It’s heartbreaking how true this really is. So many people need help and can’t get it because of how corrupt our healthcare system is. Meanwhile, places in Europe have free healthcare for all. Some argue that causes a huge wait time for appointments, but personally, I would be more than happy to wait an extra amount of time so long as I can get the help I need.
Can we stop calling single-payer healthcare “free”. It isn’t free at all. Every citizen pays for it through their taxes. It’s cost sharing and makes more sense than this free-for-all we have here in the States. Calling it “free” healthcare just leads to misunderstanding and unnecessary contention.
The average cost of health care in the United States is roughly twice as high as it is in countries that have universal health care. The reason is that in the U.S. the insurance companies act as a middle man, taking a huge cut of the money without producing any benefit.
Health care in Europe isn’t free. Here in Germany a large share of your gross earnings (30%, if you want to be honest about it) is taken straight from your paycheck. But it is still better than how they do it in the states. You get health care even when you do not earn anything and waiting is rarely a problem, except at specialists. Although the waiting time with mental health is as far as I know up to a year. With your GP, it’s more like an hour at worst.
Health coverage is so ubiquitious, you are helped first in an emergency and payment will be sorted out later. None of this preexisting condition stuff either, everyone has to be insured and public health insurance has to take anyone at the same price. Call it solidarity.
This kind of thing is why I decided long ago that, once my mental health is in check and I am able to work again, I will do everything within my power to be a victim of my own economics. People are too valuable to go without the care we need, and at the minimum, I can become wealthy enough to insulate myself and any family I one day have. If I can help others, too, then so much the better.
Oops, I meant, “I will do everything in my power to NOT be a victim of my own economics.” I’ll blame it on cPTSD brain, though I know it had nothing to do with it. 🙂
Contact your Congresspeople and tell them your concerns. We need to keep this pressure up until they give up on their so-called replacement. We cannot go back to the old protection-racket type of insurance. If we can’t get single-payer, let’s keep the ACA until we do!
Autistic here. May whoever invented the idea that people with “pre-existing conditions” should be uninsurable for anything at all choke on raw sewage and have their survivors be stuck with the full ER bill.
I have had to buy insurance all my life it was a nightmare for pre existing conditions before Obamacare. I got denied and rerated 3x the rate. for a sinus infection I had once. I had to lie about my name and ssn if I ever went to the doctor to be able to keep insurance. My blessed mother who had good insurance would tell them she had panic anxiety and depression so she could get meds for me. If I had it on my record I was uninsurable. Basically in order to get any insurance that wasn’t 700 per month I couldn’t have anything wrong with me before the ACA. Since Trump and the evil GOP have been in office I have been terrified about losing my healthcare. I have gone to the Dr. freely and now have a record. The ACA isn’t perfect but their plan is evil horrible wrong . I will never be able to afford to take care of myself. I won’t be able to get insurance and as a woman I am screwed. I have daily panic attacks about this. I pray I die before I get sick or in an accident. Trump et al do not care about the welfare of this country. They want poor weak sick and dead. More money for them.
I’m in this exact same position right now, and I’ve been thinking the same thing, that I shouldn’t pursue any help because I don’t want to have a pre-exisiting condition that could block me from insurance in the future! It’s really scary, but I’m so happy to see that other people are feeling the same way. I’ve loved these comics for a long time, and they really help me. Thank yoiu!
Thank you for this post. I think about this very thing a lot.
Especially true in the States now. 🙁
It’s heartbreaking how true this really is. So many people need help and can’t get it because of how corrupt our healthcare system is. Meanwhile, places in Europe have free healthcare for all. Some argue that causes a huge wait time for appointments, but personally, I would be more than happy to wait an extra amount of time so long as I can get the help I need.
Can we stop calling single-payer healthcare “free”. It isn’t free at all. Every citizen pays for it through their taxes. It’s cost sharing and makes more sense than this free-for-all we have here in the States.
Calling it “free” healthcare just leads to misunderstanding and unnecessary contention.
The average cost of health care in the United States is roughly twice as high as it is in countries that have universal health care. The reason is that in the U.S. the insurance companies act as a middle man, taking a huge cut of the money without producing any benefit.
Health care in Europe isn’t free. Here in Germany a large share of your gross earnings (30%, if you want to be honest about it) is taken straight from your paycheck. But it is still better than how they do it in the states. You get health care even when you do not earn anything and waiting is rarely a problem, except at specialists. Although the waiting time with mental health is as far as I know up to a year. With your GP, it’s more like an hour at worst.
Health coverage is so ubiquitious, you are helped first in an emergency and payment will be sorted out later. None of this preexisting condition stuff either, everyone has to be insured and public health insurance has to take anyone at the same price. Call it solidarity.
This kind of thing is why I decided long ago that, once my mental health is in check and I am able to work again, I will do everything within my power to be a victim of my own economics. People are too valuable to go without the care we need, and at the minimum, I can become wealthy enough to insulate myself and any family I one day have. If I can help others, too, then so much the better.
Oops, I meant, “I will do everything in my power to NOT be a victim of my own economics.” I’ll blame it on cPTSD brain, though I know it had nothing to do with it. 🙂
Amen.
Yup. Although because I’m female and a mother I’m already a walking, talking pre-existing condition.
Contact your Congresspeople and tell them your concerns. We need to keep this pressure up until they give up on their so-called replacement. We cannot go back to the old protection-racket type of insurance. If we can’t get single-payer, let’s keep the ACA until we do!
No such thing as insurance issues in my country: nothing mentally related is covered by anyone under no circumstance xD.
May I ask where you’re from?
Autistic here. May whoever invented the idea that people with “pre-existing conditions” should be uninsurable for anything at all choke on raw sewage and have their survivors be stuck with the full ER bill.
So true. Forget getting help through this corrupt system. Might have to seek other methods. I see alternative medicine on the rise.
I have had to buy insurance all my life it was a nightmare for pre existing conditions before Obamacare. I got denied and rerated 3x the rate. for a sinus infection I had once. I had to lie about my name and ssn if I ever went to the doctor to be able to keep insurance. My blessed mother who had good insurance would tell them she had panic anxiety and depression so she could get meds for me. If I had it on my record I was uninsurable. Basically in order to get any insurance that wasn’t 700 per month I couldn’t have anything wrong with me before the ACA.
Since Trump and the evil GOP have been in office I have been terrified about losing my healthcare. I have gone to the Dr. freely and now have a record. The ACA isn’t perfect but their plan is evil horrible wrong . I will never be able to afford to take care of myself. I won’t be able to get insurance and as a woman I am screwed. I have daily panic attacks about this. I pray I die before I get sick or in an accident. Trump et al do not care about the welfare of this country. They want poor weak sick and dead. More money for them.
I’m in this exact same position right now, and I’ve been thinking the same thing, that I shouldn’t pursue any help because I don’t want to have a pre-exisiting condition that could block me from insurance in the future! It’s really scary, but I’m so happy to see that other people are feeling the same way. I’ve loved these comics for a long time, and they really help me. Thank yoiu!