Every movie in which the protagonist survives a horrifying ordeal and is carted away in an ambulance should end with the postscript, “Twenty years later, they died in medical debt.”
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I cannot imagine having to pay for any medical procedure, let alone having to ask for 'help' or leaving a legacy of debt?
'Land of the Free'?
This week - This is a small island, my mate had a lump come up on his cheek, I drove him to hospital. He was sent by plane to a bigger island (Continued)
My late hubs was a Brit. When he got terminal cancer he went home to England. He’d paid in until he was 51 & served in the army 2 yrs. 10 months in a nursing home. Cost nothing. Our healthcare system is a disaster. 😢💔
He had blood tests and an MRI Scan. After more tests they gave him antibiotics via a drip. Stayed in hospital until today and was flown back to this island and he's feeling much better.
Cost?
He paid for my petrol, I bought him breakfast with the money!
I find it funny in shows like Jessica Jones or Daredevil where they say they don't kill... They just knock them unconscious, possibly causing untold brain damage, and no doubt leaving them with massive debt for the rest of their lives.
If the helicopter shows up to airlift the hero at the end, they should just start screaming "No, just kill me now! Do you know how much this is going to cost!" while the camera slowly zooms in on the pilot and, in a twist, it turns out to be the villain we thought was killed in a fiery explosion.
Fella badly messed up his ankle at YMCA soccer fields. Hospital 1 mile away, we commonly see life flight landing. Someone started to call ambulance & many spoke right up “Nonono it’s like $1800 the second you get in! We will wheel you over in the golf cart!”
Whenever I see it in local Jordanian movies I just feel the tingle of "They 100% have ties to someone important" even if it's some poor dude because no way in HELL they're affording the ambulance fees
I just read some writings from Luigi Mangione. This young man and the suffering he and his Mother endured at the hands of United Health is a travesty. I’m not condoning the actions, but do understand his frustrations and heartache😭😭
Just wanna remind folks in the comments talking about the USA that there was a time in US history where an ambulance didn't cause medical debt. Just like internet cookies and plastic bottle caps that don't twist off, ambulance debt was thrust upon citizens without consent.
Hi all. I had to take an ambulance because of food poisoning when my son was less than one year old, in other words in 1981 approximately, and it cost an arm and a leg. Having the EMTs come to me was free, but being transported to a hospital was charged and man.
Yes, didn't say that there were no high costs, but you would think this problem would get BETTER as time goes by, and it actually has gotten worst. It has mathematically and proportionately gotten worse. Especially that free EMT part ...
I worked for a quasi-public hospital-based ambulance service in the 80s. A basic ride was $90. A lot of money then, but the hospital didn't aggressively pursue debt. We just told people concerned about the cost not to pay their bill.
Yes - according to the interwebs, $90 in t eh 80s is about $345 today. I've seen ambulance costs of about $2000 for some of my friends, so the math ain't mathin'. And don't get me started about what happens when you don't pay your bill ...
Or at the very least "Jack Hardcastle saved the President from the Terrorists but walked with a pronounced limp and permanent Tinnitus for the rest of his life"
Banned by clinics and doctors due to excessive medical collections. Yes, they can ban you! I am banned for life from one here. Good thing I don't give a fuck. I now have great coverage with my Obama Care. Since pre-existing currently is not held against me.
Did you see the Road House remake with Jake Gyllenhaal? Just as a fight is about to begin he stops and asks the agitators, "Do you have good insurance, like full coverage? What's your deductible?"
We went to the dentistry college as a kid and my impression was it was way cheaper than a real dentist but we still definitely got a bill at the end. I remember one of the teachers coming over to observe a student and telling me "wow, you have a high threshold for pain."
You ain't lying! It took 10 years and an army of idiots with stethoscopes before I figured out I was suffering from pudendal nerve entrapment. All those misdiagnoses of bladder problems, UTIs and STDs. (They LOVE to put STDs on Black women before anything else!)
‘The Burbs 2: the skull-de-sac”
A much older, now divorced Tom Hanks, forced to live with his son after the crushing medical debt following his hospital admittance of the first film, begins to suspect the new neighbor is a serial killer.
