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#health insurance
animentality · 9 months
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mysharona1987 · 1 year
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bobby-luv · 1 year
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lookingforcactus · 30 days
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A big cost and concern for many seniors in the U.S. is the price of prescription drugs and other healthcare expenses—and this year, thanks to The Inflation Reduction Act, their costs may go down dramatically, especially for patients fighting cancer or heart disease.
I learned about the new benefits because my ‘Medicare birthday’ is coming up in a couple months when I turn 65. I was shocked that there were so many positive changes being made, which I never heard about on the news.
Thousands of Americans on Medicare have been paying more than $14,000 a year for blood cancer drugs, more than $10,000 a year for ovarian cancer drugs, and more than $9,000 a year for breast cancer drugs, for instance.
That all changed beginning in 2023, after the Biden administration capped out-of-pocket prescriptions at $3,500—no matter what drugs were needed. And this year, in 2024, the cap for all Medicare out-of-pocket prescriptions went down to a maximum of $2,000.
“The American people won, and Big Pharma lost,” said President Biden in September 2022, after the legislation passed. “It’s going to be a godsend to many families.”
Another crucial medical necessity, the shingles vaccine, which many seniors skip because of the cost, is now free. Shingles is a painful rash with blisters, that can be followed by chronic pain, and other complications, for which there is no cure
In 2022, more than 2 million seniors paid between $100 and $200 for that vaccine, but starting last year, Medicare prescription drug plans dropped the cost for shots down to zero.
Another victory for consumers over Big Pharma affects anyone of any age who struggles with diabetes. The cost of life-saving insulin was capped at $35 a month [for people on Medicare].
Medicare is also lowering the costs of the premium for Part B—which covers outpatient visits to your doctors. 15 million Americans will save an average of $800 per year on health insurance costs, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Last year, for the first time in history, Medicare began using the leverage power of its large patient pool to negotiate fair prices for drugs. Medicare is no longer accepting whatever drug prices that pharmaceutical companies demand.
Negotiations began on ten of the most widely used and expensive drugs.
Among the ten drugs selected for Medicare drug price negotiation were Eliquis, used by 3.7 million Americans and Jardiance and Xarelto, each used by over a million people. The ten drugs account for the highest total spending in Medicare Part D prescription plans...
How are all these cost-savings being paid for?
The government is able to pay for these benefits by making sure the biggest corporations in America are paying their fair share of federal taxes.
In 2020, for instance, dozens of American companies on the Fortune 500 list who made $40 billion in profit paid zero in federal taxes.
Starting in 2023, U.S. corporations are required to pay a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent. The Inflation Reduction Act created the CAMT, which imposed the 15% minimum tax on the adjusted financial statement income of any corporation with average income that exceeds $1 billion.
For years, Americans have decried the rising costs of health care—but in the last three years, there are plenty of positive developments.
-via Good News Network, February 25, 2024
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politijohn · 10 months
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feckcops · 1 year
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Joe Biden Is Shrinking the Welfare State
“By the estimates of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 15 million people are going to lose their health insurance over the next few months, including 5.3 million kids. Worse, based on historical trends, 6.8 million of those people will lose their Medicaid coverage in spite of still being eligible for it simply because of bureaucratic trifles ...
“The effects of the declaration’s end will go well beyond this, affecting working people’s ability to get free tests, vaccines, and affordable treatment for the virus. It also means the end of extra food stamps, another generous program set to continue as long as the emergency exists and a vital lifeline for working people struggling to keep up with grocery bills in the face of inflation ...
“From a practical and moral standpoint, this is obviously a travesty. But it’s also a needless own goal for the president, putting an already deeply unpopular Biden in the position of running for reelection in a year’s time with millions of people losing their health insurance — and his potential Republican opponent being able to boast he’d been the one to extend it to them in the first place. More than that, it makes a mockery of his frequent public statements insisting that his administration will ‘continue to fight for racial justice,’ since, as the HHS, acknowledges, 15 percent of those who are about to lose their coverage as a result of his decision are black and one-third are Latino ...
“If the idea is that Americans are now tired of thinking and caring about the pandemic, making supporting any COVID-related policies politically toxic, then this is the wrong way to go about unwinding those. Americans didn’t hate that the pandemic response included protecting them from being kicked out of their homes by greedy landlords, getting financial support for the government while they were unemployed, or having health insurance and a variety of other health care needs guaranteed.”
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After some confusing paperwork and talking to a social worker. I have free healthcare till next year so I can renew it. I have all my pills except one. Walgreens is out of stock. Till then. I am complete for now. Lucky me. Alhamdulilah.
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lordnot · 7 months
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If you want to get angry with every American politician who railed against socialized medicine, try making an appointment with a specialist with private health insurance.
Recall their warnings about rationing of care as you're told that the first available appointment is a Thursday afternoon four months away.
Think about the fearmongering about how the quality of care would drop as your doctor meets with you for all of fifteen minutes, half of which is asking you questions you answered on a survey before you came in, the other half doing the minimum amount of tests of your breathing, blood pressure and the like necessary to bill your insurance.
Recall the hysteria around 'death panels' as your doctor goes over the long-term risks of not having your condition treated, and then tells you to call a number to actually get tested for the condition that has another two month waiting list.
