Utopia Talk / Politics / US medical insurance industry

williamthebastard Member	Sun Nov 19 04:13:28 I often translate medical exams and doctors' attestations etc. They're mainly for insurance purposes and are generally fairly straightforward affairs consisting of 4 to 6 pages. Brief narrative of the events, treatment, generally repeated once in a bit more Latiny wording, conclusion, signatures, etc. Unless you have american insurance, in which case you can hear the whirling industrial cogwheels kick into gear, and suddenly they need 92 pages of medical exams and attestations. Its the same formula, basically repeating the initial paragraphs in more flowery terms, but here its repeated 15 times. Ive never seen anything like it. Just the translation costs EUR 5k. Who pays for that?
patom Member	Sun Nov 19 04:36:23 The customer pays. Between the Insurance Industry and the Pharmaceutical industry. The American tax payers and recipients of medical services pay through the nose.
williamthebastard Member	Sun Nov 19 11:31:01 The customer has to pay initially at least, because the claim they're forwarding to their insurance company requires translated documents just to file it. A mountain of them. But do they get that money back if their claim is approved?
Sam Adams Member	Sun Nov 19 11:55:51 Way too many lawyers in the US.
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 08:09:30 And, of course, her insurance doesnt cover care for the massive stroke that she had while on holiday in Denmark, so they have to try to fly her back to the US as fast as possible. Meanwhile she needs a special flight with special equipment onboard which none of their insurances cover and also is a complete hassle to book and sort out.
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 08:13:32 I.e., her insurance company refuses to pay Danish bills and will only cough up dough for US hospital bills
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 08:18:21 ...to the point that the Danish doctors are dismayed and contact the hospitals lawyers to check whether theyre allowed to refuse like that
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 08:19:46 Life is cheap in the US medical industry
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 08:36:30 Doctor's sworn statement: "At present, it is not safe to send the PT home." But the insurance company doesnt care
murder Member	Tue Nov 21 10:10:49 Somewhere there are people raking it in for denying care and withholding payment for legitimate medical bills. And don't be so sure that they would cover her bills in the US either.
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 10:48:19 So the danish doctors have contacted the hospital lawyers and are trying to get her into a Danish program, even though she's not a citizen there. I dont yet know how it ends. This 92 page doctors report is turning out to be a gripping novel
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 10:55:40 Its the exact same unregulated free market liberals that have been allowed to own and rot the american medical industry that have been allowed to take over the US political system.
murder Member	Tue Nov 21 11:54:45 This country was always established to cater to rich white men. Nothing has changed.
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 13:18:10 This is a well-to-do family from Texas, judging from the descriptions of the physically active lifestyle she leads, with her own swimming pool and tennis court, desperately clinging to Danish social health care to avoid an avoidable tragedy
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 13:18:10 This is a well-to-do family from Texas, judging from the descriptions of the physically active lifestyle she leads, with her own swimming pool and tennis court, desperately clinging to Danish social health care to avoid an avoidable tragedy
williamthebastard Member	Tue Nov 21 13:21:01 ...that will be unavoidable if capitalist health care wins out
williamthebastard Member	Wed Nov 22 05:20:52 So the danish doctors ended up delaying all the paperwork on purpose to give her time to get a little better before having to unplug her IV and send her off on a 12 hour trip
Seb Member	Wed Nov 22 05:43:25 Murder: "Somewhere there are people raking it in for denying care and withholding payment for legitimate medical bills." The actual real death panels.
Seb Member	Wed Nov 22 05:46:15 I am somewhat blown away that medical insurance would insist on re-patriation when it is unsafe to do so, and does not cover such repatriation. Even my cheap as shit emergency medical cover on travel insurance doesn't do that, and covers up to £25m of treatment. How on earth can emergency medical cover on travel insurance be better than private medical insurance?
Seb Member	Wed Nov 22 05:47:35 I pay something like £150 for my entire family for a year. Strangely, there is a box where you have to pay extra to cover the US, probably due to US health system being insane. Now there are direct flight to CR, I avoid the US.
williamthebastard Member	Thu Nov 23 01:29:59 "Corporations are much better at running society than politicians!" Said an entire country utterly hoodwinked by a century of salesmen, hawkers and carnival barkers telling them that they should be running everything
patom Member	Thu Nov 23 05:48:27 True story: I have a bunch of inlaws that live in New Brunswick Canada. One of my nieces and her husband stopped at our house in Maine with their motor home. they were on their way to Montreal to visit her husbands mother. These two are constantly bad mouthing Universal Health Care, or anything government run. Think we have the best here. The next morning, her husband woke up in a lot of pain. I offered to take him to the ER in Bangor. They instead packed up and beat feet back into Canada to the nearest ER there. Apparently they love to bitch and moan but they sure as hell don't want to pay for US Hospital services.
Forwyn Member	Thu Nov 23 12:00:18 "Way too many lawyers in the US." This. Currently trannies are busy inundating civil courts with lawsuits to obtain coverage to mutilate themselves. This will add another ten pages to yearly agreements.
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