"Healthcare" in the US

[equationgirl]

A month's worth of oral contraception in the UK is circa three quid. How much does it cost in the US?

ETHINYLESTRADIOL WITH LEVONORGESTREL | Medicinal forms | BNF content published by NICE

I picked Microgynon 30, as that was the one Mrs Sas took, others will be pretty much the same price. (Scroll down)

I think the ones like cerazette, a later generation progesterone only pill, can be more expensive.

 

[petee]

back in college I remember some students giving a lot of blood

yeh i was in graduate school with a woman who sold her plasma to make ends meet.
she was a white-as-a-sheet-minnesota-norwegian to begin with, you could see the veins in her skin. it was really uncomfortable.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I think the ones like cerazette, a later generation progesterone only pill, can be more expensive.

Quite likely. Drug Tariff Cost £3.17.

DESOGESTREL | Medicinal forms | BNF content published by NICE

 

[pseudonarcissus]

I had a rather sad chat with a friend in NYC. He has complex health problems including total kidney failure. One kidney has already been removed due to recurrent infections, the other doesn’t work. He’s unemployed, and, I guess, indigent (a word I had to look up when I moved to the States) on a State health insurance scheme. Dialysis is covered as essential...a transplant would be elective and so isn’t. He’s 30. A transplant would give him 35 years or so bring a productive tax payer.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I had a rather sad chat with a friend in NYC. He has complex health problems including total kidney failure. One kidney has already been removed due to recurrent infections, the other doesn’t work. He’s unemployed, and, I guess, indigent (a word I had to look up when I moved to the States) on a State health insurance scheme. Dialysis is covered as essential...a transplant would be elective and so isn’t. He’s 30. A transplant would give him 35 years or so bring a productive tax payer.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Unfortunately, he's not alone. I hope he finds the funding for the transplant he needs.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Here's how bizarre the system has become--this lady went to the doctor with a cold and they decided to take a swap to see if it was strep throat. She ended up with a $28,000 bill:

How a routine doctor visit ended with a $28,000 medical bill

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Here's how bizarre the system has become--this lady went to the doctor with a cold and they decided to take a swap to see if it was strep throat. She ended up with a $28,000 bill:

How a routine doctor visit ended with a $28,000 medical bill

That sounds dodgy.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

That sounds dodgy.

It was very dodgy, even by the standards of US healthcare, but it wasn't unusual.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

That sounds dodgy.

I believe the insurer has stopped payment. Something like that should have thrown red flags everywhere, but it didn't until the media covered it.

 

[petee]

That sounds dodgy.

indeed it does. it reads from the article like the situation will work out, but the patient should never have had to go through that. i've never had that experience with an office.

with hospitals, though ...

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I noticed that there's an award named after Martin Shkrelli. Its a list of the worst fraud and abuse in the US healthcare system. Here are the winners of the third annual Martin Shkrelli awards:

2019 Shkreli Awards - Lown Institute

A top ten list of the worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in health care, named for Martin Shkreli, the price-hiking "pharma bro" that everyone loves to hate.

lowninstitute.org

I can't think of a more deserving person for these awards to be named after.

 

[petee]

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ann Lovell had never owned a passport before last year. Now, the 62-year-old teacher is a frequent flier, traveling every few months to Tijuana, Mexico, to buy medication for rheumatoid arthritis — with tickets paid for by the state of Utah’s public insurer.

Lovell is one of about 10 state workers participating in a year-old program to lower prescription drug costs by having public employees buy their medication in Mexico at a steep discount compared to U.S. prices. The program appears to be the first of its kind, and is a dramatic example of steps states are taking to alleviate the high cost of prescription drugs.

...

The cost difference is so large that the state’s insurance program for public employees can pay for each patient’s flight, give them a $500-per-trip bonus and still save tens of thousands of dollars.

Utah sends employees to Mexico for lower prescription prices

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ann Lovell had never owned a passport before last year. Now, the 62-year-old teacher is a frequent flier, traveling every few months to Tijuana, Mexico, to buy medication for rheumatoid arthritis — with tickets paid for by the state of Utah’s public insurer.

apnews.com

 

[yield]

Fed Chair Jerome Powell calls out massive US health spending, says Americans are 'getting nothing' in return | Markets Insider Outline - Read & annotate without distractions
February 12, 2020

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that Americans are "getting nothing" in return for what the US spends on healthcare.

"The outcomes are perfectly average for a first-world nation, but we spend 6 to 7% of GDP more than other countries. So it's about the delivery. That's a lot of money that you are effectively spending and getting nothing," he said.

Studies have indicated that the US spends far more on healthcare compared to other developed countries only to achieve worse outcomes.

One study published last year in a medical journal estimated that nearly a quarter of the US's $3.6 trillion health spending is wasteful.

