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6/1/2009 12:44:24 AM

is expensive!!

6/1/2009 12:56:56 AM

I know right

6/1/2009 12:57:16 AM

but shouldn't be

6/1/2009 3:29:19 AM

wedding photography

[Edited on June 1, 2009 at 6:22 AM. Reason : hell anything wedding related. ]

6/1/2009 6:22:07 AM

Quote :

"OK now you just confusing me. First you said $7,000, now $700. Which one? If it is $7,000, that's the biggest rip off in the world. But now that I think about it, $700 makes more sense. Still expensive, but nothing crazy like $7,000. I suggested getting it from abroad because you said $7,000."

You do understand how insurance works, yeah? It's $7000 without insurance. My insurance covered 90% of it at the time so it was $700. The base cost is what's important because that's what's assessed against my lifetime $1 million coverage with that insurance company and because that's what diabetics without insurance (who are OVERWHELMING in number) would have to pay if they wanted it. My point is that diabetics without insurance don't have options for better treatment (insulin pump therapy), so their health tends to suffer a lot compared to folks like me who grew up in the upper middle class with fantastic insurance. In the long run those folks are going to end up more likely to have their feet chopped off and to have their kidneys fail because they can't get decent care because there is nothing which will properly help them pay for their supplies. Diabetes is becoming a crisis of the underclass in this country and it's not getting enough attention as it is. With insurance you're looking at $150/mo in supplies at least to stay alive and you're not going to be able to afford to go to the best doctors or any specialists because the PPO plan you're on won't let you. For folks who have to work low-end service sector jobs requiring no more than a high school education this is a critical amount of money. It's outrageous that such devices are sold by the hundreds of thousands and yet they're still $7000 (overall cost between companies is going to be around $3500-7000 for a pump system) with increasingly widespread deployment. They're no more complicated than a cell phone in terms of electronics and their mechanical components, while finely tuned and calibrated, do not justify the massive pricetag. It's gouging, pure and simple. Sure, they'll find a way to come up with outrageous numbers for development costs for the project and say they're only making $X, but their employees and executives are making a shit ton off these devices. It's also my personal opinion that medical assistance programs in this country are bullshit that don't go out enough to folks who need them. I hear far too many stories of people with my disease (Type I or II or 1.5 or prediabetic) who are poor, who do not qualify for government support, and yet they're just barely making end's meet. Fuck the fact that some girl can fuck some guy, pop out a kid, qualify for medicaid, and get $1000 each month in welfare (I know somebody that is doing this quite well and it's quite a personal matter, but for this argument it is terribly relevant), but diabetics who come from poor backgrounds or are left poor by their condition (your health can suffer and while it suffers it's hard to hold a decent job if you don't have an advanced education) can't even get a decent basic subsidy on their meds (let alone get paid for getting their disease) and get pissed on equally by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies alike. It's goddamn unequal treatment and it's about the worst example of it I can think of, medically speaking.

My point about it being made here is that there's no great benefit to me flying elsewhere to get it. I won't be able to get it for less than my insurance copayment, and that's the way things work here in America. My health insurance would not support me trying to claim these things overseas and the insulin pump companies wouldn't have that anyway because they're not bloody fools. When I have to give them a permanent address and my insurance info they'll go "Oh! OK we'll process your order through your insurance company" and you'll still end up paying the full price (less what they cover). It's not like surgical services where a guy who makes less than 1/4 what a doctor makes here in the US with the same skillset will operate on you for cheap in a safe environment. Because insulin pumps are prescription only and the approval process is specially negotiated for each case between the insurance company and the medical company which sells the pump, you're never going to get away with anything besides the regional price you'd be paying. The off the shelf price in a foreign country where a person like me could travel to would be much more than my insurance copay, so I wouldn't go though I could afford to do this. Now for somebody who has shitty insurance that won't pay for a pump or who has no insurance and is trying to save up to buy a pump, it would be quite appealing to be able to get a $7000 pump at the $2000 chinese market rate price for the same device, but they can't afford the ticket and aren't educated enough to even know that something like this is possible or happening nowadays.

This is one of many reasons why we say the healthcare industry in America is fucked up, as the total cost to maintain your health out of pocket decreases as you move up in income brackets (as you are offered better insurance, can afford insurance, and can afford better care which reduces long-term costs by a huge amount). The government proclaims to have programs to help people like this and yet I know of too many cases where there are people who can't qualify for aid and suffer, but people who act irresponsible can qualify for aid AND get a monthly stipend. It's difficult to understand if you haven't dealt with how ass backwards it can be trying to get health coverage in this country, but I hope this clears up everything I've said so far about this issue.

If you want the tl;dr version let me know, but otherwise what I'm mentioning here is unfortunately spot on and worth a quick read to learn about yet another looked-over group in this country.

FYI I spend $337/mo on health insurance and $200/mo on diabetic supplies. w/o insurance I'd spend about $1000/mo because of how much some things cost. For example a small piece of plastic with two electrodes and a simple capillary fabric that's used to suck up a tiny dot of blood costs $1 without insurance. If you want to take good care of yourself and you're on shots, you're looking at testing 4-6 times a day. That's $180/mo for testing strips alone. They also charge ~$70 fora box of 100-200 lancets which are small pieces of plastic with a thin, angled spike of steel embedded in them (used to prick your fingers). The notion that you have to replace these is a huge scam, as these lancets tend to stay sharp enough to prick (without causing major discomfort) for years before you need to replace them (I have not replaced the lancet I'm using now in about 14 months). They scare you by saying you'll get infections and that it's unsanitary to reuse them, but in reality it works so quick that you aren't leaving a bloody residue on the thing. You are more likely to get an infection from the small hole you just put in your finger than the small piece of metal you just stuck yourself with. I could go on but I should stop. Just about all diabetic care supplies cost far too much and are cash cows for the companies that sell them.

[Edited on June 1, 2009 at 7:04 AM. Reason : ]

6/1/2009 6:57:05 AM

you went to all the trouble to type that out

and not a soul will ever read it

6/1/2009 7:05:58 AM

My diabetic friends will.

It's an issue which articles, books, news stories, special reports, and any other sort of publication should be writing about right now because it's goddamn serious and is a fucking tragedy.

Hearing about people having to pick between paying the rent or paying for their insulin makes me fucking sick. Hearing about the (much more common) problem where people can't afford better treatment or to go onto pump therapy makes me even more pissed off. It's a healthcare double standard where the rich pay less and get more and where the poor pay more and get less (and I'm 100% dead serious about this, it's ass backwards).

I'd voluntarily subject myself to graduated medical costs for my diabetes based on my annual income if it meant that people working for $7/hr didn't have to spend all their money buying prescriptions so that they don't die. For mandatory recurring medical care situations like you have with diabetics (or other folks who will have to be on medication/get special care for the rest of their lives) such a pricing system could be implemented and would not be abused by those who were getting extremely low-priced/free scripts and medical care. Wealthier folks would complain but they can kiss my ass in this case.

6/1/2009 7:20:03 AM

Quote :

"I doubt they are cheaper in the US."

Ahh, forgot you weren't in the US. But you may be right on the cheesecake, etc. The starbucks I go to never has more than the muffins, breads, danishes.

6/1/2009 6:19:57 PM