Ta, Robyn. The system is rotten. I work for a sizable network of FQHCs, supportive housing, rehabs, shelters, and more. Most of us who work for them make less than we would if we weren't working for a nonprofit. The CEO makes over $900,000 annually.
When I need a bitter laugh, I scroll through their job postings to see how far below par their salaries are. Where in the name of all that is unholy do they think they're going to find an LMSW willing to work for $65,000 a year?
Speaking as a doctor, I could not be more pleased. The hugely inflated prices are generally lab and facility costs that doctors are not made privy to - we order a necessary test and then it's laissez le bon temps roulez in the Billing Department of the place that does the work.
BTW, “mistakes and inaccuracies in medical billing are common” is understatement on the order of the British calling the Blitz "the unpleasantness".
Corporate america will never allow it. They are buying up land and throwing cheap ass apartments everywhere. There is more money in apartment rents than housing and easier to throw them out. National healthcare is another thing they will throw their complete weight behind. They own us with that and they know it. Take that control away from them and we have more choices and force them to treat us better on every level. They are sociopaths with blackholes that will never be filled. They want it all.
What a huge relief it would be to not get ill just worrying about getting ill and bankrupting your family. I worked hard to bring up my credit score so I could buy a car and I don't wish that stress on anyone. Higher credit scores for all!
>>I say let’s do it and get it done before anyone on the Right can come up with an elaborate conspiracy theory ...<<
Too late for THAT! They already have one lying in wait, and it will be one they employed to try to tank some earlier policy or program. Further, they'll find a way to show that SOMEONE is harmed by this and then use that person to challenge the whole thing in a Texas court, making the arguments about how this is a slippery slope to communism, an attack on property rights, and how the federal government can't regulate stuff anyway. "Freedom!" (always with the "Freedom!")
After that irresponsible ass hit me with his ATV last year I have been going back and forth with my health insurance trying to get them to pay for my medical bills. Turns out because I was hit by a vehicle even though I was not driving, in a vehicle of some kind and because I don’t have car insurance because I work in the city and refuse to pay exorbitant amounts for parking I have to either pay for the hospital visit or get New York State Office of Victim Services to take care of the bill. I have set up an account with the state but getting my suit together has been a trial because the website is not working for me. I am trying to call but the phone system is terrible.
None of NY State's websites work well. I filled out the DMV form online to renew my non-driver ID. I could NOT fill in one of the blanks, no matter how many times I tried. I printed it and filled the recalcitrant blank by hand.
So sorry that irresponsible asswipe hit you. Heal.
Gee, and we don't have enough housing units in our metro areas. I am a big fan of building additional new cities from scratch, green and without the antiquated utilities and other drawbacks. They don't have to be located near fall lines or the confluence of rivers like they did in the 19th century. They just have to have enough flat land nearby to build an airport. Sadly the only politician who I heard talking about this is Trump (blecch) but it falls more in line with the usual Democratic priorities. This is probably the best approach to applying downward pressure on housing costs nationwide.
Since it was thought up, and the land secretly bought, by tech bros: housing advocates are cautiously optimistic and seeing how it actually plays out. If it works, great! But no one has any idea if it will work or if it will really be walkable, affordable, rely on renewables, etc.
if rich tech bros are involved, it's more likely they are looking to create as close to a libertarian hellhole as they can get away with. caution is adviseable.
I stopped reading after the first paragraph, because I. Just. Can't. Even.
Union Square Greenmarket a number of years back (okay, decades back) had all the vendors who were interested in doing so write a blurb for their kiosks. One of them has stayed with me always.
"Once we lose agricultural land to development, we never get it back." Techbros? GFY.
Black Rock and a couple others own our entire healthcare, all our banks, the bulk of our food supply and water, control most corporations, own a shitload of our real estate, and control our government, defense industry, and finance. It's increasingly difficult to GAF about my credit report.
Employers sometimes check the credit of potential employees, pre-hire. Maybe someday we can all have a good credit score, some healthcare debt, AND a job.
My husband got a pile of medical bills, today. And the thing is, you don't know what you've already paid, because they will bill you for the same thing more than once. He paid up the pathology lab yesterday, and he's met his deductible now, but we got a bill from them that was sent before yesterday...
