Good insurance won’t, but the problem is, most companies don’t provide “good” insurance. In most cases you are better off without it.
One company I worked for had the worst insurance I’ve ever seen.
I paid like $180 per paycheck JUST FOR ME! and I had no co-pay woooooHhhOoooo! Well anytime I’d go to the doctor i’d be fucked, with one visit really sticking out in particular: I went in knowing I had strep throat and just needed a doctors note. Doc took one look (didn’t do any tests or anything because it was really obvious) said "yep, you’ve got strep. " gave me my note, and I was oit of there in like 5 minutes… A week later? A $200 bill…. What…. The…. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!? Yeah bad insurance will ruin you.
Found the European (or just someone young who doesn’t know much about typical insurance shell-gaming).
You have no copay, but most insurance plans include any non-preventative visit in the deductable. That means you are responsible for 100% of the bill until your $1500/yr deductible (in as low deductible-plan, a LOT higher in most plans) is reached. To look like they’re actually doing something, they treat the negotiated rate from the doctor’s MSRP as a “discount” (the doctor says $300, the insurance negotiates you to $200). The really ugly irony of that, is that if you were uninsured, many offices would have given you an NP for $70, and some have an “uninsured rate” of like $150.
No copay means no copay, what you’re describing is not no copay.
Yes, “no copay means no copay”. Most insurance plans have BOTH a copay and a deductable on a large number of higher-end services like inpatient surgery and the diagnostics like CT. And I have had, and helped family shop for, healthcare plans that have no copay, but still have a deductable. Further, there’s a lot of PPO variants that have no copay or deductable, but have a coinsurance for everything.
In my adult life, I have never seen a plan where your “typical” out of pocket for anything other than Primary Care or Teledoc was anywhere near zero, even if those plans approach $3000/mo.
And you’re right. What I was describing was not a copay, but a deductable (please check the words I used, as I called it a deductable :) ). For a patient, money going out feels the same as money going out. Especially in large quantities.
Sometimes conversations get confused pretty quickly in thread format. I never understood why, but it IS hard to keep context in Lemmy. Let me reopen with what I was replying to:
If you had no co pay you wouldn’t have had a $200 bill
That’s what you opened with. The person above you didn’t use the word “copay” at all. They just complained about being charged $200 to get a note. Your reply was the quote above. My reply was “but most insurance plans have a … deductible”.
The conversation was really about money out of pocket. I think you inadvertently thought it was about copays. It happens :)
I went to see a gastrointestinal specialist two weeks ago and also had a five minute visit where he didn’t really listen to me about my issues and told me to call back in two weeks. I did, gave all my symptoms in detail to the nurse. A different nurse took two days to reply and the doctor still didn’t listen to my problem. Or I guess didn’t read it. And he’s the only gastrointestinal doctor in town. All the others within a 90 minute drive are either not taking new patients or won’t see me for 3 months, at which point, it will be too late. I haven’t eaten in 22 days. I’m basically fucked until I end up in a hospital.
Nope, when I ditched my insurance from that company and had to go to my regular doctor, it was $65 up front and I didn’t see another bill. It was the most bullshit thing I’ve experienced.
Good insurance won’t, but the problem is, most companies don’t provide “good” insurance. In most cases you are better off without it.
One company I worked for had the worst insurance I’ve ever seen.
I paid like $180 per paycheck JUST FOR ME! and I had no co-pay woooooHhhOoooo! Well anytime I’d go to the doctor i’d be fucked, with one visit really sticking out in particular: I went in knowing I had strep throat and just needed a doctors note. Doc took one look (didn’t do any tests or anything because it was really obvious) said "yep, you’ve got strep. " gave me my note, and I was oit of there in like 5 minutes… A week later? A $200 bill…. What…. The…. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!? Yeah bad insurance will ruin you.
If you had no co pay you wouldn’t have had a $200 bill ( unless you went out of network and then fuck you for wanting to have a choice)
Found the European (or just someone young who doesn’t know much about typical insurance shell-gaming).
You have no copay, but most insurance plans include any non-preventative visit in the deductable. That means you are responsible for 100% of the bill until your $1500/yr deductible (in as low deductible-plan, a LOT higher in most plans) is reached. To look like they’re actually doing something, they treat the negotiated rate from the doctor’s MSRP as a “discount” (the doctor says $300, the insurance negotiates you to $200). The really ugly irony of that, is that if you were uninsured, many offices would have given you an NP for $70, and some have an “uninsured rate” of like $150.
My deductible with that company was $5000 lmfao! Who the fuck is going to ever meet that in a year!?
And the irony is that anything not covered (like your responsibility on a coinsure) does not apply to the deductable. Nor do copays.
Literally the only thing left is “Maximum Out of Pocket”, but they even have ways around that.
With the insurance I have now through my company, I already met tge deductible and haven’t been charged extra for anything. It’s really nice!
I’m both American and have been on multiple different insurance plans. (Including a no copay plan)
No copay means no copay, what you’re describing is not no copay.
https://www.tuftsmedicarepreferred.org/healthy-living/what-difference-between-copays-deductibles-and-coinsurance#:~:text=Copays cover your cost of,time you visit your doctor.
Yes, “no copay means no copay”. Most insurance plans have BOTH a copay and a deductable on a large number of higher-end services like inpatient surgery and the diagnostics like CT. And I have had, and helped family shop for, healthcare plans that have no copay, but still have a deductable. Further, there’s a lot of PPO variants that have no copay or deductable, but have a coinsurance for everything.
In my adult life, I have never seen a plan where your “typical” out of pocket for anything other than Primary Care or Teledoc was anywhere near zero, even if those plans approach $3000/mo.
And you’re right. What I was describing was not a copay, but a deductable (please check the words I used, as I called it a deductable :) ). For a patient, money going out feels the same as money going out. Especially in large quantities.
Sure but the conversation was about copay ;)
Sometimes conversations get confused pretty quickly in thread format. I never understood why, but it IS hard to keep context in Lemmy. Let me reopen with what I was replying to:
That’s what you opened with. The person above you didn’t use the word “copay” at all. They just complained about being charged $200 to get a note. Your reply was the quote above. My reply was “but most insurance plans have a … deductible”.
The conversation was really about money out of pocket. I think you inadvertently thought it was about copays. It happens :)
Nope, in network, that’s just how their insurance worked.
I went to see a gastrointestinal specialist two weeks ago and also had a five minute visit where he didn’t really listen to me about my issues and told me to call back in two weeks. I did, gave all my symptoms in detail to the nurse. A different nurse took two days to reply and the doctor still didn’t listen to my problem. Or I guess didn’t read it. And he’s the only gastrointestinal doctor in town. All the others within a 90 minute drive are either not taking new patients or won’t see me for 3 months, at which point, it will be too late. I haven’t eaten in 22 days. I’m basically fucked until I end up in a hospital.
Please no medical advice. Thank you.
I feel like the total bill without insurance would’ve been even more? Idk
Nope, when I ditched my insurance from that company and had to go to my regular doctor, it was $65 up front and I didn’t see another bill. It was the most bullshit thing I’ve experienced.