Telling truth to power. Or the capitalist argument for socialized medicine. Or the waste isn't a bug, it's a feature.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

My NYC friend´s facebook posting....

FYI- The 250 transplant centers, which refer patients to a single national registry, require patients to verify how they will cover bills that can total $400,000 for a kidney transplant or $1.3 million for a heart, plus monthly costs that average $2,500 for anti-rejection drugs that must be taken for life.
People are always asking me about getting a transplant...while I'm concerned about getting through the month with what I have. So please stop asking me this silly shit, unless you going to pay for it. K thanks!

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

My NYC friend´s facebook posting....

FYI- The 250 transplant centers, which refer patients to a single national registry, require patients to verify how they will cover bills that can total $400,000 for a kidney transplant or $1.3 million for a heart, plus monthly costs that average $2,500 for anti-rejection drugs that must be taken for life.
People are always asking me about getting a transplant...while I'm concerned about getting through the month with what I have. So please stop asking me this silly shit, unless you going to pay for it. K thanks!

I'm sorry to hear of your friend's health issues and other difficulties. I hope your friend can get the treatment they need.

 

[petee]

The Cost of Not Getting Tested for Coronavirus: a $10K ER Bill

Teacher Erin McCarthy’s insurance company got hit with a $10,383 charge after she went to a Brooklyn emergency room and was refused testing for virus.

thecity.nyc

at least she won't be paying. but someone's making good money.

First Brooklyn public school teacher Erin McCarthy began experiencing potential coronavirus symptoms after returning from Italy.

Then a doctor — wearing a hazmat suit — told her she couldn’t be tested because she didn’t fit the criteria at the time.

But that wasn’t her last shock: She recently got a bill saying her fruitless March 2 ER visit cost $10,382.96.

“And I wasn’t even tested,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy is lucky: She has insurance coverage and will only have to cough up a $75 co-pay for her visit to The NYU Langone Health–Cobble Hill emergency department. Her insurance company will pay a negotiated-down rate.

 

[petee]

meanwhile ...

GOP Plows Forward on Plans to Kill Obamacare, Pandemic Be Damned

Despite the virus hitting their states, attorneys general say they aren’t bending on the idea that the Affordable Care Act must go.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[editor]

And then there's this clown at the top:

US president Donald Trump insinuates during a news conference that hospital staff in coronavirus hot spots such as New York city are stealing hundreds of thousands of surgical masks. He asked how the numbers of masks requested could shoot up from 10,000 to 300,000 overnight and said: ‘Are they going out the back door?’

'Maybe worse than hoarding': Trump implies hospital staff stealing masks – video

Trump implies hospital staff in New York city are stealing surgical masks, and tells reporter 'don't be threatening. Be nice'

www.theguardian.com

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

And then there's this clown at the top:

'Maybe worse than hoarding': Trump implies hospital staff stealing masks – video

Trump implies hospital staff in New York city are stealing surgical masks, and tells reporter 'don't be threatening. Be nice'

www.theguardian.com

One of the things I've discovered over the last three years is that Trump always accuses other people of what he's doing at the moment. If there are masks and other equipment going missing, you can bet he's the one helping them go missing. I know that sounds paranoid.

 

[two sheds]

One of the things I've discovered over the last three years is that Trump always accuses other people of what he's doing at the moment. If there are masks and other equipment going missing, you can bet he's the one helping them go missing. I know that sounds paranoid.

Standard practice for criminals and the dishonest, particularly when it comes to court cases: "muddying the waters" so outsiders and judges don't know who to believe, particularly if they can't be arsed to find out.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Here's a poll I ran across. Its a Gallop poll that surveyed people to see how many people knew others who died after not being able to access or pay for helathcare. The numbers are apalling:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than 13% of American adults -- or about 34 million people -- report knowing of at least one friend or family member in the past five years who died after not receiving needed medical treatment because they were unable to pay for it, based on a new study by Gallup and West Health. Nonwhites, those in lower-income households, those younger than 45, and political independents and Democrats are all more likely to know someone who has died under these circumstances. . . .

ovetailing with these results is a rising percentage of adults who report not having had enough money in the past 12 months to "pay for needed medicine or drugs that a doctor prescribed" to them. This percentage has increased significantly, from 18.9% in January 2019 to 22.9% in September. In all, the 22.9% represents about 58 million adults who experienced "medication insecurity," defined as the inability to pay for prescribed medication at least one time in the past 12 months. The increase reflects a marked rise among women of over five percentage points to 27.5%, widening the gender gap to over nine points when compared with the 18.1% rate for men. And while data among both political independents and Republicans are statistically unchanged since September, medication insecurity among Democrats has risen over six points to 27.7%.

Millions in U.S. Lost Someone Who Couldn't Afford Treatment

Thirty-four million U.S. adults report knowing someone who has died in the past five years who did not receive needed treatment due to their inability to pay for it.

news.gallup.com

 

[StoneRoad]

That's appalling, and despite the ACA.
And I suspect the 'rona pandemic is going to push that percentage higher (much higher).

