Main reason I ask is because Chillindude, a prominent member of the competitive Melee community had a stroke recently and as he’s relatively healthy and works out often, he doesn’t have health insurance, and even though he’s sponsored by Team Liquid, one of the largest e-sports teams out there, because he is classified as an independent contractor, he doesn’t have health insurance through them.
The way he got the stroke was through an infection in his knee that he got misdiagnosed twice, and the hospital was going to throw him out even because he’s been stabilized, but doesn’t have coverage, which to me is actual BS but I’m honestly curious as to why this would be the case, considering strokes need so much recovery done for them.
Situations like this is part of why I couldn’t write my own thing for the ideal society post I made the other day, because I have no clue how healthcare should be handled. I do know however that portions of why healthcare is so expensive is due to the companies that make the equipment being anti-“Right to Repair” and the actual repair costs of the equipment being outrageous (Louis Rossmann made that a video months ago and I can’t find it), but still, this whole situation is really outrageous to me, that the hospital was going to throw him out after he stabilized due to a lack of proper coverage, and that stroke recovery as a whole is as expensive as it is in the US. I’d love to hear from our European people if it’s really any better there or am I being lied to, but still, idk what the solution really is.
Edit: I’m in the US, so this is pretty important for me to know.
To start, I'll say he probably should have had health insurance. I presume a guy you say is heavily sponsored so makes a decent living. He had the option to purchase health insurance and chose to not make it a priority. It is totally possible to just buy it and not have to be on an employer plan, and it's not even that crazy priced for a young healthy guy. It would be just like if he didn't buy car insurance and crashed his car or didn't buy house insurance and his house burned down.
I've got a bit of experience with the costs both in and out of insurance. If you're paying cash most regular doctor's office type things will gladly take you. I've gotten a regular doctor visit for $100 and one time I had to go to a dermatologist for an infection it was $175. I mean as a generally healthy person I probably wouldn't spend more than $500/yr on doctors, dentists, etc. for checkups and the odd thing.
Where it gets nuts is the hospital. I had a minor surgery a handful of years ago. The bill from the hospital was just over $10,000. From the time I went in the door to the time I left was no more than three hours. This $10k was not for the doctors, but just for the hospital services. The surgeon's bill was around $1,300, which I thought was totally fine. I mean I'm paying this guy to cut me open, I don't want the budget special. These costs were the insurance costs, so in the end I think I paid out of my own pocket about $2k for the surgery. It's pretty hard to go to the hospital and not get thrown out ASAP if you don't have insurance, because their bill is going to be nuts and they won't get paid.
Otherwise, the other post I see is also totally true, it's a crony capitalism and anti-competitive mess and that's why the costs are so stupid.