
A Doctor Went to His Own Employer for a Covid-19 Antibody Test. It Cost $10,984 - rbanffy
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-doctor-went-to-his-own-employer-for-a-covid-19-antibody-test-it-cost-10-984
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aussieguy1234
This is why the virus is spreading like wildfire in countries without
universal healthcare, like the US. For those who are against it, now you can
see very clearly that the health of others affects your own health. No one
lives in a bubble.

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justinclift
It sounds like things are so screwed up in the US, that if someone can get the
details of hospital visits they could send bogus invoices to insurance
companies and be paid much of the time. :(

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ksaj
Probably there needs to be some education effort. In Canada we consider tax-
paid healthcare to be the norm. The vast majority of us would never want to
have what the US has. There are people who want a hybrid system though, but we
also recognize that trying to do both has always failed everywhere that's ever
tried. We do occasionally revisit the idea to figure out new options, but they
always end up with the Universal plans suffering since it triggers nearly
everyone to demand that they don't pay for "the others" and would rather use
their money elsewhere (always until the day they discover they actually still
_need_ that healthcare they weren't willing to pay for, but its no longer
there because they didn't want to pay for its existence.) It's pretty much
impossible to come up with a plan for both since everyone naturally wants to
keep their money when they can, then complain after-the-fact about what they
lose as a result. And everybody _will_ wind up needing it eventually, no
matter how generally healthy they are, and won't be stuck with those multi-
thousand dollar invoices and health-related bankruptcies as a result of not
paying beforehand.

Our taxes are higher, but we get a lot of mileage out of it. And nobody can
honestly say the tax is crippling. In Ontario our minimum wage is $14 (was
going to be $15, but our Conservative premier made cuts to everything just to
piss off the Liberals, as they are wont to do in Canadian politics. It's like
your Dems/Reps in many respects.) It makes sense that "sin taxes" for things
like alcohol, tobacco and gasoline pay for things like medical care and
maintaining roads. Who cares if it costs more to smoke and get drunk every day
if it pays for your eventual liver and lung care?

Every Canadian eventually appreciates that we can get cancer screening, non-
elective surgeries, and so many types of physical and mental therapies for
"free" because they're already paid for. But for whatever reason, Republicans
have succeeded in convincing Americans that social medicine equals communism.
It's that scary word "social" and that scarier concept "tax."

Sure a lot of Canadians complain about wait times. But that's because more
people are able to use the healthcare system as designed, so there are times
the hospitals are flooded - the very times you'd expect and hope American
hospitals would also be flooded, since people aren't weighing paycheck-to-
treatment ratios and avoiding treatments that might cause financial hardship
or bankruptcy. And knowing general populations the world over, it would be
impossible to come up with anything besides "Biblical miracle workers for all"
that wouldn't be met with complaints and crazy voter crises.

PS: About those dreadful wait times: I had a cancer screening return
"abnormal" and so I had to set up an appointment for a more in-depth procedure
to check. My wait time? 2 weeks. And it's pandemic time, so I'm pretty
impressed.

Years ago when my doctor discovered I had a cyst in my ear and wanted to dig
it out (same thing Stephen Colbert had, except I can't do his famous ear
clicky trick - I tried!), my surgery wait time was 2 months, since it isn't as
dire and immediate. My out-of-pocket cost for all? $0. So I'm not one of those
people complaining about it. There might be room for improvement, but I
wouldn't want to see it step backward.

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spaetzleesser
It worries me a lot that even if there is a vaccine the US health care system
will find ways to rip off people and so hinder widespread use. Every time I go
to the doctor I am worried that they will find a way to charge a few thousand
extra so I rarely go. I bet a lot of people will not get vaccinated because
they may get screwed.

