aMused
New Member
- Location
- Floating into the mystic
My brother and his wife lived in a number of countries that have social medicine over the years. His wife was diagnosed with breast cancer while living abroad and was treated in a timely manner that saved her life but she had to continue with cancer medication when they moved back to the US. But getting that same medication here was so prohibitively expensive that it was actually cheaper for them to travel abroad to purchase her medicines than it was to buy them here.
When my husband was diagnosed with cancer that had already metastasized we had to wait nearly 3 months for all the proper steps, tests & insurance approval for treatment. Three months while we were helpless and the cancer just went crazy doing it’s thing to him. Then when the drug was approved the cost of it was $52,000 a month. Our health insurance cost $1,600 a month and even so we had to meet ad $10,000 deductible before they would pay one cent. He tried to go on disability because he was dying but we had to wait a couple of months for that appointment and when he was approved he was told that he had to be off work for 6 months before it paid and he would have to be off work for 2 years before he would qualify for Medicare. So although we were able to buy my husband nearly 2 years of life he would have otherwise forfeited, he had to work until 6 weeks before his death in order to have medical care.
We also have one child who is severely disabled, so prior to this a good deal of our income was already being claimed for special needs items. She needs 24 hour care which is why my husband was the sole bread winner, I sacrificed my ability to have a career to care for her. So with the death of my husband I lost a co-parent, bread winner and health insurance.
I could fill several books with horror stories of being in medical need in America. The wait times for urgently needed treatment and then the hold up while we wait to see if the insurance company will approve what the doctor ordered. I’m exhausted from having to get on the phone and argue with insurance companies, of having to plead with hospitals to push forward with tests for loved ones who can’t wait several months to be seen. The insurance companies themselves admit that they place all these obstacles because many people give up rather than fight for what they are entitled to, thus creating more profit for them.
I’m continually baffled by people who seem to believe that the very things they erroneously claim will happen if we collectively decide to pay for medical costs instead of giving away many times over what other countries pay for health care without realizing that this is actually what is happening to us, right here and now.