Of course, he could get on mychart and pay his bills, except for the outside ones, which is a while other nightmare... I can't get him to create a login, though. Why, I do not know. He's about to find out that he'll need to be more proactive about this stuff or it'll bury him.
I haven't opened this latest set of bills, yet. There are six of them.
I've had a bad few years, medically speaking. So many specialists in two states, and each one has their own patient portal. I'm overwhelmed, frankly. They all blame everything on HIPAA, which is bullshit. I've allowed them all access to my records from everyone else, they just refuse to coordinate. I'm about ready to just lay down and give up.
My husband's PCP had to fight to get my husband admitted to the hospital. Then he ER doc didn't even bother to read the scans of my husband's lungs. Discharged him without consulting the PCP. Told him he could go back to work, if he wanted. Kinda intimated that he was being hysterical. Discounted it completely when we told him about the chemicals my husband had been exposed to.
And all the while, my husband was desperately ill. His PCP came to the hospital to see him and found he'd been discharged.
The billing is shitty. The couple of times I've had medical bills go to the credit bureau involved me not paying a relatively small amount THAT I DID NOT OWE. But they send the stuff over there pretty quickly and even while it's in "dispute" it's over there. I was assured the last time that it had not actually made it to my actual credit report but damn. And I have pretty decent insurance through work so my out of pocket is not huge. But it's a pain figuring it all out.
The sad truth is that we have NO health care system in the US. We have hundreds, thousands of markets, providers, labs, clinics, insurers, etc., in which the only common thread is that each player is in it primarily, if not solely, to make a buck. For most, your health care is not even on the menu, as long as they can claim to be following the few rules applicable with a straight face. Yet we pay the most, by far, for the least.
When will people wake up to the fact that health insurance IS socialized medicine, with shareholders and CEOs taking some off the top at every stage? Who do you think is paying for all those knuckleheads who wouldn't get vaccinated and ended up for weeks in ICUs on ventilators? The insurance companies out of the goodness of their supposed hearts? Yeah, sure. They'll make it up in premiums from the rest of us . . . and on and on. We were once colorably great. Now these red-hatted assholes just want to make America PAY again.
I work in a federally qualified health clinic (FQHC) in The South Bronx. No one is ever turned away because of an inability to pay. Allegedly, the Aetna policy I have through the job (in addition to Medicare, because of age) is pretty good. I'm so healthy I've never used it. I did bring my prescription card to a pharmacy when they were handing out COVID-19 tests to seniors for free. Healthy people like me keep everyone else covered.
I swear, I had an argument with a supposedly career nurse who didn't understand that health insurance makes money off people who don't go to the doctor.
She was also convinced the Doctors pay the insurance company when you go to the doctor.
"Weirdly expensive things that are not that great of a time tend to be beyond my ken." Lobster. Caviar. Olive oil. Any bottle of wine that is more than about 40 bucks. What else have you got?
I got really, really sick when I traveled to France for work. It was the worst respiratory infection I had had in ~30 yrs and it happened in Jan 2020. I traveled from Boston to Paris and was laid out in the hotel with a terrible cough, horrible fevers (sweating through the sheets even with a window open), crawling to the shower to try get steam to breathe, refilling a water bottle from the tap because I couldn't leave the room, and I really struggled for a long time after - I honestly think it was Covid before it was understood that is was already there).
Anyhoodle, I went to the equivalent of an urgent care near my hotel, and while they didn't actively do anything to help me other than write the names of Tylenol and various cough suppressants in French for the pharmacy, it only cost me about 45 euros as a person who wasn't a part of their health system. I saw a nurse and a doctor and it was only about a 45 minute wait (with me cowered in a corner, hacking).
So, yeah - the US system sucks and any colleague in a reverse situation might have found themselves in quite a financial bind.
The CFPB is great, but did I hear some dumbass court is calling it unconstitutional (again)? The medical debt removal would be great, but a complete overhaul of the American health system (get private insurance OUT) would be better.
Ta, Robyn. The system is rotten. I work for a sizable network of FQHCs, supportive housing, rehabs, shelters, and more. Most of us who work for them make less than we would if we weren't working for a nonprofit. The CEO makes over $900,000 annually.
When I need a bitter laugh, I scroll through their job postings to see how far below par their salaries are. Where in the name of all that is unholy do they think they're going to find an LMSW willing to work for $65,000 a year?
we need more things to be worker-owned co-ops.
