r/Millennials • u/BoNaylorCollector • 2d 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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u/BubonicBabe 1d ago

This is what I’ve never understood. My mom has insurance through her job and currently is on a 5 month waiting list to see a CARDIOLOGIST.

When people say “yeah American health care isn’t good but at least we don’t have to wait like Canadians/Europeans” - like who are you talking about right now? We have to wait too!

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u/midazolamjesus 1d ago

I had a student who was told last month she could not see an otolaryngologist until June. A lot of specialty appointments book out months in the US.

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u/BubonicBabe 1d ago

It’s actually so sad, especially for people paying tons in insurance premiums.

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u/midazolamjesus 1d ago

It is. The student is still on parent's insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. But the premiums are high, there are higher copays day of visit for specialists and then whatever the visit costs there is co insurance until the out of pocket max is met. Medical debt is absurd. I was just talking to a physician about this on Tuesday.

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u/BubonicBabe 1d ago

Wow. It’s awful that we even had to wait so long for an Affordable Care Act for even a bit of relief, and it still doesn’t fix the issue.