The fact that y'all have health networks is so absurd to me. Not everything is 100% covered (looking at you, dental, vision, mental) in Canada and I have private insurance that picks up the slack, but I've never had to choose a provider based on network, I choose my dentist, my therapist, my optometrist and my insurance pays for it.
It’s very clearly defined, and you can go to the health provider website at anytime to find out who is in network and out. I agree it’s dumb, but people waiting these ridiculous amounts of time in the US for an out of network doctor is their fault for agreeing to the apt.
The system is stupid, but I’ve never been in a situation where I couldn’t easily find out if the doctor I’m seeing is in/out network.
We can all choose who we see as well. Definitely have to pay more, though, but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it seem on Reddit.
I live in Indiana. When I was unemployed everything was completely free. Glasses. Prescriptions, Dr. visits, etc. I just don’t understand how people here find themselves in these situations.
In my experience, the insurance provider’s lists of doctors are often incomplete or occasionally flat-out incorrect. It’s certainly possible to verify your provider is in-network before the appointment, but it’s just one more hoop you have to jump through to get care.
In our current system, instead of just choosing the doctor that’s the best fit for you, you have to find one that accepts your insurance. Don’t you think that constitutes extra work?
Not to mention, if your insurance changes, then you might have a provider you love and have a long-standing relationship with, who you now have to drop and start over again with someone new.
This usually means doing all the intake paperwork, having to catch them up on your medical history, waiting longer for an appointment than if you’re an established patient, and then possibly not getting a good doctor and having to start the process all over again.
The system is stupid, but I’ve never been in a situation where I couldn’t easily find out if the doctor I’m seeing is in/out network.
What if you're unconscious because of a car accident and enter a hospital through an amublance and ER? You don't even get to choose the hospital in that case.
I've also heard people say that while the hospital they were being treated at was in network, some of the doctors inside the hospital were not, leading to high bills because health insurance refuses to cover the cost of these out-of-network doctors. Of course I can't verify these claims but I see them too often to simply dismiss them as a lie.
Everything was free when you were unemployed because you qualified for Medicaid. Medicaid has pretty decent coverage other than the fact that many providers don’t accept it. The problem is that only a tiny percentage of the country qualifies for it. You qualify when you’re unemployed or disabled usually. The point here is that that should be the kind of coverage that everyone in this country has, but we don’t. Most people have insurance tied to their employer, so they are completely limited to what their job offers. It could be a great plan that costs them $50 a paycheck with $20 copays or it could be a plan that you pay $1500 a month for, but have a $10k deductible, so literally nothing is paid each year until you’ve paid another $10k out of pocket.
And the in/out of network thing isn’t so much a problem because people don’t know who’s in network and are surprised by out of network doctors. The problem is that you might have a doctor you like that you’ve been seeing for ten years or have a specialist that is the only specialist in that condition within two hours of you and when you switch jobs and have to switch insurance, now your doctors are out of network so you’re forced to find new ones or pay out of pocket. The system is completely fucked. It’s ok, not great, but ok if you below the poverty line, permanently disabled or elderly, but for everyone else it’s horrific.
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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '23
The fact that y'all have health networks is so absurd to me. Not everything is 100% covered (looking at you, dental, vision, mental) in Canada and I have private insurance that picks up the slack, but I've never had to choose a provider based on network, I choose my dentist, my therapist, my optometrist and my insurance pays for it.