Speaking as a doctor, I could not be more pleased. The hugely inflated prices are generally lab and facility costs that doctors are not made privy to - we order a necessary test and then it's laissez le bon temps roulez in the Billing Department of the place that does the work.
BTW, “mistakes and inaccuracies in medical billing are common” is understatement on the order of the British calling the Blitz "the unpleasantness".
Americans, I'm SO sorry you have to live like this. It's wrong and you deserve better.
Corporate america will never allow it. They are buying up land and throwing cheap ass apartments everywhere. There is more money in apartment rents than housing and easier to throw them out. National healthcare is another thing they will throw their complete weight behind. They own us with that and they know it. Take that control away from them and we have more choices and force them to treat us better on every level. They are sociopaths with blackholes that will never be filled. They want it all.
What a huge relief it would be to not get ill just worrying about getting ill and bankrupting your family. I worked hard to bring up my credit score so I could buy a car and I don't wish that stress on anyone. Higher credit scores for all!
>>I say let’s do it and get it done before anyone on the Right can come up with an elaborate conspiracy theory ...<<
Too late for THAT! They already have one lying in wait, and it will be one they employed to try to tank some earlier policy or program. Further, they'll find a way to show that SOMEONE is harmed by this and then use that person to challenge the whole thing in a Texas court, making the arguments about how this is a slippery slope to communism, an attack on property rights, and how the federal government can't regulate stuff anyway. "Freedom!" (always with the "Freedom!")
After that irresponsible ass hit me with his ATV last year I have been going back and forth with my health insurance trying to get them to pay for my medical bills. Turns out because I was hit by a vehicle even though I was not driving, in a vehicle of some kind and because I don’t have car insurance because I work in the city and refuse to pay exorbitant amounts for parking I have to either pay for the hospital visit or get New York State Office of Victim Services to take care of the bill. I have set up an account with the state but getting my suit together has been a trial because the website is not working for me. I am trying to call but the phone system is terrible.
None of NY State's websites work well. I filled out the DMV form online to renew my non-driver ID. I could NOT fill in one of the blanks, no matter how many times I tried. I printed it and filled the recalcitrant blank by hand.
So sorry that irresponsible asswipe hit you. Heal.
That is so true
I’m sorry to read this. Bad enough some jerk hit you, but to have to go through all of this extra BS is ridiculous.
Gee, and we don't have enough housing units in our metro areas. I am a big fan of building additional new cities from scratch, green and without the antiquated utilities and other drawbacks. They don't have to be located near fall lines or the confluence of rivers like they did in the 19th century. They just have to have enough flat land nearby to build an airport. Sadly the only politician who I heard talking about this is Trump (blecch) but it falls more in line with the usual Democratic priorities. This is probably the best approach to applying downward pressure on housing costs nationwide.
In case you haven't heard, a bunch of tech billionaires are trying to do that here in the Bay Area (Solano County is more rural in the NE part of the bay): https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/flannery-renderings-solano-county-city-18341474.php
Since it was thought up, and the land secretly bought, by tech bros: housing advocates are cautiously optimistic and seeing how it actually plays out. If it works, great! But no one has any idea if it will work or if it will really be walkable, affordable, rely on renewables, etc.
if rich tech bros are involved, it's more likely they are looking to create as close to a libertarian hellhole as they can get away with. caution is adviseable.
I agree
I stopped reading after the first paragraph, because I. Just. Can't. Even.
Union Square Greenmarket a number of years back (okay, decades back) had all the vendors who were interested in doing so write a blurb for their kiosks. One of them has stayed with me always.
"Once we lose agricultural land to development, we never get it back." Techbros? GFY.
Black Rock and a couple others own our entire healthcare, all our banks, the bulk of our food supply and water, control most corporations, own a shitload of our real estate, and control our government, defense industry, and finance. It's increasingly difficult to GAF about my credit report.
whar my antitrust act?
Employers sometimes check the credit of potential employees, pre-hire. Maybe someday we can all have a good credit score, some healthcare debt, AND a job.
My husband got a pile of medical bills, today. And the thing is, you don't know what you've already paid, because they will bill you for the same thing more than once. He paid up the pathology lab yesterday, and he's met his deductible now, but we got a bill from them that was sent before yesterday...
