#us healthcare is a joke

[mbrainspaz]

Oh yaaaay my gran is finally having the ‘wow actually American healthcare and social support systems are totally f*cked’ realization now that I’m helping her set up the gofundme for her oldest son who has a terminal brain tumor and his partner who recently lost her job due to chronic health issues. (Links coming soon.)

She actually said ‘I guess I never realized how hard it could be since I always had my husband’s insurance and Medicaid and medicare.’ YEAH?! This is a woman who’s had 7 open heart surgeries and two rounds of chemo to still be alive and she never even contemplated the possibility that others don’t have her level of privilege. Hell, I’ve been waiting 7 years to get a surgery that should save the use of my hands & I still might not be able to afford it but she doesn’t even know about that. Some people (conservatives) just pay no mind to anything but their own little problems. Until it’s too late. Decades too late, in her case.

[goblin-king-jay]

EVERY COMPANY: Our health insurance plan wants us to promote health in the workplace.

EMPLOYEES: How about paying for better health insurance that includes mental health care and gender affirming care.

EVERY COMPANY: No not like that. Here's a free pill case and some other pointless swag.

[oimoi-op]

Insurance hasn't sent sibling's monthly dexcom equipment and won't return her calls , and she's trying to restart her sensor when it's trying to fall off. Luckily I get refilled next week, so I can bring her my last one for this month and restart my current sensor. I'm totally cool with doing that or else I wouldn't have offered, but I just want to let those who don't already know that not only do diabetics *sometimes* have to rely on other diabetics' compassion to survive, it's a *regular* occurrence. She literally went DKA last month. She's not even 19 yet. Her introduction to this thing was watching our mom drive me to the ICU less than an hour before I would've died, and now she's got it too. She doesn't want to die. We don't want to die. We live on the whims of companies who profit by making sure we're just barely alive until we're not, and then they just move on to the newly diagnosed. The only people who really care about us can't do anything to make this stop otherwise they already would've, and the people who can do something don't give a flying fuck. There are over 30 million of us in the US and we might as well be nothing more than wallets except that many of us are dying and it's slow and painful and we're aware every fucking minute. I just don't want to die like that.

[ohthisisgonnasuck]

Woke up with a sinus infection & I'm trying to get a ride to hospital.....

I fucking hate men.

[genericpuff]

hi this is your obligatory reminder from a Mi'kmaq-Saulteaux pal that:

1.) the ribbon skirt is a traditional ceremonial garment worn by many First Nations women to celebrate their connection to Mother Earth and reclaim their Indigenous identity from and in spite of colonization;

2.) the RCMP was literally founded as a colonial police force meant to drive Indigenous / First Nations peoples out of their territory to make way for settlers (see: the "starlight tours")

3.) racism towards indigenous people in Canada is still alive and well (the last residential school didn't close until 1996) and so the RCMP adopting ribbon skirts is not only incredibly tone deaf towards their own history and the role they played in wiping out Indigenous culture, but insulting to the practice of ribbon skirts and what they mean to many Indigenous people across the country

4.) when a government entity limits who can comment on their posts, that should tell you exactly where their priorities and intentions lie.

[troythecatfish]

[louisdelac]

they cut this because they were afraid to canonically make connor the funniest sibling

[not-safe-for-democracy]

[sailoreuterpe]

I Love My Cousin: Part 2.

[beardedmrbean]

[vryivs]

I always forget that monarchists exist and then I see someone with the username duchessofmyheartforever or williamisababe posting about how it's mean to giggle at an ultrarich economic leech experiencing just a fraction of struggle and inconvenience (because lets be honest, he probably wont kick the bucket—his doctors are paid to keep his corpse animated long after it ceases to be humane)

[mbrainspaz]

Was supposed to have a doctor appointment downtown at a place I was referred to by my primary care doctor (who I'm about done with) but when I arrived they said 'oops we're actually not in network but you can pay us $200 if you still wanna have your appointment'

so I walked out and went to find a beer instead.

Only bright side is I refused to make another login on their stupid app so I didn't have to spend the last week getting spammed with all their 'appointment updates' and 'early sign in' prompts. Healthcare providers have lost their damn minds if they think I'm putting up with more of that. They called me yesterday to complain that I hadn't logged in to their 'patient portal' yet and I just said, 'mmm, but what if I didn't?' They were like, 'uh... um... okay just arrive 30 minutes early.' 'See, I can do that.'

Not that it did me any good. I gave them my insurance info on the phone when I booked the appointment 2 weeks ago and what was the point of even doing that if they were just gonna decide not to tell me I'm 'out of network'? Or is it that they're 'out of network'? Hell if I know.

Finished my beer, went home, and logged on to the stupid insurance site to find a stupid provider that IS 'in network.' Turns out there's only one without a slew of negative reviews. I called their number, got a robot maze, picked a dead end option, it hung up on me. Called again, tried a different path, got a person, she said she was the wrong person, gave me a number for the right people but said they were in a meeting. It was 4pm so I asked when they closed. 5pm. Waited 30 minutes, called the number, "number cannot be completed as dialed," hung up. Went back through the call robot, got their voicemail, voicemail explained that they won't return calls after 4pm. Left one anyway.

Also tried to find a psychologist since I was already suffering anyway and discovered there's only one who's 'in-network' who might be able to help me. Got rerouted to their website, very corporate (hate it), it funneled me into a virtual appointment queue and demanded my credit card info. Tried calling instead, lady on the phone says yeah no a virtual appointment won't work for diagnostic assessment so I have to go in person. Oh, and the location on my insurance site is wrong, it's actually 2 hours away. I say 'thanks I'll keep looking' and hang up.

I'll die, thanks!

[stuckinapril]

I think I realized how severely humor infects all spaces when I witnessed two of my coworkers at the neuro clinic I’m interning at laughing at putting in a patient as deceased

[oimoi-op]

Cannot emphasize enough how neither party—yes, that means the Democrats, too—does not give a flying fuck about diabetics or our needs. The "insulin cap" that the Republicans voted no to was a fucking insurance copay cap that neither helps the numerous US citizens who don't have the privilege of costly private or even finicky state insurance and its caveats nor the real issue with insulin costs being so fucking high in this country. "But it's better than nothing!" sorry but I don't want to settle for next to nothing, I want real fucking change. I want the real problem addressed, not a flimsy bandaid slapped onto a symptom for clout. If people actually cared about diabetics or any other disabled group and their struggles with US healthcare, they'd stop parroting "Republicans bad, vote blue!!" and start advocating for us, because clearly nobody's listening to us and we're dying. We're dying but nobody cares unless it's to make the GOP look bad, and we're still dying, copay cap or no.

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

for general awareness, if you know someone who works in a children's emergency department (specifically for children) they are probably one of the most bloodthirsty people you know

[boyslit]

can I ask non-americans not to do this please? a majority of u.s. citizens support a single payer/nationalized health care system and yet our representatives keep screwing us over and the insurance companies keep getting worse, demanding more money for less coverage and nothing is done. meanwhile people are dying without access to life saving meds, treatment and surgeries and ffs United health group is using a goddamn ai to approve or deny claims so how do you think that's going

you can criticize us for refusing to learn another language and insisting English is the best. you can criticize us for clinging to guns like a security blanket because our gun culture is fucked to hell. you can definitely criticize us for whining about our propaganda-drenched schooling never teaching us things that are obvious to the rest of the world while we have the Internet at our fingertips to find out we were taught wrong.

but maybe don't make fun of us for being crushed and killed by an evil system designed to juice as much cash out of our sickened bodies as possible? just a thought, for people who are interested in practicing compassion.