zlacker

This isn’t the story we generally hear - what we hear about us healthcare is that you need a well paid job and even then medicines are ridiculously expensive - like thousands of dollars a month for something that is tens of pounds in the uk.

>>ed_ell+(OP)
My medication is billed as "thousands per month" but the insurance company pays a different rate than the 'billing' rate and all I pay is $20/month for my biologic infusions. If I didn't have insurance I could enroll in the drug program and get it nearly free. I think its really very rare for the case you mention.

>>ed_ell+(OP)
The opposite of survivorship bias I guess.

>>ed_ell+(OP)
Healthcare coverage generally comes with any fulltime job. It's cheap for individuals (I pay about $150/month) but gets more expensive with families, which is a real problem. Most medications are cheap. The only medications I've heard of that are expensive are new ones not yet approved by the insurer. I pay less than $10/month for my medications.

>>ed_ell+(OP)
That's generally all true. My family's monthly healthcare premiums are about $6000 per month for a family of 6, for a "platinum plan" paid for by my employer. I had my gallbladder out earlier this month, and my out-of-pocket cost (i.e. what I had to pay myself after insurance paid its part) was about $2500 for the same-day surgery without complications where I went home an hour after it was over.

Yes, after paying approximately $70,000 per year in premiums, I still have to pay a couple thousand dollars for routine, non-emergency, common healthcare procedures.

Technology wise, I think we have the greatest healthcare system in the world. Finance wise, it feels like the worst parts of Cyberpunk 2077.