Coming from India, I have really come to hate the medical system here in the US. There are countless times I have been screwed over by the lack of transparency in cost and the layer of bureaucracy and BS imposed by having to deal with an insurance company rather than __the doctor/hospital who treated me__!!
It has been a few months since I have seen a doctor, but I still receive some new goddamn bill every other day. They are usually cryptic and leave me wondering what the hell they are for, and why they were not just presented to me on the day of the test. Don't even bother asking anyone what a procedure costs. Hospital staff will redirect you to someone who deals exclusively with insurance (completely unnecessary if we just had simple bills like any other transaction FFS), and the insurance people don't have enough specifics to ever really give you an answer, not to mention the time it will take waiting on hold etc. When you are getting multiple procedures, its just not worth the time. So you are practically forced to go in completely blind about potential costs.
To top it all off, my insurance coverage has expired as I recently graduated. So my options are to either pay $600 for 30 days of medicine that I need, or get the exact same medicine shipped to me from India, for $10-$20. They produce it by the millions in blister packs. This should not be so difficult! If we just had realistic prices in the first place instead of inflating them and bringing them down with insurance, this crap would not happen.
And don't even get me started on "pre-existing conditions". What that means for me is constantly lying to doctors and being unable to give them a complete medical history - otherwise I'll have f* "pre-existing condition" stamped on my head and never get sane rates again.
I fail to see why health care is not treated more like a series of simple business transactions in an economic system instead of this colossal mess.
/rant
It has been a few months since I have seen a doctor, but I still receive some new goddamn bill every other day. They are usually cryptic and leave me wondering what the hell they are for, and why they were not just presented to me on the day of the test. Don't even bother asking anyone what a procedure costs. Hospital staff will redirect you to someone who deals exclusively with insurance (completely unnecessary if we just had simple bills like any other transaction FFS), and the insurance people don't have enough specifics to ever really give you an answer, not to mention the time it will take waiting on hold etc. When you are getting multiple procedures, its just not worth the time. So you are practically forced to go in completely blind about potential costs.
To top it all off, my insurance coverage has expired as I recently graduated. So my options are to either pay $600 for 30 days of medicine that I need, or get the exact same medicine shipped to me from India, for $10-$20. They produce it by the millions in blister packs. This should not be so difficult! If we just had realistic prices in the first place instead of inflating them and bringing them down with insurance, this crap would not happen.
And don't even get me started on "pre-existing conditions". What that means for me is constantly lying to doctors and being unable to give them a complete medical history - otherwise I'll have f* "pre-existing condition" stamped on my head and never get sane rates again.
I fail to see why health care is not treated more like a series of simple business transactions in an economic system instead of this colossal mess.
/rant