Comment by ed_elliott_asc
9 days ago
This isn’t the story we generally hear - what we hear about us healthcare is that you need a well paid job and even then medicines are ridiculously expensive - like thousands of dollars a month for something that is tens of pounds in the uk.
That's generally all true. My family's monthly healthcare premiums are about $6000 per month for a family of 6, for a "platinum plan" paid for by my employer. I had my gallbladder out earlier this month, and my out-of-pocket cost (i.e. what I had to pay myself after insurance paid its part) was about $2500 for the same-day surgery without complications where I went home an hour after it was over.
Yes, after paying approximately $70,000 per year in premiums, I still have to pay a couple thousand dollars for routine, non-emergency, common healthcare procedures.
Technology wise, I think we have the greatest healthcare system in the world. Finance wise, it feels like the worst parts of Cyberpunk 2077.
My medication is billed as "thousands per month" but the insurance company pays a different rate than the 'billing' rate and all I pay is $20/month for my biologic infusions. If I didn't have insurance I could enroll in the drug program and get it nearly free. I think its really very rare for the case you mention.
Healthcare coverage generally comes with any fulltime job. It's cheap for individuals (I pay about $150/month) but gets more expensive with families, which is a real problem. Most medications are cheap. The only medications I've heard of that are expensive are new ones not yet approved by the insurer. I pay less than $10/month for my medications.
The opposite of survivorship bias I guess.