Canadian here. Had an accident and took a ten minute ambulance ride in Minnesota. $1400.

I had major depression when I was younger. I couldn’t get individual insurance because it was a pre-existing condition. I couldn’t afford it, anyway, because getting and keeping a job was very difficult because, uh, depression? So, getting a job with a group plan was also out of reach. I had to research it and treat it myself, which, goddamn right I’m proud I managed.

But now I’m middle-aged, single, and probably will never have the savings to retire. Eat a Grand Canyon full of Godzilla dicks, U.S. healthcrime system.

Had to go to the er for a staph infection, no insurance. In short I’m in about 8k worth of debt to the hospital. I was in the er for about an hour. 8k for an hour get fucked integris, so I never paid it out of principle

My wife has a rare disease. Requires expensive drugs monthly. We hit our max out of pocket early every year.

Bye money. forever. until I die.

Sometimes you don’t need anything crazy to describe how shitty our healthcare system is.

Blue Cross denied my claim for coverage of therapy ($125/week) because the address is clearly not a business address. Yes, that’s right, my therapist operates from her home, which is a horse farm. So does this mean BC doesn’t cover any home offices? Or is it just ones that have “ranch” in the address?

We’ll see! I’ve filed a grievance challenging the denial. I’m looking at around $6000 for the year if they persist.

My spouse had their lung collapse. Insurance denied it because we didn’t get advance approval for their lung to collapse.

Bunch of dental work all done with no payment at time of service. Fantastic PCP. Amazing rheumatologist. A 10k infusion every two months costs me $5.

I would probably work for no pay with my medical issues.

Worked in insurance for a few months and saw someone with an $8000 deductible.

Was denied life-changing, medically necessary weight loss surgery because my company has less than 50 people employed.

I had to live with a failed gallbladder for a month and a half while the insurance decided if they were gonna pay for surgery. I lost 20lbs in that time because I couldn’t keep anything in my body. I almost died.

One health care facility near me doesn’t accept patients who work at or have previously worked at their competition.

Had my ankle reconstructed last year and the surgery alone billed for $16,000. A piece of foam for my walking boot billed for $150.

My headache medicine would cost me around $1000/month if I didn’t have insurance. With insurance it’s $40/month. My pharmacist helped me sign up for a discount card through the manufacturer so now it’s only $5/month somehow

Got some medical bills sent to collections before the bills ever reached me. By email or paper mail. Haven’t paid any of them and I don’t plan on ever paying them because fuck the people who just sent that shit to collections. Also medical debt is dumb and you just don’t have to pay that shit. They eventually stop bugging you about it and I haven’t seen it reflect on my credit score ever.

A 20 min ambulance ride, with amazing insurance was billed for $575.

My sister almost broke her spinal cord and the insurance gave us the runaround after the corrective vertebrae surgery.

The VA didn’t want to cover the cost of my grandfather’s leg amputations that were a direct result of contact with agent orange in Vietnam.

The VA doesn’t want to cover a coworker’s therapy and medication for PTSD caused by being stationed in the middle east for 4 years.

The VA won’t release my mom’s army medical records because she was part of experimental vaccines when she was in the army. She thinks it was anthrax vaccines, but can’t be sure because nobody will tell her.

I moved out of the US and when I had to pay to get a tooth filled my flabber was gasted when they charged me 17 bucks.

I don’t think I can ever go home.

It’s been nearly two months since Publix filled my prescription. At the one month mark I sent my refill to CVS instead and they filled it the next day. I have no fucking clue what’s wrong.

My wife had surgery. However they didn’t prescribe painkillers until after the surgery.

I got her comfortable at home and ran down to pick them up … and was rejected as “drug seeker”. Wtf. It took a full day before I could convince them to fill it, and they kept wanting her to come in person when she just had surgery

I’m intersex and have both male and female anatomy. US healthcare “insurance” isn’t coded for people like me. It assumes a sex binary when the facts of reality show otherwise.

Back at my old job, I had full premium health insurance. However, they kept denying each and every claim, denying literally everything. They unofficially recognized my intersex condition and used it against me.

Whenever I filed a claim as female, they’d deny it and claim I was male and thus the claim was incorrectly filled out. When I filed as male, they’d pull the exact same stunt now claiming I’m female and thus the claim was incorrectly filled out. Whatever the claim, large or small, it was always the wrong sex on the paperwork.

It was a "heads I win, tails you lose" situation. I have a better job with the government and with a different insurance company, but they too are starting to pull the same stunt. I hate this country for allowing such corruption to thrive.

I could not walk for more than 5 minutes without excruciating pain. I finally asked to be taken to the hospital after a back spasm that had me bash my face after a fall.

Went to the hospital. Was diagnosed with “mild scoliosis” and “anxiety” and sent home with stronger than average Tylenol. Was bedridden for nearly 2 months. Lost my job. Got other appointments for GP. Looked and said I needed a specialist. I could not afford a specialist, as I was now out of money. They shrugged and wished me luck.

I was forced to stay like this for nearly 2 full years.

When I was on the verge of killing myself, someone offered to pay for a chiropractor. I didn’t care. I had nothing to lose.

Anyhow, long story short, guy found that my spine had been forcefully lodged into my pelvis and stuck there. Dude had me healed in week.

This is NOT an endorsement for chiropractors— this is a testament to the failure of the healthcare system. I could not see anyone, so my desperation led me there.

I still have back issues. But I can walk again and be touched without pain.

My husband was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in his early 40s. There was a medication that kept his symptoms more or less in control.

Then he lost his job. The meds ran out and it turns out they cost thousands of dollars without his work insurance plan. This was just before Obamacare, and there was no way we could afford unsubsidized insurance for him on my salary.

His colitis got exponentially worse, and was treated only spotadically when I could scrape together a few hundred dollars for the doctor visit, where he might be able to get enough free samples of the med or a round of steroids to reduce the gut inflammation.

One night as we were lying in bed winding down to sleep, I heard him drop his magazine on the floor and start what I now know was agonal breathing. I called 911 and did my best with CPR, but his heart had stopped and in all likelihood he was dead before the paramedics arrived. He was 53 years old.

I found out from his death certificate that he had severe ischemic heart disease. It was undiagnosed because he hadn’t had regular medical care for years because of the vicious circle of unmedicated symptoms/inability to work/no insurance.

That’s my horror story. There’s also my 4+year quest to be diagnosed with MS, being told by multiple doctors that if I lost weight I wouldn’t be so fatigued I could barely move, or have vertigo, or fall down for no reason, or whatever symptom I had at the time. But hey, at least that story eventually ended with diagnosis and treatment… as long as I have my job and insurance, anyway.

I’m rawdogging life with pretty bad ADHD, depression, anxiety and probably autism because I have always been poor lol