of tests. I am take for cat scan, X-ray, and an ekg. While waiting for the results I was kicked from my bed to the waiting room. I spent 4 hours in this waiting room feeling like I was gonna die because I was still told no water or food.
Finally they get all the results and determined I passed out from dehydration. I was discharged immediately no fluids, nothing just instructions to drink water and some Gatorade. By the time I left I bought a Gatorade from the vending machine. I was so dehydrated I couldn’t even drink it. I spent about 8 hours being denied water to be told I was dehydrated the exact reason I went to the grocery store.
On top of that I got two $325 bills. The only plus is my daughter was premie and hospitalized and maxed out our insurance, I just didn’t know that yet. So I didn’t have to pay either bill. But it took a lot of phone calls to clear those bills. Now the $10,000 bill for her is another story.
#41
Not having it. Had to take an emergency trip to the e.r. Where they did one x ray, gave me ibuprofen and 1 Gatorade. Now I’m over six thousand dollars in debt.
#42
My son recently got braces. I have three dental insurance plans on him... The left over was still four grand.
Let me add, same son thought he broke his tail bone last year. Spent an hour in clinic room by ourselves, get xrayed real quick, sooke to doctor for a couple minutes. Bill is six thousand.
#43
Before kids, I found out I was a carrier for cystic fibrosis. We went to get my husband tested so we could be appropriately worried if he was also a carrier and potentially affect our kids.
He went and got the simple blood test. Our insurance was billed over $7,000. We ended up having to pay about $1,200, I think.
I feel like I'm definitely missing something about how that test is done, but that seemed utterly insane to me and we since stopped using that hospital system.
His insurance is paid for by his company, and due to other things like that happening, the company has since taken that hospital system off of their network.
Beth Wheeler 1 hour ago
It's all in the dang contracts. United Healthcare was playing long hard game with UNC and finally reached a contract 4 mos after it was supposed to end. They still had to cover people during the negotiations and a lot of people left UNC and went to Duke and Wake Med or other places because they got different insurance. Last year The did the same stupid c**p with Duke and really played hardball, the contract ends 10-31-24. My sister works at Duke and they didn't know on the 31st what kind of hell they would be in the next day. They got a msg from their boss about 9:00 that a contract had been signed the night before. My sister almost called in sick that day because she dreaded it so much!
#44
Went to the ER for an infection in my neck, they put me on antibiotics which in turn starting affecting my kidneys. 4 days later the bill for $84000 shows up and is quickly deposited into the trash for filling.
#45
I used to have public health insurance, then i cancelled it in favor of my workplace insurance when i got a job. Three years later, i get a referral to see a surgeon using my private insurance and the surgeon won't see me because the state never bothered deleting me from their system, and the surgeon only accepts private insurance. So, i call the state and allegedly have it resolved. I get another referral, this time marked urgent. The issue had not been resolved. I call the state again and actually go into the office of public health to have it resolved. Still didn't work, when the surgeon looks up my social it shows I have public insurance. Three months had elapsed. I asked my doctor for a referral to someone who takes the public insurance, but they won't accept me because my public insurance is inactive and i have private insurance. In the time it took me to deal with insurance issues, my workplace stopped approving my disability because "there were no new notes on my case" because i hadn't been able to take the next step of my care plan. They fired me, thanks to my social worker from three years ago not completing their paperwork. Ironically, since i got fired for my illness I'm back on state insurance now. I moved back to my parents to for support with surgery and the state takes two months to process my change in county. It's now been 7 months since my doctor and physical therapist told me I need to see a surgeon, and not a single surgeon has accepted my appointment.
#46
Paying so much for physical therapy. You can literally look up these exercises on the internet and do them at home.
#47
Lost my insurance because I couldn't afford the premium anymore. Later on had to get my appendix removed, it ruptures during emergency surgery, more complications ensue. Wake up much later and told that due to the complications they had to ditch the laparoscopic procedure and do a traditional open procedure. They said they were successful but some air was left in me and that it would settle in my joints for a bit then go away. Was given giant pain killer pills that came in handy because that s**t f*****g hurt soon after leaving the hospital.
