Seriously, non-US people don't get this:

In the US, paying for "insurance" does not mean you don't still have to pay the doctor.

You pay your monthly premium, then pay a portion of the cost of a visit, and then pay up to a certain amount (several thousand) before it kicks in. https://twitter.com/FaithNaff/status/1320736521872429057

So if you broke your leg, you'd still pay whatever the deductible was.

If you have "just getting by" insurance like most of us, that could be $2K or $5k or $10K.

And that's if your insurance company chooses to pay. They can choose not to, and then you have to fight them.

Gonna say that again: in the United States, your doctor can make a diagnosis and a prescription and order tests and even send you for surgery, and your insurance company has can simply refuse to pay.

Legally.

Yup.

I know.

And this is *after* Obamacare, *after* all the big reforms, *after* the push to get everyone in America outfitted with private insurance.

It was never going to work because private insurance doesn't work. It's for the benefit of the provider and not the insured.

So you pay hundreds of dollars each month, and then have to pay to visit the doctor in addition to that, and then are still responsible for a financially crushing amount if you actually NEED health insurance.

And this is how we live in America.

Yes! There's an "enrollment period."

This is to ensure you don't just grab insurance when you're sick and not pay the rest of the time. You either get insurance during enrollment or you don't get insurance for an entire year.

Mustn't hurt the profits. https://twitter.com/BetaDecayPlus/status/1320741163905810432

See?

Because it can make healthcare slightly cheaper.

It's less "insurance" and more a kind of discount program, really. https://twitter.com/KoritoPrime/status/1320743486925217797

I pay $25 to visit the doctor, for example.

Without insurance I would pay $100 to visit the doctor, and depending how often I need to visit the doctor, it adds up.

However, I still have to pay for the insurance. So it all depends. For some people being uninsured is cheaper.

The trouble is, when you get hit by a bus or get cancer or need a kidney and you don't have insurance, your choices are death or eternal bankruptcy.

With insurance, you get slightly less bankruptcy.

Unless insurance doesn't pay, then you're boned.

If this doesn't make any sense, it's because it's not meant to.

It's meant to be dense and bureaucratic. It's meant to be absurd. It's meant to exhaust us and grind us down so we just give in and pay the premium and hope everything works out because we have no other choice.

You have to understand that most people here have never left America.

They literally cannot conceive of taking an ambulance to an emergency room and being treated without it entailing crippling levels of debt at best.

As a whole, we don't understand there's a better way.

And if you want to know why it's allowed to persist, then realize in America healthcare accounts for almost TWENTY PERCENT OF OUR GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT.

Twenty percent. Three trillion dollars.

There's a lot of people heavily invested in keeping things as they are.

I mean FFS I don't think my Patrons understand why I appreciate them so much and it's more than just making it viable to say "fuck" on the internet for a living.

Your support keeps me from going into a coma and dying.

Because America is a hellscape.