Are you injured? Sick? Are you dying? Well, unless you're dying, if you're in America, you likely won't go to the hospital, unless you have great insurance. What this means is that there are tons of poor people that cannot access healthcare, because they fear debt. Many may actually die because they are so afraid of the extreme cost.
It would be one thing if we had to pay for our own healthcare, but we also have to pay for the healthcare of the rich, because their insurance companies and corporations negotiate for lower prices because of the number of customers they bring.
A simple doctor's visit can cost a normal person thousands of dollars, meaning they're less likely to go. This doesn't just mean that they don't go when they have a simple cut, but that they don't go when they have serious issues because they simply can't afford it.
A joint report published in the journal Lancet Global Health this week by the World Bank and the World Health Organization estimates that each year more than 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty in order to pay for health services — meaning that after covering their health bills, their income amounts to less than $1.90 a day.
From Health Care Costs Push A Staggering Number Of People Into Extreme Poverty by Nurith Aizenman - NPR
The above article goes on to say that more than half the world's population, 3.5 billion people, spend at least 10% of their income. Sound familiar? How much of your income goes to your healthcare? Do you go without lifesaving treatment? Did you go to the doctor the last time you were sick?
In America, like the third world, when we get sick we often assume it's just a cold or the flu and go without treatment, or even diagnosis, simply because we cannot afford to go unless it is something life-threatening. This means that we are likely to skip regular checkups as well. That's likely a mistake though because non-essential treatment is often more essential than we might think. Regular checkups prevent health crises from going unchecked and becoming even worse.
"People either don't go when they need to, or they go too late."
Tim Evans, senior director of health, nutrition and population, World Bank GroupFrom Health Care Costs Push A Staggering Number Of People Into Extreme Poverty by Nurith Aizenman - NPR
Of course, just because you have insurance doesn't mean you can use it. Here in America, we have something called a deductable. A deductible is a bullshit fee that they charge you for you to be able to use the insurance you paid for. Broken leg? Cancer? Whatever your health concern, they will charge you the deductable, and only pay for medical bills afterwards. Of course, the cheaper the health insurance, the higher the deductable. This means that the poorest people will be charged the most before they can even use their insurance.
The average cost of health insurance in 2017 under "open enrollment" in America, without subsidies, was $393 per month, for an individual, and $1021 per month for a family. The average annual deductible was $4,328, for an individual, and $8,352 for a family. The median income for a male in America, age 20 to 24, is $549 weekly, $28,548 annually. That means that they're paying 16.5% of their income on health insurance, before they can even use it, or 20% after. You better hope you live in a cheap city because the average rent is $1,231 per month. Doesn't leave much left to live on. If you're supporting a family though, you're pretty much fucked these days. Hopefully, your employer pays for your insurance, which hides the real cost from you, leaving you blissfully unaware that you could be earning a lot more if not for some paper pushers that will do anything to keep from paying for your medical bills.
A study by the Government Accounting Office in 2011 found that the rate for denial of coverage by insurance companies could be anywhere from 6% to 40%, depending on the insurance company. A survey by the Doctor-Patient Rights Project showed a 24% denial rate for patients with chronic or persistant illness, with 70% of the denied treatment for an illness described as serious. I personally think that a rate of denial as high as 6%, is incredibly high, let alone 40%.
The population of New York City in 2018 is estimated at 8,537,673. If 6% of their population was denied medical care, that would be 512,260 people that were denied coverage, after having paid for it for months, or more likely, years. Imagine almost half of the population of an entire country being refused medical coverage, simply because a corporation didn't want to pay for it, after taking their money to ensure that they would be able to get life-saving medical treatment when they needed it.
If your insurance company refuses to pay for your medical treatment, unless you are able to find another way to pay it, you will likely have to forego treatment. This leaves many to face death, unable to pay for the treatment that they need, despite having paid for insurance.
Whether or not insurance decides to pay for treatment, it can take more than a month to even get approval. During this time, many patients' condition may worsen, or they could even die. What has the world come to where you need to seek a corporation's approval on whether or not you are allowed to live?
In truth, it doesn't really matter if you have insurance or not, in America, you have to be rich to survive any kind of health crisis. If you are sick or in pain, you have to go to a doctor and to go to a doctor, you have to pay insane rates in America. This puts life itself behind a paywall.
Of course, there is always Social Security. Social Security is a fund that is paid for by every American, out of every check, to cover retirement and disability and is occasionally raided by the government whenever it has a surplus. The initial denial rate for disability by the Social Security Administration is 64%. Most of these people are likely out of work and believe they are either incapable of working or are burdened by a disability of some type. Of those that appeal this decision, only 13.8% are approved.
Imagine being disabled and being so destitute that you reach out for help from the government and after trying to prove that you are indeed disabled, they flat out deny you coverage, after years of paying into a fund that is supposed to help people in just your situation.
Of course, if you are determined enough, after your appeal is denied, you can seek a hearing. The approval rate of these hearing is much higher, at 64%. Of course, this is likely after months, if not years, of trying to get disability. This high approval rate just shows how many of the previous denials were unfounded.
If they are denied at this hearing, they can appeal that to the Appeals Council, which only has a 13% approval rate. After that, they will need to take their appeal to a federal court. Of those taken to a federal court, approximately 40% were finally approved.
Rather than disability being approved on merit, it seems to be a test as to whether you have the fortitude to continue the appeals process.
There is a class war being waged every day in America, on so many levels, and at least one of those battles is being waged in the hospitals themselves.
At the same time as we're being bankrupted by "healthcare" and insurance in America, medications are stuck in their own paywall, beyond the medical one.
In pain? Need medication? Well, you better go to a doctor and pay thousands of dollars just for them to write a permission slip.
Once you get that medication, you might just be limited in your supply, because thousands are addicted to them due to corporations lobbying doctors to overprescribe. Now they question those who legitimately need them and limit the number of pills prescribed, so those in legitimate pain have to go to the pharmacy more often when simply getting out of bed is a struggle.
What happened to us, where we have to get permission to consume medicine because some might abuse it? Where we have to pay so much to a doctor just to get his opinion that we may indeed be in the pain that we are telling him we are in? What happened to "my body, my choice"?
Why do we let them get away with all of this? Why don't our "representatives" do anything about it? They get paid every day to ignore a problem that is literally killing us all.
What the fuck is wrong with our country, and humanity?
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Refs:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/12/14/569893722/health-care-costs-push-a-staggering-number-of-people-into-extreme-poverty
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/medical-bills/530679/
https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/affordable-care-act-policy-costs-up-in-2017
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/how-much-americans-earn-at-every-age.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/media/top-10-cheapest-us-cities-to-rent-an-apartment/
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/346652-too-many-americans-with-insurance-are-being-denied-coverage
http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/new-york-city-population/
http://www.ssdrc.com/5-72.html