Long story short, I managed to catch up on my insurance payments by selling a bunch of things but they said my procedure was a few days outside of being retroactively covered, or something like that.
50k+ added to the s**t pile of medical debt I already had. That was the beginning of a downward spiral into depression and anxiety problems that also contributed to my medical debt.
F**k America's medical system.
Beth Wheeler 2 hours ago
Always tell them you're self pay if you don't have insurance, you will get a big discount. You can also apply for charity care at that hospital.
#48
I needed some dental work done after breaking my jaw and my insurance company refused to pay for any of it because "the damage wasn't extensive enough" to need the work done. I had two teeth that were out of place, and half a molar missing.
Luckily, I have an awesome dentist who wrote letters to, and called my insurance company telling them that the dental work was most definitely needed. Insurance company ended up covering only $300, but it's better than nothing, right?
I've also been dealing with some chronic pain issues for the last 4 years, but won't get it checked out because I'm worried about the cost. It's sad that this is something people have to worry about.
#49
I went to a hospital because I had bronchitis and didnt have a primary care. I told them it was bronchitis (because I've had it before.) And just asked for a quick diagnosis and the antibiotics. They said they needed an x-ray, several swabs for flu, bloodwork, and 5 minutes of listening to me breathing.
I offered to give them my insurance card, they said no need and gave me the prescriptions.
2 months later I have a $5,000 bill for f*****g bronchitis and my insurance lapsed because I lost my job. I still get calls from debt collectors because they immediately sold it off, before I even got the bill.
Maggie Fulton 1 hour ago
These days, I think the common wisdom is that antibiotics don’t do much for bronchitis (they never did for me when I was a kid and had it all the time). They give you a bronchodilator.
#50
+3000 USD from urgent care to get ear wax out of my ear. No surgery. Just had a build up of ear wax that they took out of my ear. And yes I had insurance. When I called to ask the clinic why the facility and doctor billed me separate huge bills they dropped it down to about 1/2.
The US healthcare system is an embarrassment to humanity showing how evil and corrupt unchecked capitalism can be. The most sickening part is how many Americans are ok with it as long as they are doing ok. The justice system and politics suffer from the same stupid, arrogant, short sighted greed. Hope the younger generation does something better. Hope they vote.
Beth Wheeler 2 hours ago
If you got 2 bills it means they are hospital based and they have to pay rent to the hospital for using their facility which is where those damn facility fees come from.
What do you think ?
Brian Droste 3 hours ago
I read down through no.13 and couldn't read anymore, but as I was scrolling down to here I decided to read couple more. These were getting me very upset.
Booster Booey 3 hours ago
Most depressing stuff I've ever read. America just sucks. And it'll never change.
Random User 3 hours ago
4 years ago my BIL was diagnosed with a clot forming in his heart and was quoted 300k to get it removed. His insurance refused to cover it as it was "non-life-threatening", and would be an "elective procedure". This year he had a heart attack *from the same clot*, and needed life-saving emergency surgery. Insurance refused to cover the 580k bill, because essentially, "it had been diagnosed beforehand and taking preventative measures earlier would have been cheaper". Now instead of recovering stress-free, he has to remind his insurance provider about how THEY denied the preventative care in the first place.
Brian Droste 3 hours ago
I read down through no.13 and couldn't read anymore, but as I was scrolling down to here I decided to read couple more. These were getting me very upset.
Booster Booey 3 hours ago
Most depressing stuff I've ever read. America just sucks. And it'll never change.
Random User 3 hours ago
4 years ago my BIL was diagnosed with a clot forming in his heart and was quoted 300k to get it removed. His insurance refused to cover it as it was "non-life-threatening", and would be an "elective procedure". This year he had a heart attack *from the same clot*, and needed life-saving emergency surgery. Insurance refused to cover the 580k bill, because essentially, "it had been diagnosed beforehand and taking preventative measures earlier would have been cheaper". Now instead of recovering stress-free, he has to remind his insurance provider about how THEY denied the preventative care in the first place.
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