All the sibling comments touch on valid points. I'm going to try and summarize them for clarity.
- The US has a few nationalized (single-payer) insurance programs... TriCare for military, Medicare for retirees, and Medicaid for the indigent.
- Obtaining Medicaid is not easy - you have to be truly indigent in many states (it's federally funded, but states manage their own programs)
- Everybody else is left to buy their own insurance policy. Sometimes this is partially funded by an employer, but not always.
- Due to the high cost of insurance (and health care in general), many plans have very high copays and deductibles.
So, even with an average health instance policy, a person could be stuck with the full cost of that test because of a deductible. In the past, I've had deductibles as high as $5000/individual, $12,000/family (note: I don't know, we're back on a PPO with a $2000 deductible).
When I use a medical service, I usually receive a statement that lists retail prices for services rendered, negotiated fees (between MD and insurance), and sometimes an excess amount that I owe.
If the hospital is "out of network" (no contract between insurance and hospital), I could be due a larger chunk of the bill personally (up to 100%, depending on insurance plan). This is called "balance billing" - google will give you all sorts of insane results from $50,000 helicopter rides to entire hospital centers that don't work with a single insurance provider so they can bill whatever they want.
As noted elsewhere, it's a complete mess and embarrassment for one of the wealthiest nations on the planet.
That's crazy. But what I think is: considering that's an epidemic that is dangerous and quickly spreading, shouldn't the government just decide to test people coming from places with a lot of cases already? And pay for it?
We have a healthcare system that demands my wife goes into the doctors office when fully healthy during the midst of flu season with an unknown epidemic ongoing just to get a refill for the same maintenance meds she's been on for over 30 years. Simply because they haven't billed us anything for over 6 months.
These policies actively spread infection and expose a larger number of the population to infected people.
It gets worse. Many service workers in the US do not have sick leave or insurance. If you work in a restaurant, you can legally be fired without notice for taking off a shift to go to the doctor. Then, several states have virtually no tenant protection laws, so the landlord can start legal eviction proceedings just a few days after missing a single payment.
Awesome, so basically if someone suspects they are infected, they won't get tested because they can't pay, and they still need to go work at the restaurant, infecting everyone else.
Just wait until a walmart produce worker thinks it is a cold and decided that they cant afford the time off and comes to work and spreads it to thousands of people.
A couple years ago the current administration fired the entire pandemic response team and did not replace them. Just the other day he claimed this entire situation was no big deal and would fizzle out on its own. Assuming the administration would do anything that helps anyone is a poor assumption
- The US has a few nationalized (single-payer) insurance programs... TriCare for military, Medicare for retirees, and Medicaid for the indigent. - Obtaining Medicaid is not easy - you have to be truly indigent in many states (it's federally funded, but states manage their own programs) - Everybody else is left to buy their own insurance policy. Sometimes this is partially funded by an employer, but not always. - Due to the high cost of insurance (and health care in general), many plans have very high copays and deductibles.
So, even with an average health instance policy, a person could be stuck with the full cost of that test because of a deductible. In the past, I've had deductibles as high as $5000/individual, $12,000/family (note: I don't know, we're back on a PPO with a $2000 deductible).
When I use a medical service, I usually receive a statement that lists retail prices for services rendered, negotiated fees (between MD and insurance), and sometimes an excess amount that I owe.
If the hospital is "out of network" (no contract between insurance and hospital), I could be due a larger chunk of the bill personally (up to 100%, depending on insurance plan). This is called "balance billing" - google will give you all sorts of insane results from $50,000 helicopter rides to entire hospital centers that don't work with a single insurance provider so they can bill whatever they want.
As noted elsewhere, it's a complete mess and embarrassment for one of the wealthiest nations on the planet.