this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 218 points 3 weeks ago (18 children)

I'm super grateful in this regard to live in Germany, where free doctor visits are not a benefit of something but fucking minimum for literally everyone. Even though it may take a while for specialists. I even get benefits for going to free appointments at the dentist. Safes money and pain later, leading to more productiveness as well.

Was really weird watching "Breaking Bad" just as I had cancer myself years ago (Cancer-free today πŸ™‚). Being in a hospital, receiving anything I needed just by showing my insurance card (for which I didn't have to pay anything either as I was without a job at that point). And as long as our government ain't complete dicks I'm more than glad to pay that back.

The US just weirds me the fuck out. I don't get this selfish lack of solidarity towards your fellow humans.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 3 weeks ago (31 children)

What's worse is that millions of people actually find the idea of paying a dime for anyone else's healthcare disgusting. And we don't even get to have a super low tax rate. We just spend our tax money on murdering children across the globe instead of caring for our own. Millions of us see it and oppose it but our society is just sick enough with enough asshole republicans gaming the system in a way that keeps us from doing a fucking thing about it. I wish we were as civilized as nations like Germany.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

More than once, I hear an ad on the radio about good Christians coming together to help pay each other's medical bills and think to myself that is the very thing they hate so much.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago

But they get to choose whose medical bills get paid. They can make sure that only "good Christians deserving of Jesus' mercy" are the ones getting assistance. Not some stranger in the urban ghettos with children born out of wedlock, etc.

These are the people that will make the distinction between "drug addict" and "person with substance use disorder" based on demographics like race, socioeconomic status, and religion.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

It's all manipulation, Americans are not quite as psycho and as selfish as we seem outwardly. In general, unless you're talking about bigotry and deep-seated prejudice, most of the dumb stuff Americans believe, we have been essentially force fed.

In this case, for historical reasons I don't remember ATM, it became normalized for employers to offer health insurance and for that to be the primary way people obtained health insurance. Combine that with the strategy to teach poor white people to hate on minorities, as a way to feel superior to someone and thus less angry about their own lot, and you can start to see how the link between employment and healthcare can be seen by some as a moral situation - the person without the good job to get the healthcare must be lazy, and since we don't want to encourage laziness, it's therefore acceptable (even preferred!) not to take care of them.

I can't stress enough how much effort is put into teaching a huge portion of America to fear and hate, constantly. We wouldn't be this bad otherwise, we're pretty normal folks by and large. Even pretty kind and generous, often. We've just been really fucked up, and very deliberately.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It was during the Great Depression and WWII that employer-provided health insurance took off. The fed instituted a wage freeze to combat inflation in the 40s, and as a result, employers had to start offering other incentives like health insurance to attract/retain their workforce.

FDR wanted to pass universal healthcare (along with a lot of other progressive policies) under his Second Bill of Rights, but it never came to be. Had his ideas been enshrined in law, we'd have universal healthcare, a minimum livable wage, adequate housing, the right to work, and several others.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

Americans are not quite as psycho and as selfish as we seem outwardly

I would argue that there has been a shift to exactly that, and it's tied to everything happening alongside for-profit health care. America has a fetish for "self reliance" that has IMO been corrupted into "You're on your own, sucker. Got mine." instead of the ability to build a life from the land, which is likely part of the reason self-reliance ever became so important. Self-reliance also gets pushed by those who have the luxury to say it, already safe in some kind of wealth, or at least to those they look down on who have a hard time rising even to a modest level of financial self actualization. Self-reliance is pretty much the same as "picking oneself up by his/her bootstraps" these days.

The grind of the Capitalist Machine gets worse every year with the never-ending pressure to make the quarterly report better and more profitable, infinitely. That improvement comes at the cost of, well...ever increasing costs, more expensive benefits like healthcare, and having to work more for less buying power. All that on top of the fact that one bad event in one's life could send you into poverty because that self reliance twisted into bootstraps has dictated slashing taxes, and slashing those taxes has had a focus on destroying social programs that help people not be so poor, because it's your fault if you're not self-reliant, and people have decided that it's better to hoard what they can, particularly their money, and blame others for being have-nots. Why should I help some lazy (fill in the blank) when I have (insert difficulty here)?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago

Was really weird watching β€œBreaking Bad” just as I had cancer myself years ago (Cancer-free today πŸ™‚).

Congratulations, friend! 🎊

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

And as long as our government ain’t complete dicks

By "complete dicks" you mean people like Friedrich Merz?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

Even here, "cosmetic" dental work can be pricey. IIRC, my braces were covered by insurance, but the retainer wire after that had to be paid up front by my parents with some kind of "insurance will pay back 80% of it after ten years" clause. One has fully broken off and should have long been replaced, the other broke partially and should be replaced too, but I don't really have the money to drop 600 on that right now if I don't know how much I'll get back.

