638
‘Don’t get sick. It’s too expensive’: medical debt is putting more Americans in financial crisis
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
638 points (99.2% liked)
News
23259 readers
3423 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They eliminated pre-existing conditions and maximum lifetime payments for health insurance, so that's not nothing.
But they failed to pass a public option which means health insurance companies have a captive audience for their rent-seeking.
And the Democrats still just talk about getting people affordable "coverage" and not affordable "care."
And hospitals are still understaffed and mental health care has six month waiting lists.
Mental health care is also often just excluded from coverage. My current job is the first time in my life I've had insurance that would cover therapy rather than be like "Look, we gave you one 60 minute session with our free crisis line, what more do you want? If you really need it, it's only $450 a session if it's that important."
I had to call thirteen different therapy offices before I found one that could take me before summer.
Of course, my health insurance website showed them all as "Accepting New Patients"
Maybe there was an asterisk and really tiny font stating "Eventually".
We have a single wait-list if none are available. They email you when there's an opening at a PCP in the area, and you can veto or lemon-law two offers before you have to go around again.
How many mh visits does your policy cover?
I haven't really tested the limits on it, but so far at least one therapy session a week. Haven't needed any inpatient care or anything beyond this, thus far, so I can't comment on that.
That’s wonderful, I’m so glad you’re getting what you need!
Where I live, all care has a six month wait list. I started a new job with new insurance back in April, still haven't been able to get in anywhere to see a new PCP. My dentist canceled an appointment on me last week and rescheduled it for February.
People say socialized medicine leads to long wait times to see doctors. Well, I'm not seeing them now anyway, so at least it's less or of my pocket.
You want to review how the Republicans actually convinced people, especially in the poorest regions who'd benefit the most from a system of improved coverage and reduced cost, that it was a bad thing.
Democrats can't shoot for affordable care; they're trying to get coverage in the door, at least.
Yes, I am aware that our government is broken and unable to do anything reasonable.
Which is why violence is the only reasonable response.
The charitable interpretation is that they're talking about getting the government to pay for healthcare and they don't want to make it sound like medical professionals would all become government employees.
Because that would be a lot less popular. A lot of Americans are terrified of the scenario because they're afraid of change in general, and they're afraid the result would be run even worse than the system we have now, because they think governments are inherently less competent than private companies.
I'm not talking about brainwashed Republicans; I mean centrist Dems whose support is absolutely vital for a Dem politician in almost any congressional district.
You mean blue Republicans who get paid to perpetuate this bullshit. They aren't Democrats; they're fascist spies.
No you fucking moron. That's my parents you're talking about.
Tell them thanks for keeping progress at bay and letting all the fascists have more free speech rights than the rest of us.