Americans Share the Most Absurd Medical Bill They Ever Received

Healthcare is on many people’s mind these days, and the 2020 election is full of ideas on how to take our broken system and hopefully improve it.

Senator Bernie Sanders is and has been passionate about the topic for much of his career, and is championing a controversial Medicare for All plan that would see the end of private insurance offerings for good.

Regardless of what you think about Medicare for All, I’m sure we can all agree that healthcare costs are too damn high, and something has to be done.

Recently on Twitter, he asked his followers to share the most absurd medical bill they ever got in the mail, and you guys.

What’s the most absurd medical bill you have ever received?

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 15, 2019

They delivered.

20. Always decline the ambulance ride.

It was hot. I hadn't eaten. I fainted.

Ambulance shows up, they pull me in there with a/c blasting and stick an IV in my arm and pump me full of fluid.

In 15 minutes I was 90% good.

I'm still taken to the hospital.

3 hours of tests later I'm declared okay.

Bill: $12,000.

— Vince Nicholas (@vincenicholas) September 17, 2019

19. Nobody should be worrying about the bill.

$35k+ for an ectopic pregnancy. No ins. Have surgery or die when it ruptures. Made my X take me home a day early because I knew every extra minute there would bury me in debt. I should’ve been healing and grieving but was worried abt the bill. Beyond time for #MedicareForAll

— Nunya Biznass (@NunyaBiznass462) September 16, 2019

18. Yeah, that’s not a choice.

…Insurance company told us we chose to have the C-Section. That it was elective. As if we just wanted to

No we had the C-section bc the Dr told us our son could die if we do natural birth. What choice is that!?!

Why I was soooo glad when Obama took insurance cos to task

— Texan (@Texan_21C) September 15, 2019

17. This one might win for most ridiculous.

I lost consciousness and my in-laws called 911. The 2 area EMTs arrived with 2 separate ambulances and fought over my unresponsive body. Eventually they decided which would claim my body and both sent me bills!

— Darcys34 (@Claudia0167) September 16, 2019

16. I’m not sure that’s really science.

$800 for a psych evaluation which consisted of them asking me "are you gonna kill yourself" and thats it.

— Jenna (@spookyslore) September 16, 2019

15. Heartbreaking AND absurd.

$10K to pay for our daughter's neonatal care one year after the fact. She died thirty minutes after birth and our insurance wouldn't pay because we failed to add her to our policy.

— didderbops (@didderbops) September 15, 2019

14. A whole new level of insult to injury.

Where to even start…
I got billed $3k a YEAR after my son was born because the insurance company deemed the emergency c-section "unnecessary".

$9k ($3k which I had to pay upfront) for a miscarriage.

$500 for the ultrasound that confirmed my baby had passed in womb.

— Conz Preti (@conz) September 16, 2019

13. We need equal opportunity healing.

$35,000 for addiction treatment. Out of pocket. It's the best money I ever spent, but quality addiction treatment should not be limited by class. Addiction is treatable. Everyone deserves the opportunity.

— One step ahead of the Qs (@artisteboy) September 15, 2019

12. I’ll bring my own Band-Aid.

$1,400 for a fucking bandaid was billed as part of the final bill total was over 40k

— Admiral Byrd was right! (@S00TY83) September 16, 2019

11. Only the rich get to live.

$120,000 per treatment chemotherapy bills

— Patsy Stone (@MsPatsyStone) September 16, 2019

10. I mean what else can you do?

In 1991, at age 21, I broke my neck in a diving accident.
$1.2 million for eight months in hospital.
After months of fighting with Blue Cross and Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, I owed $250,000 after insurance.

Filed medical bankruptcy at 23 years old.

— Troy Rudd (@troyrudd) September 15, 2019

9. It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

$11k bill for an allergy attack that I already treated with epinephrine before getting to the hospital. Stayed overnight. Charged $1k per hour for observation. And they gave me eggs for breakfast. Which I'm allergic to.

— Benjamin Shapero (@realBenShapero) September 15, 2019

8. Answer: hardly anyone.

$480,000 for my Dad's spinal fusion surgery. That's more than we paid for our house. It was "in-network" too.

We refused to pay & told the hospital they had to work it out with Horizon, but they kept sending us the bill for months. Eventually they stopped. Who has $480,000?

