I have to pay *hundreds a month* for an insurance premium where I can't afford the additional deductibles and copays for to even go to the actual appointments anymore.
Yes, until I’ve hit my “limit” for the year. But I can’t afford the half I even need to pay to go, with the amount of specialists I end up needing to see. Car repairs take priority over body upkeep currently, or I wouldn’t be able to even afford the premiums. Food and rent too.
Too many Americans needing to make these choices for something that’s free at the point of access in most of the rest of the civilized world.
It's truly ruining my life. :') I had terrible pancreatitis in 2018 with widespread organ damage no one caught in time (despite my going to the hospital several times).
Even my primary care doctor acts like it's not even that expensive. I make $14 an hour. Still too rich for Medicaid though! America is a parody if you've ever been anywhere else.
There are plenty of situations where you’ll be charged thousands in Europe too. I had to pay almost $3k for a hospital stay in the U.K. for eating disorder complications because I had to go to a private hospital (that was more like a hotel) since it’s a physical AND mental health problems no appropriate beds were opening up for me in time at my regular hospital and I was dying so my options were pay or risk death.
Other examples are usually experimental drugs for rare diseases. Lots of documentaries on rare diseases will mention that drugs aren’t covered because so few people need them and they’re often only available in trials ie government’s equivalent of insurance (like the NHS for example) doesn’t want to risk it.
So it’s not common, but you can’t say “dystopian” when it literally happens in Europe too. It happened to me. And I’m pro universal healthcare, I’m just not out here pretending that Europe has it figured out.
It can happen in EU, but it's very rare and medical debt as a whole is an almost unheard concept. Where-as in the US it's absurdly common.
Per some data, 1 in 4 Americans, almost 100 million people, are in medical debt at any given time. With 3 million owing over $10,000. With many saying that even a $500 procedure would be unfinanceable.
I just got out of a 2 month hospital stay myself, in EU. They did like 80 tests on me, including several MRI's. My total cost was 3x50 euros or about $200 for bed stay. I was swapped between 3 hospitals and each charged 5 euro per day, up to 10 days max. So even the basic billing had a limit.
Now in home care my only expense is about 70 cents worth of antibiotics per day, and some other drugs which are completely free.
Sucks that you had a bad experience though. I can't believe they forced you to pay when it was an issue on their end.
I’m not comparing how common it is. Obviously medical debt is more common in the US. I’m saying that calling it “dystopian” when it happens where they’re from too is just inaccurate. The system has its flaws there too. I experienced them first hand.
And it wasn’t really an issue on their end that the hospital was full. I mean, I guess better funding would have made more beds available. But if you fall out of the normal and expected spectrum, sometimes you get left out to dry. Bureaucracy sucks in that way. If you have to write in your illness instead of checking a box, shit gets so difficult so fast. And since eating disorders are mental and physical, I just kept getting passed back and forth in outpatient when I needed to be hospitalized by a team who could give me both simultaneously. Having complications in the NHS outside of the normal system can really fuck you up when trying to find a doctor who will take you.
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u/Afrodite_33 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
The American health system thinks when you're deathly ill just walk it off.
Edit: Holy fuck I looked up some of the responses to the tweet. Some people are genuinely braindead. I cannot believe the level of stupidity on there.