Of course, he could get on mychart and pay his bills, except for the outside ones, which is a while other nightmare... I can't get him to create a login, though. Why, I do not know. He's about to find out that he'll need to be more proactive about this stuff or it'll bury him.
I haven't opened this latest set of bills, yet. There are six of them.
I've had a bad few years, medically speaking. So many specialists in two states, and each one has their own patient portal. I'm overwhelmed, frankly. They all blame everything on HIPAA, which is bullshit. I've allowed them all access to my records from everyone else, they just refuse to coordinate. I'm about ready to just lay down and give up.
My husband's PCP had to fight to get my husband admitted to the hospital. Then he ER doc didn't even bother to read the scans of my husband's lungs. Discharged him without consulting the PCP. Told him he could go back to work, if he wanted. Kinda intimated that he was being hysterical. Discounted it completely when we told him about the chemicals my husband had been exposed to.
And all the while, my husband was desperately ill. His PCP came to the hospital to see him and found he'd been discharged.
Jebus.
SO sorry--seriously!
The billing is shitty. The couple of times I've had medical bills go to the credit bureau involved me not paying a relatively small amount THAT I DID NOT OWE. But they send the stuff over there pretty quickly and even while it's in "dispute" it's over there. I was assured the last time that it had not actually made it to my actual credit report but damn. And I have pretty decent insurance through work so my out of pocket is not huge. But it's a pain figuring it all out.
The sad truth is that we have NO health care system in the US. We have hundreds, thousands of markets, providers, labs, clinics, insurers, etc., in which the only common thread is that each player is in it primarily, if not solely, to make a buck. For most, your health care is not even on the menu, as long as they can claim to be following the few rules applicable with a straight face. Yet we pay the most, by far, for the least.
When will people wake up to the fact that health insurance IS socialized medicine, with shareholders and CEOs taking some off the top at every stage? Who do you think is paying for all those knuckleheads who wouldn't get vaccinated and ended up for weeks in ICUs on ventilators? The insurance companies out of the goodness of their supposed hearts? Yeah, sure. They'll make it up in premiums from the rest of us . . . and on and on. We were once colorably great. Now these red-hatted assholes just want to make America PAY again.
I work in a federally qualified health clinic (FQHC) in The South Bronx. No one is ever turned away because of an inability to pay. Allegedly, the Aetna policy I have through the job (in addition to Medicare, because of age) is pretty good. I'm so healthy I've never used it. I did bring my prescription card to a pharmacy when they were handing out COVID-19 tests to seniors for free. Healthy people like me keep everyone else covered.
It's not well understood even in the profession.
I swear, I had an argument with a supposedly career nurse who didn't understand that health insurance makes money off people who don't go to the doctor.
She was also convinced the Doctors pay the insurance company when you go to the doctor.
Duh...WOW!!!
Wow, that's a bit frightening. I hope her understanding of medicine is better than of economics.
"Weirdly expensive things that are not that great of a time tend to be beyond my ken." Lobster. Caviar. Olive oil. Any bottle of wine that is more than about 40 bucks. What else have you got?
I got really, really sick when I traveled to France for work. It was the worst respiratory infection I had had in ~30 yrs and it happened in Jan 2020. I traveled from Boston to Paris and was laid out in the hotel with a terrible cough, horrible fevers (sweating through the sheets even with a window open), crawling to the shower to try get steam to breathe, refilling a water bottle from the tap because I couldn't leave the room, and I really struggled for a long time after - I honestly think it was Covid before it was understood that is was already there).
Anyhoodle, I went to the equivalent of an urgent care near my hotel, and while they didn't actively do anything to help me other than write the names of Tylenol and various cough suppressants in French for the pharmacy, it only cost me about 45 euros as a person who wasn't a part of their health system. I saw a nurse and a doctor and it was only about a 45 minute wait (with me cowered in a corner, hacking).
So, yeah - the US system sucks and any colleague in a reverse situation might have found themselves in quite a financial bind.
i bet they were horrified that you would have to bear the entire cost.
I am so happy that I'm not the only person who feels that way about macarons!
At first I thought you and Robyn were talking about macaroons. And I was like what? Overpriced? But yeah, macarons, meh.
The CFPB is great, but did I hear some dumbass court is calling it unconstitutional (again)? The medical debt removal would be great, but a complete overhaul of the American health system (get private insurance OUT) would be better.