 

[yield]

Battle Covid-19, Not Medicare for All: Doctors Demand Hospital Industry Stop Funding Dark Money Lobby Group
Common Dreams. May 21, 2020

A progressive organization of 23,000 physicians from across the U.S. demanded Thursday that the American Hospital Association (AHA) divest completely from a dark-money lobbying group that has spent millions combating Medicare for All and instead devote those financial resources to the fight against Covid-19 and to better support for patients and healthcare workers.

Dr. Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), said in a statement that "the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched hospitals' resources to the limit, and the AHA should not waste precious member hospitals' funds lobbying against universal health coverage" as a member of the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PFAHCF).

Because Medicare for All would provide a lifeline to hospitals in underserved areas that have been hit hard by Covid-19, Gaffney argued, the AHA "cannot claim to represent hospitals while also opposing a single-payer system that would keep struggling hospitals open." The AHA represents around 5,000 hospitals and other healthcare providers in the U.S.

As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, public health officials are accusing the Trump administration of directing billions of dollars in Covid-19 hospital bailout funds to high-revenue providers while restricting money to hospitals that serve low-income areas.

 

[yield]

‘Care now beyond the means of all but the rich’
It’s the healthcare system, stupid
Le Monde diplomatique. by Thomas Frank. 02/08/2020
‘Populist’ is now an insult in the US, especially when applied to anti-expertise reactions to the current pandemic. But the true history of US populism is of a long fight to place medical experts at the service of the wellbeing of ordinary people.

Unfortunately, it’s all a mistake. Donald Trump’s prodigious stupidity is not the sole cause of our crushing national failure to beat the coronavirus. Plenty of blame must also go to our screwed-up healthcare system, which scorns the very idea of public health and treats access to medical care as a private luxury that is rightfully available only to some. It is the healthcare system, not Trump, that routinely denies people treatment if they lack insurance; that bankrupts people for ordinary therapies; that strips people of their coverage when they lose their jobs — and millions of people are losing their jobs in this pandemic. It is the healthcare system that, when a Covid treatment finally arrives, will almost certainly charge Americans a hefty price to receive it (3).

And that system is the way it is because organised medicine has for almost a century used the prestige of expertise to keep it that way.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Remdesivir manufacturer, Gilead, just set the price for the COVID-19 treatment: between $2,300 and $3,100 per patient. @icer_review estimates the treatment costs approx. $1 per vital to produce. $1.

 

[spring-peeper]

Due to the high cost of healthcare, many Americans travel to Canada or Mexico to get cheaper medications and dental care.

With the borders being closed to non-essential travel, they have to pay US prices.

With Canada and Mexico borders closed, Americans are trapped in their own health care system | CNN

Mexico and Canada have closed thousands of miles of border to all but essential travel, roiling plans for vacation, work, and school. For cash-strapped Americans, it has also cut off access to medicines and health care services that they can't afford at home -- at a time when money is tighter...

www.cnn.com

 

[farmerbarleymow]

More depressing news.

‘Profit over death’: millions of American diabetics struggle to afford insulin

Trump issued executive orders in 2020 aimed at cutting cost of medicine, but activists say they have accomplished little

www.theguardian.com

 

[pseudonarcissus]

My NYC friend´s facebook posting....

FYI- The 250 transplant centers, which refer patients to a single national registry, require patients to verify how they will cover bills that can total $400,000 for a kidney transplant or $1.3 million for a heart, plus monthly costs that average $2,500 for anti-rejection drugs that must be taken for life.
People are always asking me about getting a transplant...while I'm concerned about getting through the month with what I have. So please stop asking me this silly shit, unless you going to pay for it. K thanks!

Since I posted this J has been in and out of hospital. He’s currently got a blood infection and they are thinking about investigating to see if there are spores in his heart, which apparently can happen with bacterial infections. He’s on a lot of opiate painkillers for skeletal problems.
The city provides shelter accommodation..but after 3 days of absence he loses his room. This includes hospital stays. This means all his worldly possessions are thrown in a dumpster.
his social worker was powerless to intervene and he couldn’t arrange to get someone to save his stuff in time.
Só, now he needs another coat before being discharged into the NYC winter so he’s not left in the street wrapped in a bed sheet.

 

[frogwoman]

I'm so sorry to hear this.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

I'm so sorry to hear this.

it's crazy disjointed care run by private sector contractors. And it happens time after time. I'm glad I'm in a position to fund a coat and boots...again...
J was a young, aspiring ballet dancer just out of Mississippi when I first met him 15 years ago. Now his entire life is a battle for survival against the system.
I'm sure this sort of thing happens in the UK too. It just makes me mad; such a waste.