And keep in mind how many privileges you possess that others do not that prevented this whole process from being even more difficult. Privileges like living close enough to a major city that the specialist is only 40 minutes away by car and not two hours. The fact that you own your own vehicle. How you are able to take time off of work without worrying about a supervisor calling you last minute to say you need to come in. The fact that you can afford the copays, can afford to miss a half day of work, don't have to worry about whether you'll be home in time before kids get back from school, etc.
In short: it was all a crock of shit.
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tinyplanetss · 2 years
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thanks king
(brian david gilbert posted a half-hour long video explaining the basics of navigating privatized american health insurance, which is actually pretty helpful for overcoming the hurdle of acronyms and a terrifying start into that whole deep dive)
youtube
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fixing-bad-posts · 1 year
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[Image description: A facebook comment, edited blackout-poetry style to read, "I think you deserve free Healthcare to live."]
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I think you deserve free Healthcare to live.
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wildhannimal · 11 months
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Before you pay that not-covered hospital bill:
I want to take a min to spread awareness for the No Surprises Act after noticing a reddit post earlier.
This protection for patients just popped up in the past couple years, and the one major downside is that it's up to the patients to speak up to make use of it, but not everyone knows what it is.
"If you have private health insurance, these new protections ban the most common types of surprise bills. If you’re uninsured or you decide not to use your health insurance for a service, under these protections, you can often get a good faith estimate of the cost of your care up front, before your visit."
Consumer fact sheet
Typically, health insurance companies will help pay for bills from "in-network" providers, AKA their VIP inner circle gang turf. They won't help pay if you get medical care from another gang's henchmen (out of network).
This means that sometimes, a person would go to the hospital, which they knew had been covered by their insurance before, so they expect it's going to be relatively affordable. But they didn't know that multiple medical "gangs" were working in the same hospital. Their anesthesiologist, for example, was from a different gang. That specialist was out of network even though the surgeon and nurses were all in network.
Boom. Big bill for thousands of dollars and their insurance refuses to help pay it.
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But now we have this law! The No Surprises Act means that insurance companies need to cover "surprise" expenses (under certain conditions).
If you don't have health insurance, hospitals and clinics need to give you an accurate quote before you get services, then foot the bill if they were too far off the mark.
The Fact Sheet section of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have some wonderful user-friendly resources for you about health insurance and how this act works.
Keep in mind that Medicare and government-run programs always have weird rules for everything, so you might have different (yet similar) protections through those programs.
If you have a medical bill that wasn't covered by insurance and you think it might count as a surprise bill, please check out your rights and consider fighting it instead of letting it become a stressful expense or debt you can't repay.
Go here to start figuring things out for your situation:
Health insurance companies have way, waaaaay too much power over our lives. We need every drop of protection we can get - but it only counts as much as we can understand and use those protections!
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mysharona1987 · 1 year
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wayfaringmd · 11 days
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“Shouldn’t my insurance pay for it if you ordered it?”- patient exasperated about the cost of a necessary but uncovered test. Welcome to America, where insurers without medical training determine what service is medically necessary.
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longreads · 7 months
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Unknown Costs
“Addicts and alcoholics cannot prove their need for treatment by requesting it. They’ve gotta bleed and pee for it. And even that might not be enough.”
A powerful new Longreads essay on addiction recovery is out today. Take some time to read it here. 
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bitchesgetriches · 1 year
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How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke
It’s a fucking travesty that the leading cause of bankruptcy in these United States is medical bills. Not credit card bills nor risky investments. Not even student loans, but hospital bills. Invoices racked up through freak accidents and diseases the patient certainly didn’t ask for and would probably prefer to live without.
To our readers in other, more civilized countries, you’re dismissed. This week we’re going to be dissecting a uniquely American problem: exorbitant medical bills and how to pay them.
The CEO of GoFundMe, an online crowd-funding platform, never dreamed that his company would become synonymous with “I’m broke and need $300,000 to pay for my child’s cancer treatment.” What he envisioned as a way for entrepreneurs and artists to raise money for their passion projects has become the last desperate hope of sick and injured Americans on the verge of total financial ruin.
It blows, dear readers. It fucking blows.
Keep reading.
If you liked this article, join our Patreon!
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reasonsforhope · 1 year
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"Sanofi on Thursday said it’s planning to cut the U.S. price of its most popular insulin drug by 78% and cap monthly out-of-pocket costs at $35 for people who have private insurance starting next year. 
In addition to its widely prescribed Lantus, the French drugmaker will reduce the list price of its short-acting insulin Apidra by 70%. Sanofi already offers a $35 monthly cap on insulin for uninsured diabetes patients.
The company is the last major insulin manufacturer to try to head off government efforts to cap monthly costs by announcing its own steep price cuts for the lifesaving hormone. 
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk made similar sweeping cuts earlier this month after years of political pressure and public outrage over the high costs of diabetes care. The three companies control over 90% of the global insulin market. 
... The change takes effect Jan. 1.
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act capped monthly insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $35, but it did not provide protection to diabetes patients who are covered by private insurance.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, introduced a bill earlier this month that would cap the list price of insulin at $20 per vial.
Both the president and Sanders on Tuesday directly called on Sanofi to slash its prices after Novo Nordisk announced its own cuts that day.
Roughly 37 million people in the U.S., or 11.3% of the country’s population, have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 8.4 million [U.S.] diabetes patients rely on insulin, the American Diabetes Association said."
-via CNBC, 3/16/23
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