The cost of everything scares me, sometimes.
Mrs. Denmarkguy has been struggling with an ear infection for a while, likely going back all the way to the trip we took back in July, where we spent five days ”rough camping” at a festival we attended in Oregon.
She has been to the local Urgent Care Clinic a couple of times, been through a batch of antibiotics, various ear drops and whatever else, in service of getting this issue to clear up.
It never really did, so she went in for a ”full” appointment with our Family Doctor on Friday… where some more potent medication was prescribed, and now she’s in line to get some scans done at our local hospital, to eliminate any possibility of tumors, growths, etc.
Sadly, we couldn’t get the new medication on Friday, because it needed to be ”approved” by our health insurance carrier.
Reason?
Well, these particular antibiotic/steroid eardrops cost — drumroll — $400.00 for a tiny bottle with 10 days’ worth of ear drops.
Thankfully, the approval was given and she could pick up the ear drops today from our local pharmacy, at no cost. How somebody without insurance would deal with such expense is a frightening prospect.
Being from Denmark, I grew up with socialized medicine. Even when I still lived there, you never thought about going to the doctor when something was wrong… it was just automatically covered. Maybe there was a $3 ”paperwork filing fee” for ailments that were neither urgent nor acute. If you had to pay for medications, the cost was relatively nominal… not so high it could bankrupt you.
We used to have a pretty ”fancy” health insurance program here, but even with an annual deductible of $5,000 and an 80/20% coverage, it still cost $633 a month to have coverage for Mrs. Denmarkguy and myself.
And when she went in to have shoulder surgery at the hospital — a surgical procedure and ONE night stay in Hospital — we ended up with about $22,000 out-of-pocket medical bills, after the insurance had paid its part.
That ate up our savings… and messed up our credit.
Speaking of credit… even the cost of credit cards scare me!
The other day, I got an offer in the mail for a MasterCard (since we’re eventually going to be moving, we’ve been trying to rebuild our credit) and it was simply bizarre.
For a $1,000 line of credit, not only at 35.9%, but with an annual fee of $99, AND a monthly ”maintenance fee” of $19.25.
If you actually do the math — which I am sure they are counting on people NOT doing — the card actually costs $689 a year… or an effective interest rate of 68.9% to borrow $1,000.
What the eff is THAT about?
Of course, that’s the joy of ”free markets:” there are no limitations on what can be legally charged for debt… and I am sure there are those who are desperate enough to take on such an offer… or the banks likely wouldn’t be bulk mailing these kinds of offers all over the place.
It’s just scary!
I suppose it is also somewhat scary to consider that we live in a society where so much of our existence revolves around — and depends on — debt, as a way to keep things going.
Meanwhile, I worry about much simpler things, like what's in the sale flyer at the supermarket, because it has been a long time since we were comfortably able to buy and eat the food we want, rather than the feed we can afford.
Life is expensive.
I guess all we can do is deal with it, to the best of our ability.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2024-09-10 01:59 PDT
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I moved away from USA in 2004 and when I hear stories like this it reminds me that I may have made the correct choice. The system is well and truly broken over on that side of the pond. I have spent time in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand mostly since then and they don't have "free" health care over here. However, the drugs that you need to get, such as your eardrops (or were they eyedrops?) could be purchased for exceptionally low prices. I've never heard of any medication costing more than a couple of dollars over here even if it is the same stuff and the same brand that people are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for in the States.
How is it possible that the exact same product costs hundreds of times what it costs here over in US and A? I would understand if USA had better drugs, but they are the exact same product.
I'm happy that your insurance ended up footing the bill in the end. I can't stand insurance companies.
The problem in the US seems to be that nobody actually knows how much pharmaceuticals cost. That pricing information is almost like a state secret between Big Pharma and Insurance companies. Our doctor doesn't even know what drugs cost!
You can be damn sure the insurance company isn't paying $400 for those ear drops!
Interestingly enough, small changes are appearing through private initiatives like like Mark Cuban's "Cost Plus Drugs."
"For profit medicine" is a problematic idea... not because I am against capitalism, but because the commodities/services being sold are to people who typically have no choice.
The credit card rate is absolutely crazy!
I gave up on my credit card many years ago and I am perfectly happy without it.
Some of the rates are insane, when you count all the extra fees they tag on. I don't have that kind of card, and the few cards I do have I only use because they are sometimes required when you travel and need to rent a car or reserve a hotel room.
Life is expensive everywhere. But now the most important thing is that the lady is well and that her hearing improves. We have to continue to struggle with the economy, especially at home. Have a good week.🤗
We go along and do the best we can! In time we learn to get along with less and maybe that's really OK... a lot of the stuff we're "supposed to" consume is actually a bit wasteful.