Nerd Pride Radio

My wife had a weird mole on her leg that she immediately got a doctor's appointment to look at. The dermatologist did a scraping and discovered that it was a melanoma in either Stage 2 or 3. Which means they can't just remove it in the dermatologist's office, but needs to be extracted by an oncologist. Which means a major surgery with general anesthesia and a whole bunch of radiation treatments to determine how far (if at all) it has spread through her lymphatic system.

The hospital called us 10 days before the surgery and told us we needed to pay $3,000 dollars before the surgery, or they wouldn't do the surgery. Fortunately, I had the funds to pay it and she's having the surgery next week. But it really got me thinking about how fucked up our healthcare system is, right? So if I didn't have $3,000, then I suppose the alternative is to let the cancer spread through her lymph nodes and she dies of cancer in the next five years (which is what happens without treatment). How many people can afford to throw down 3 grand on two weeks notice? This is ridiculous. If you're not in my position, our society says that you don't deserve to live. This is just fucked.

I agree with you that it is completely fucked. Absolutely the result of making EVERYTHING for profit, and allowing profit motive to override all other guiding principles. It's evil.

I am so sorry you have to go through this. Not everyone has the resources or support system you guys do, and even with that, it still has to be frightening. My heart goes out to all of you.

I've worked around the health insurance industry since college, when I did a summer internship with an insurance company working with an actuary that negotiated reimbursement rates with physician offices. Then at a benefits consulting firm where the consultant helped clients choose their health insurance plan. Then at a software company that developed software for health insurance companies to run their business (among other medical-related software that was their primary business). And I 100% agree it is FUBAR. The whole history of how employer-provided health insurance started as a way to get around wartime wage restrictions, and how expanding insurance coverage to other areas (dental, chiropractic, etc.) always results in inflationary trends in those areas... it's insane, and it cannot continue indefinitely.

I am trying to have faith in our healthcare system. I receieved a call yesterday from the transplant team - a doctor was reviewing my file, and would like to make me eligible for kidney AND pancreas transplant, rather than just kidney. This, of course, means more testing. It also means - for some reason that I can't wrap my head around - that it is a shorter waiting time. I don't understand how getting two organs is a quicker waiting list than one.

But the insurance confuses me. I have good health insurance through my work - very good, insurance actually. (A trend in education - we trade away our salaray for better benefits.) But I am being forced to switch to Medicare for my primary insurance - this is something that happens to people with kidney disease? So, I am in the process of getting Medicare insurance in addition to what my benefits are. And then I receive a text today about not having any insurance, which I'm sure is not accurate, but will have to investigate.

I also don't understand why health insurance covers everything except your eyes and mouth. But even then, it's weird. Getting new glasses? Sorry, you need vision insurance for that. Injecting medicine into your eyes, shooting lasers into your eyes, retinal surgery? Oh yeah, that's all covered because those were related to your diabetes. You have to get a tooth pulled? Sorry, you need dental insurance for that, even though the only reason the tooth needs to be pulled is so you can get a transplant. Wisdom tooth extraction? Nope, that's dental insurance, even though everyone considers it a surgery.

our dental coverage has an out of pocket max FOR THE INSURANCE CO!!!
A newer employee needs an implant because one of his front teeth is "dead" and so is the "socket"
Total cost is $9000.00 BUT OUR INSURANCE TAPS OUT AT 2K a year.
Poor kid is having to scrape together everything he can.

Nothing will be done to improve the situation either because we don't have a union...