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[–] [email protected] 134 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Even if I did go to a doctor, it might be because most insurance covers seeing a doctor but not dental shit.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's sad. They're not just luxury bones in the US either. National healthcare here in Estonia only covers dental until you turn 19 and then all you get is a tiny annual benefit, rest is out of pocket. I believe that most countries don't give adults dental coverage :/

Essentially the health board is completely fine paying for cancer treatments, broken bones, or to have a suspicious mole removed. They'll subsidize prescription medication. But TEETH?!?!?! WHO NEEDS THOSE????!?

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Judgmental bitch. Dental insurance coverage is so much worse than medical it's can be basically non existent

[–] [email protected] 70 points 3 weeks ago (16 children)

Privilege is blinding. The dentist can't fathom how a "normal" person they are speaking to couldn't afford to go to a dentist. It doesn't even register. The dentist then must assume it was pure laziness or apathy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

And yet they're still a working class wage slave.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

Probably more like petite bourgeois. But still more in common with the person in the chair than the actual bourgeois .

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I HAVE dental insurance, NO ONE FUCKING ACCEPTS IT.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The "in-network" thing is anyoing. As long as the place has a license and hasn't been a issue, they should be "in-network".

Having insurance tied to a job doesn't help either. if you/family member needs specialist care, so you find a fantastic doctor, but oops your job changed insurance provider and now your doc is out of network.


Complaints aside, if you're actually having trouble finding a dentist; go to your insurance's website, they probably have a "find a dentist" tool or something.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, just a 3 hour drive away.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago

This is why dentists in the US decided to not make themselves part of the same system as other medical doctors-- The ADA vs AMA. They get to make their own rules and more importantly, deals to get paid.

And full cash money rules over whatever any insurance company decides to pay you.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Insurance companies designed their policies to maximize profit over patient care. Dentists said fuck that racket

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Get a credit card

Use card to pay for getting your teeth done

Burn the card

Wait 7 years

Repeat till dead

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Going to the doctor half the time feels like a waste anyways. No matter how sick I am, I’m never given medicine or antibiotics and I’m always told to wait a week to see if it gets worse. It already had to be a big deal for me to go the first time around, I’m basically done after that and resigned to suffering without help. The worst was when I had been perpetually sick with something for 5+ weeks right before Covid first hit, never got anything and doctor was just like, β€œYeah, some colds or flus can go for that long.”

For physical injuries though, that shit is important and that seems like something they can treat, but anything else it’s just, β€œYou’re on your own, good luck!”

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Antibiotics for colds or flu will not help because those are viral, not bacterial. A general doctor should have given you a referral to a specialist. But Antibiotics would be stupid

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Maybe. But after 5+ weeks, you run the severe risk of secondary infection. A "cold" that runs that long, isn't the virus anymore, but the secondary infection taking hold. Antibiotics may not be the right call, but they might be. A "stick it out" attitude on a respiratory infection is the right path, if your goal is pneumonia.

Edit: source- my doctor, when I didn't want to take the antibiotics for a respiratory infection that I had had for 8 weeks. It cleared within 5 days of starting the antibiotics...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The last time I went to the doctor was over a year ago, and it was because my mouth/throat was in so much pain I called my friend, who lived 30 minutes away, and begged her to come take me to urgent care while bawling my eyes out.

The initial nurse that comes in is this dude, and I hate male medical professionals when I'm male-presenting: it's like this fucking machismo bullshit. He's trying to do the thing where they swab your throat or are just looking back there, and he's asking me to open wide, and I'm trying but I'm in excruciating pain and apparently couldn't open wide enough.

So he drops his hands in this exasperated/annoyed gesture and goes, "C'mon man, it's not that bad, open up."

I lost it. "Get the FUCK out of this room and send the actual fucking doctor in here! How dare you tell me I'm not in fucking pain when I can't fucking swallow or breathe without tears welling up! Get the FUCK away from me, NOW!!!!" Funnily enough, my mouth was open plenty wide after I lost it on him, and he scurried out the room as soon as she got his swab.

Woman doctor comes in a few minutes later, sees me bawling my eyes out while my friend is comforting me. Doctor doesn't give me any shit while she's examining me, and turns out, I had a serious infection behind my tonsils, not strep like douchebag kept telling us it probably was while telling me to "man up."

Doctor gave me some steroids and told my friend that my, "throat was in really bad shape," and that she was putting in a rush order for antibiotics at the pharmacy. I was to take the pills immediately when we got home, and again roughly 4-6 hours later (this was around 4 o'clock).

