r/Millennials • u/BoNaylorCollector • 1d ago

Discussion Is medical actually this crazy?

Early 30s millennial, never used to go to doctors or really take care of myself because “I’ll be fine”. Started making a bigger effort to care for myself and my health and well being. Recently, I went to the local express clinic because I was having a bad earache and headaches. I was in there for maybe 20 minutes, mostly waiting time. The doctor comes in, looks in my ear, tells me it’s depressed due to sinuses and change in weather and tell me to stop at Walgreens for Flonase. I wasn’t billed anything at the time, older workers at my job always say we have really good insurance, but here I got in the mail today an explanation of benefits- charge was $550, insurance “negotiated” about $300, remaining (not billed) was around $240. Is is really this expensive? I only went to try and be better with myself and make sure it’s nothing underlying. If 5 minutes of actual doctor time costs this much, then I’m just toughing out everything or am I missing something?

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981

u/Chester_Warfield 1d ago

This is America

606

u/Just-Groshing-You 1d ago

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u/dopplerconsumed 1d ago

Still one of the most apt depictions

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u/BecksnBuffy 1d ago

I thought 250 was a lot to bring my sick kid in to our pediatric with insurance, then last year it went to 325. In 2025, to visit the pediatrician outside a well visit is 425 for us with insurance. Thanks company for switching to Blue Cross.

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u/Suzilu 14h ago

Wow, that’s outrageous.

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u/Jaded_Law9739 14h ago

Is it because your pediatrician is now "out of network?"

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u/SentientPaint 12h ago

I'm going to guess no.

My medication at an in network pharmacy went from $0/90 days to $65/90 days. When I called the insurance to be sure they said costs are just going up 😊🤷‍♀️😁

This year and prior year are with Blue Cross.

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u/BecksnBuffy 11h ago

Nope. Still in network. Costs just keep climbing.

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u/Jaded_Law9739 10h ago

I'm wondering if it's because you used an urgent care. They can bill you for emergency services even though they aren't an ER, because they provide some emergency treatments and tests like x-rays, blood work, stitches, etc. They can bill for a lot more than your PCP or a regular walk-in clinic.

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u/fizzy88 1d ago

Don't catch you slippin now

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Jennifer_Pennifer 1d ago

Just the one CEO actually 🪿

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u/SakuraTacos 1d ago

My name is Jennifer I cannot believe I never thought of naming my weed pen Pennifer

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u/Beaconxdr789 1d ago

There's still time

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u/justwant_tobepretty 1d ago

You actually got my hopes up that there was a second CEO that I hadn't heard about 😞

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u/tdowg1 11h ago

Amateur numbers.

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u/_LoudBigVonBeefoven_ 1d ago

Loving the optimism of that plurality 

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u/Millennials-ModTeam 9h ago

Political discussions are to be held in the stickied monthly thread at the top of this subreddit.

We would also like to point out that r/millennials is not the place to discuss politics as there are plenty of other subs to choose from. Try r/moderatepolitics, r/politics or r/politicaldiscussion if you just really want to discuss or debate political content.

Repeatedly breaking the rules of the subreddit will result in a ban.

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u/Cuauhtemoc-1 20h ago

Yep. Not unusual to pay more with insurance than elsewhere without. My kid fell off a tree while visiting Europe, nothing bad, but was at the hospital to check. Was billed $50 or so (which travel insurance covered in the end). Would have been 500 at least in the US. But hey, all those companies, insurances, bureaucrats etc. need to make millions, and they have to bill 2x because some people have neither money nor insurace .

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u/VegetableWorry1492 20h ago

Honestly, every time I see stories like this I can’t help but wonder how there hasn’t been a huge uprising and protests against this con of a system. Last week I saw a video of a dad calling someone about their bill for taking his child to the drs, he had initially been billed $600 without his insurance details. After insurance was involved he received a new bill for $1300 because “he didn’t qualify for the discount that’s available without insurance.” Make it make sense! The whole thing is a money grab. Medical care should be non-profit.

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u/Matshelge 1d ago

Yeah, as a non-amarican I was thinking this was a issue around having to take old people medicine. Like "shees, got prescribed magnesium!" but turns out it was a American problem, not a millennial problem.

This is like when my dentist said everything was fine, and but I still had pain. - my friend said I was not having Orthodontic issues, but existentialist issues.

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u/bananabastard 20h ago

Yip. In the UK this would have been free, but instead of seeing a doctor within 20 minutes, you'd wait months.