— Samuel Douglas (@CANCEL_SAM) September 15, 2019

7. That’s a pretty penny for stuff you could have gotten at Walgreens.

$12,000 for less than 1 hour in the ER. Lower back strain. The doc touched my back for all of 3 seconds, wrote me a prescription for lidocaine patches and steroids and said, "have nice day"

— JE Cooper (@je_cooper) September 15, 2019

6. You need a surgeon for that?

$1,000 to have a surgeon walk in the room (late) for 1 whole entire minute and say “yeah your nose is broken” and leave

— andrea mendes (@AndreaMendes) September 15, 2019

5. That’s a pretty high price for wielding a pair of tweezers for under 5 minutes.

Attempted to charge me $600 to remove stitches. I did it myself in 4 minutes. That’s $9000/hr.

— Kelp_Paddy (@calico_rising) September 16, 2019

4. Kidney stones are the worst and if $16k would help, I would have paid it.

$16,000 for all the work done related to a kidney stone

It involved me sitting in a room, drugged up, and the doctors not knowing what was causing the pain

After they figured it out they sent me home with painkillers, said they can't do anything for it, and sent me a 16K bill https://t.co/usqUJfqeYO

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) September 15, 2019

3. I think they’re billing the wrong person.

$8000 ER visit after my abuser set my house on fire.

— Lily Bell (@RealMuse87) September 16, 2019

2. Everyone should have a problem with this.

My daughter, Shalynne's, $350k medical bill to die a needless death. Treating her and saving her life would have only cost $1,500. All because she couldn't provide proof of insurance.

— Amy Vilela (@amy4thepeople) September 15, 2019

1. What on earth does most of that even mean?

The bill for the loss of our pregnancy at 17 1/2 weeks.
Ins. paid all but 2000, the ambulance was an addl $1600.
So, on top of the emotional toll it cost me $3600.
I still owe them most of that money. Every bill and call is a reminder of losing my baby girl #MedicareForAll pic.twitter.com/HkVjyG5Ur0

— ~ Valerie ~ (@MysV4Bernie) September 15, 2019

I’m not here to discuss politics, but I think we can all agree that most of these are pretty darn silly.

If you were running for president, how would you solve the problem of rising healthcare costs, access to care, care for veterans, and all the rest?

There’s no easy answer, of course, but give it a go!

The post Americans Share the Most Absurd Medical Bill They Ever Received appeared first on UberFacts.

July 10, 2019

Brave Women Are Sharing Their Abortion Stories with the Hashtag #YouKnowMe

Right now is a scary time to be a woman in America.

People who support a woman’s right to choose what she does with her reproductive health are trying anything they can to make sure the message is spread far and wide that even if people don’t think they know somebody who has had an abortion… they do.

A lot of people have shared their story, but Busy Philipps recently shared a story on her talk show about her experience…

Thank you for your strength in sharing your story, @BusyPhilipps. #BusyTonight pic.twitter.com/Ryqz7WGEVN

— Busy Tonight (@BusyTonightTV) May 8, 2019

Busy also shared some statistics… with the hashtag #YouKnowMe

1 in 4 women have had an abortion. Many people think they don’t know someone who has, but #youknowme. So let’s do this: if you are also the 1 in 4, let’s share it and start to end the shame. Use #youknowme and share your truth.

— Busy Philipps (@BusyPhilipps) May 15, 2019

Folks, 25% of all women have had an abortion at some point in their lives. If you didn’t know that stat before, now you do.

Naturally, people are taking up the hashtag and sharing their stories…

Yes, women will die.

I was sixteen. I had been raped by a school volunteer. The fetus had caused internal bleeding and I was fifteen minutes from dying. I was a Sophomore in high school…dying because of the choice of one man. It was either me or the fetus that was going to die anyway. #youknowme

— The Salt Well (@TheSaltWell) May 15, 2019

Lots and lots of women.

I was 24, full-time college student, in a mentally & physically abusive relationship. My OB just found clump of cervical cancer & said going through with pregnancy would mean complications & could possibly risk my life. I had an abortion @ 7wks. 1 in 4 women have them #youknowme

— ZombiUnicorn Nati Ⓥ (@TheZombiUnicorn) May 15, 2019

And it doesn’t matter what their reason is..

