r/interestingasfuck • u/ExactlySorta • 21d ago

A United Healthcare CEO shooter lookalike competition takes place at Washington Square Park r/all

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u/Vast_Jellyfish122 21d ago edited 21d ago

Non American here, I'm lucky enough to have lived in 3 countries with universal health care. I wasn't aware of the medical system issues in America until I saw the movies John Q and The Rainmaker around the turn of the century. Quite frankly, it astounded me. We have both public (free) and private healthcare in my country of birth where I live now. I have the luxury of accessing both systems and have done so in the past 12 months. There has been a national bowel screening program ( bowel cancer kills if not caught in time) in the last year or so, and my poop sample showed blood, so of I went for a colonoscopy and they found a polyp. I was immediately booked in for its removal the following fortnight. My tax dollar paid for the whole process. As great as the US is in many things, looking after its less fortunate citizens and its gun culture are two glaring black marks against it.

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u/holystregas 21d ago

That is great they were able to find that colon polyp in time! Those are no joke. I'm an American and I've been through the BS health system. Few years ago I went to the hospital because I was having severe pain in my stomach and was running a 102F/39C fever. Hospital rolled their eyes, told me I was just constipated, gave me $600 laxatives not covered by my insurance and told me to go home.

I'm now living in another country and recently went in for a colonoscopy. Turns out I have colon cancer! Thankfully caught early enough it hopefully will not be a problem in the future. However, if I were still in the US, there is no way my insurance would have approved a colonoscopy as I am well below the recommended screening age. The system is broken and no one really cares enough to fix it.

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u/RumanHitch 21d ago

Too old to be kept alive? Man, thats some postapocalytic shit there. I am European too, so I just think your healthcare is a joke and I don't even know how is that even legal.

Here you can go private(by paying yourself) or you can go public(covered by govern from your taxes), obviusly there is a waitlist but if you show signs of a cancern you are gonna get your screenings and stuff inmeaditly. Then you might wait for a year or more if its not cancer, but at least they get rid of that option withing a month deppending on how severe it is.

I cant even understand how you can be paying an insurance for a 50-50 chance of getting the treatment or not, is basically gambling with your own health or life just that you gamble for 10-20 years to find out that you lost the gamble after those 10-20 years of putting money into it. Money that now could save your life if you went by private even outside of the US.

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u/holystregas 21d ago

Depends if you consider early 30s too old. Recommended colonoscopy screening age is 45 in the US, so it is not uncommon for insurance to deny if you are under that age.

Private healthcare is a joke in the US, same with insurance. Why pay an absurd amount a month if you can't even use it until you meet the deductible? Let alone if you meet the deductible and yet it is still up to the insurance whether or not you meet the criteria for a cancer screening.

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u/RumanHitch 21d ago

My bad, I understood it as if you were too old to invest on trying to save your life. Funny (not funny) that you have to meet certain requirements to even get a screening. Denying someone's healthcare should not be legal in a 1st world country, I don't know how that system is still viable there. I live in Ireland atm and they wanted to start charging us for the water that we use and people said "no" to that and it never happened, should be as easy as that.

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u/Vast_Jellyfish122 21d ago

Hi and thank you for your reply. Good luck with your health. I wish you all the best fellow Redditor.