Post-credits sequence of them still in the stretcher in the ER waiting room while their spouse screams at the overworked hospital staff, then eventually asks if they want anything from the vending machine.
"Once Upon a Time In Hollywood" there's no way Cliff Booth had insurance; he works under the table for Rick Dalton. I guess maybe the VA covered him for getting stabbed by a hippy?
This wouldn't be so ironic considering USA elected Trump, who in his first term spent 2yrs trying to destroy Obamacare, & have just reelected him to have another go
Okay now I want to legit write a horror screenplay that OPENS with someone surviving a monster attack and the rest of the movie is just them being crushed by debt and paperwork until they finally just give in, go back to the monster, and beg it to finish them off.
Something I found out years ago when a friend was stabbed and had no insurance, hospitals were allocated so much money from the state or Gov for unpaid bills
I'm sure there was some double billing for the guy that could only pay so much a month????
This system is definitely broken
Medical debt has led to untold numbers of bankruptcies. Including one of mine many moons ago. Kidney stone, lithotripsy. and all the attendant stuff. With insurance, I was still in debt 20k for that "adventure". And Biden's prohibition will die in a MAGAt led govt.
I always found it remarkable that people in movies endure the most horrific things, and half an hour later they are totally fine and probably getting laid.
After reading a number of books on our healthcare system and systems in other developed nations around the world, it is clear that our healthcare is the world’s worst. Gunning down the CEO of a corporate provider on a Mid Town Manhattan sidewalk is the stuff of movies. It can’t be real.
Isn’t that DC comics super villain Bane’s origin story? His father died in debt and little boy Bane inherited that debt, thus born into a life of indentured slavery.
We (meaning: I did, too) all believed that line where they say “once you hit your out-of-pocket max, insurance covers the rest, so you can never be bankrupted.” Silly me. I guess that was just smoke, mirrors, bait, and switch. What a surprise.
In Canada, every year I get all my tests, pap and mam, I've had many hospital stays, once for two weeks, many Doctor's appointments every year ...an ambulance charge is the only medical bill I've ever had to pay, oh and parking fees at the hospital ...and we complain about those.
“Although they survived the ordeal, they were irreversibly changed by the experience, and suffered from symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of their life.”
It takes guts to pull the sort of George Lucas thing in American Graffiti. You think the characters are going to be fine after this upbeat story, and then the text at the end tells you the Vietnam War took the lives of half these men, and the other half refuse to talk to each other anymore.
The longer I stay a Christian, the more convinced I become that no one gets away with anything ultimately. They may die covered in wealth like Scrooge McDuck , but there is a *LITERAL* "hell to pay".
For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me
Isn't that the start of some sequels... they need the original hero, and find him living in a ramshackle cabin, off-grid... have to convince him to trust 'the system' again...
Related- I bet there's 100 screenwriters out there tonight, pounding out first drafts of spec scripts, working title "The Claims Adjuster" (suggested lead, Timothy Chalamet)
Yep, and every freaking medical show where a half-dozen M.D.'s work days & nights to save a person's life, which they do and ends with all hugging each other.
No mention of health insurance.
(I will say Shondra Rhymes with Grey's Anatomy sneaks reality in every once in a while.)
🤣🤣🤣
Never asked for their medical insurance.
Never lock their cars
Gun shot trauma and knife wounds to limbs are just shaken off in a matter of minutes. No worse than a dead leg in some instances.(It's only a flesh wound. 'tis but a scratch)
No one ever put the lights out in their homes.
As a safe streets advocate, same feeling when a driver strikes a human being with their car, and someone says “oh but they’re ok” meaning “not dead” …so much upheaval, stress, loss of ability, life interruptions, & medical bills between “totally unscathed” & “dead” - yet we totally write it all off
It would have to be an American movie. In the rest of the world their medical care would be free or affordable. An aorta replacement for me in New Zealand - $0. A knee replacement two years earlier - $0.
In America...tragically true! Very sad indeed for one of the richest countries in the world. Only the rich can afford medical assistance...the working class ends up in bankruptcy if they get sick. It's not 'commie' or 'woke' to look after the American People with their own hard earned taxes!!!