I was 19, in college, and supporting my alcoholic father and little brother with a shit job. I was on the pill. I was doing everything I was “supposed” to do to pull myself from poverty. I’m now married to the father and we are raising 2 children in a great life #youknowme

— Mrs Marmo (@MissMarmo) May 15, 2019

Because these are incredibly difficult choices…

I am here and able to mother my incredible daughter because of the health- and life-saving abortion I had when she was three years old. #YouKnowMe

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) May 15, 2019

And without those choices, women literally lose their rights as human beings…

In 2012 I had an abortion, I wasn’t ready in any means to have a child I am 1 in 4 and #YouKnowMe. Post procedure I immediately cried, it was one of the hardest decisions to make but I would have not been able to grow the way I did the last 7 years if I didn’t make that decision https://t.co/nZ6kTZVd6e

— Nelini Stamp (@NelStamp) May 15, 2019

Because imagine a world where rapists just get to have children because they commit a crime…

#YouKnowMe I had an abortion after the morning after pill did not work when I was date raped

— ☆Shine (@BurntShine) May 15, 2019

And the only option being a hotel room in the middle of nowhere…

#YouKnowMe my neighbor is an elderly woman who runs the food share program in town. In high school, she piled into a S.C. hotel room with a bunch of girls in similar straights to have an illegal abortion. One girl bled out and died. She still shakes when she tells the story.

— PRE-EXISTING KATE (@KONTENTLY) May 15, 2019

Women need to be able to plan their lives…

16, had zero support system with family or partner. I came from a young mother, who came from a young mother. I refused to continue the cycle #youknowme

— CrissCross Applesauce (@kassy_cameron) May 15, 2019

Without fear of consequence for ONE moment taking over their entire life…

#YouKnowMe I was 17, a senior in high school, with scholarships to UA so my Dad wouldn’t have to pay for my school. I decided to have a future and had an abortion instead of being stuck in the small town with an abusive boyfriend’s child.

— S. N. King (@MDBTrumpet) May 15, 2019

Again, these are health care decisions, first and foremost…

We were in love, in college and not ready for a baby, I called my doctor. Found out it was a tubal pregnancy, so I had an abortion. My partner was so loving and kind during all of it, it brought us closer together. We now have 2 kids, we’ve been together for 20yrs. #YouKnowMe

— Caitlin Papp (@Caitlpapp) May 15, 2019

And nobody should ever make that decision for another person.

If I didn’t, I would have died, my husband would have been a widow, and my one-year old would have grown up without a mother. #youknowme

— Fashion Meets Fifty (@charharreveld) May 15, 2019

Yes, we all know somebody who had an abortion. And their reasons, while their own, are completely justifiable.

Anybody who tells you differently is just trying to interfere with a woman’s civil rights.

The post Brave Women Are Sharing Their Abortion Stories with the Hashtag #YouKnowMe appeared first on UberFacts.

May 24, 2019

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March 13, 2019

The U.K. is Seeing a Sudden Resurgence of Ancient Diseases

As we here in America battle with the comeback of diseases like measles, the United Kingdom is also struggling with the reemergence of old-school, Dickensian diseases gout and scarlet fever.

Data from the UK National Health Service shows a 52% increase in four key “Victorian diseases” since 2010/2011 – many of which were assumed to have disappeared along with chamber pots. The rise of sanitation, vaccinations, and modern science seemed to have these diseases on the run, but the recent data shows that they’re not going down without a fight.

Cases of scarlet fever have increased by 208% in the past decade, going from 429 cases in 2010/11 to 1321 cases in 2017/2018. The disease was the leading cause of death in children in the early 20th century and presents with a sore throat, fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, and a pink-red rash.

Scarlet fever rash
Image Credit: Wikipedia

A vaccine nearly wiped out whooping cough in the 1950s but hospital admissions are up 59%, and the instances of people experiencing gout are up 38% – almost 2000 more cases in 2017/2018 than there were 10 years before. Gout is associated with a poor diet, heavy drinking, an a general lack of concern over one’s health.

Whooping cough bacteria
Image Credit: Wikipedia

Life expectancy is stalling in the UK, too, and hospital admissions due to malnutrition are up 54%. Infant mortality rates are also on the rise, and as with everything else, the poorer people are suffering the most.

The culprit? Well, the data suggests large cuts to healthcare, social services, and other public services could be to blame. That said, the study was commissioned by a political party that is against the austerity programs, which should be taken into consideration.

The data is solid and from independent sources, however, so the truth can’t be denied – people in the UK are sicker than ever, dying younger than they were ten years ago, and generally struggling to stay well as people in Western Europe face none of the same challenges (in general).

I don’t know about you, but I hope to avoid all of these diseases in the modern world. All I’ve got is a vaccination and a prayer.

The post The U.K. is Seeing a Sudden Resurgence of Ancient Diseases appeared first on UberFacts.

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