She ended our visit with, "Listen, if you take the second pill around 10, and if you're not feeling any better by 10:30, you need to go to the ER for emergency surgery, those tonsils are gonna go septic." But "c'mon man, it's not that bad." πŸ™„

The pills worked, I survived, but my blood boils just thinking about the whole situation and how comfortable that dude was in his attitude towards patients in pain.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I hate going to hospitals, especially in cities. They really don't seem to care unless they can physically see how injured you are. I saw an independent nurse and a walk in clinic before they both said to go to the ER when I tore something inside my abdomen. Waited 15 hours to be seen, struggled to breath without pain, and passed out from pain during the Xray. The Dr said I passed out from anxiety and sent me home with nothing and no advice.

One of the absolute worst experiences I've had at a hospital, and all I wanted was to make sure it wasn't my gall bladder. Of course they also charged the obscene US prices too

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 weeks ago

People at my new job talk about how great our dental benefits are. I found a dentist, scheduled a new patient exam (4 month wait). They told me I needed a cleaning and scheduled it for 3 months in the future. Two months after that, they stopped carrying my insurance.

I found another dentist, 6 month wait for an appt this time, was told I needed a cleaning, got a call the following week that they were no longer accepting my insurance.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I’ve discovered over the years that middle class people have absolutely no idea how most of the country lives.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well, most people think they are middle class.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The best part is the entire food industry is geared towards selling as much sugar and carbs as possible to produce as much dental decay as possible and as quickly as possible.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No, its geared to be as addictive and pleasurable as possible.

It just so happens that both carbs and sugar are pleasurable, and by coincidence also the cheapest part.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I'm not murican so money isn't the problem for me.
Its a crippling fear of doctors founded by a single dingle berries mistake over 10 years ago causing a year of problems and a skin transplant.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago

Many countries outside America does not cover dentist in social public health services.

They like premium bones or something.

In my country we have public healthcare but not dentists. If you want teeth you have to pay.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I am well on my way to this... less about insurance and more about the only dentist i ever had my entire life retired 5 years ago. He was a family friend and great. I'm still not sure how to get another one and also be great.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I'm super grateful for my union job with great dental benefits.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I paid $2900 for my mom to get dentures.

I haven't been to the dentist in probably ten years. Still follow the routine, but, yeah.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

I do have insurance, as we're legally required.

Haven't been to a dentist for years even tho i need it, the money isn't there. Insurance only covers it for a small amount if you pay a premium, which i'm not doing obviously.

I went to my childhood dentist after being unemployed and homeless, dad was convinced the government would get me a house and when i lived with him they told me "no, that's the old system". He didn't believe me so he kicked me out because he was so sure of himself.

When i got to the dentist after a couple of years he started pointing out what premium things i needed and how i could afford them after saving the money from the years i didn't go. I tried to explain to him like an adult that i had lost my savings and was pushed into homelessness and unemployment.

He then decided to get his ego bruised and started calling me names.

I got pretty sick of his childish behaviour and decided to never come back.

I tried a differenr dentist when i was actually ready and could see myself build up the funds again, but i ended up having to move for a job and life has only gotten more expensive while my wage stayed stagnant.

Right now i'm making more, finally but it's at a job i'm not sure i can physically handle. It's been 4 weeks now and it's 4 weeks of backpain and painkillers to keep going.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's Canada now... Has been for a while.... I hurt myself 9 months ago. It took 5 months for an MRI, and I'm still waiting for the specialist. I'm partially paralyzed...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Sorry to hear that, I hope you get treatment soon. Isn't it amazing how the world thinks our medical system is so great? There have been multiple deaths at the hospital near me of people waiting to see a doctor in emergency... not to mention people I know who would still be here today if the doctors in that same hospital were halfway competent, but since they can't be sued for malpractice, nothing happens...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

USians call your system great because we have the same experience and outcome you just described, but we pay thousands of dollars per month per person for it. From that perspective paying way less money for shit care is an objectively better system.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

What does "coming to Canada soon" mean? Is there an impending change in the system? Or is it the certainty that public health can't possibly work because the USA is the only major industrialized country that doesn't want it?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The public health system here in Canada is very broken and the politicians have been pushing to move towards a more privatized system like the US. It's only a question of time before we get the same problems. Here in quebec my wife has had to get a private doctor because she simply couldn't see a doctor in the public system anymore.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

From what I've seen on here, there are some areas where the same bullshit brainrot has started taking hold

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I've been working nonprofit for a couple of decades but it hasn't supported me well. I haven't been to the dentist in 22 years. I'm thankful I don't have any tooth pain. My wife is in the same boat. We had worked side jobs and hustled during COVID to put away some cash for it, saved up $19k. Only to need massive foundation/waterproofing work on our home. Now we're broke, my job contract ends in less than a month. I was worried about my teeth, now I'm worried about my family being homeless.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Docs tend to lose sight of the fact that everyone is not able to pay their fees, some even with insurance.

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