If the working class are going to end up bankrupt anyway if they get ill, why don't they just 'down tools' and 'go on strike' and watch the companies loose billions?
"we want healthcare" etc.
Damn, the French go on strike if it rains during their lunch break!
Unions are suppressed, there are no 'protections' for workers. They would be fired, and many work 3 jobs just to keep food on the table. Also, the People have been so divided by Russian, Chinese & Iranian internet disinformation & Media bias, they are not united enough to do so. Sad.
I wish the same for you. Incidentally, I totally agree with your frustration at people NOT marching peacefully in the streets. But with the deliberate interference with truth in the USA has led to many being conned & many confused. It is dangerous, all the way round. Cheers.
My $32K bill from COVID was mostly entirely paid by Medicare and supplemental insurance. I was out $1200 for copay. I realize one data point does not a rebuttal make, but we don't have enough people happy about their medical care and so, as someone happy with hers, I feel a need to be vocal.
I am aware not everyone worked in corporate America for 45 years and took advantage of the 401K programs offered. But I can only speak for myself and tell MY story. Just as they can speak for themselves and tell THEIR story. My being happy does not negate their issues. It's one more data point.
Crazy I am on a fixed income had back surgery 2 knees hep C treatment and scheduled for both shoulders medicare and medical I don't know how ppl complain I am grateful and goin bk too work u ppl are sik
I witnessed a young woman insisting she DID NOT need an ambulance to the hospital. She twisted her ankle in a grocery parking lot. It was bad. Concerned shoppers wanted to help. One of us offered to call an ambulance. She screamed “NO” while writhing in pain. We all understood. Sister drove her home
Every *American* movie. The rest of the world doesn't do this.
Americans are massive racists who would rather utterly impoverish themselves than have a healthcare system which *might* provide for poor black people. 😂
Comments
'Land of the Free'?
This week - This is a small island, my mate had a lump come up on his cheek, I drove him to hospital. He was sent by plane to a bigger island (Continued)
Cost?
He paid for my petrol, I bought him breakfast with the money!
They are probably the only people that wouldn't have there healthcare bills denied....
I'm so sorry my American friends
Other movies, and healthcare systems, are available.
Here in Australia it can be snakebite, overconfidence about one's BBQ skills, or a riptide.
#medicare #auspol
And I'm in Tasmania 🤦🏻♀️
A much older, now divorced Tom Hanks, forced to live with his son after the crushing medical debt following his hospital admittance of the first film, begins to suspect the new neighbor is a serial killer.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-universal-healthcare
America didn't make the cut!
https://youtu.be/HADsdVk0BOs?si=r5jhpiRWK9AGdV0i
I'm sure there was some double billing for the guy that could only pay so much a month????
This system is definitely broken
Medical treatment is FREE in 78 countries
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-universal-healthcare
They never do that when it's baddies versus baddies!
#6'Elon
No mention of health insurance.
(I will say Shondra Rhymes with Grey's Anatomy sneaks reality in every once in a while.)
Everyone else: "Why it gotta be this way, though???? There's a better way..."
WATCH & SHARE this totally legit & trustworthy video...
https://youtu.be/JwVCF4S3erE?si=b364fXmyjjEei-GT
I know of no reason the CEO’s treason should ever be forgot.
Never asked for their medical insurance.
Never lock their cars
Gun shot trauma and knife wounds to limbs are just shaken off in a matter of minutes. No worse than a dead leg in some instances.(It's only a flesh wound. 'tis but a scratch)
No one ever put the lights out in their homes.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rank...
America didn't make the cut!
If the working class are going to end up bankrupt anyway if they get ill, why don't they just 'down tools' and 'go on strike' and watch the companies loose billions?
"we want healthcare" etc.
Damn, the French go on strike if it rains during their lunch break!
But the people always have the power, if pushed too far!
Anyway, for what it's worth... I wish you the best and good hea1th!
My second thought, "Now, who da hell gonna pay for that?"
Fr maybe there’s a crew member for that 🤷♀️
Americans are massive racists who would rather utterly impoverish themselves than have a healthcare system which *might* provide for poor black people. 😂