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>>2868688
Yeah. I once went to the ER after crashing my motorcycle, they got did x rays on me and put some IV, then I was discharged. A month later I got a bill of 17k. I'm disabled now and can't work any bill like that would financially ruin me.
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>>2868685
ticks give me "the ick" but if you step back and look at it rationally, there's a ladder of escalation:
>impregnate your clothes with permethrin
>spray your ankles/legs with DEET
>quick tick check every rest break
>thorough tick check every camp
>if all that fails and you have one biting you, remove it cleanly and wipe it down with an alcohol prep pad
they need to be biting you for like 24-48 hrs straight to seriously fuck you up
>>2868689
jeez sorry man, i'm so thankful my state still has obamacare / welfare healthcare that is really good, should i ever lose my job. like healthcare would be the least of my worries
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>>2868685
Last year, I got the infamous bulls-eye rash and went to an urgent care place. The charges were only a few hundred before insurance and my co-pay was less than $100.
The clinic took a blood sample and sent it to a lab for testing. Test came back positive for Lyme. I was prescribed doxycycline which immediately relieved the shoulder/neck/chest symptoms I was experiencing. My share was less than $50 for the blood test and like $10 for the antibiotics. So maybe $150 total. Even without insurance, it wouldn't have put a dent in my savings.
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>>2868685
I went hiking in the PNW last summer and a month later got pretty ill. After a few days I developed a spotted rash, my calves and feet swelled to almost double their size (I could only wear shorts and over-sized flip flops at the worst of it); I began violently heaving, had a fever (up to 105), insomnia, the works. It sounds melodramatic, but this was the only time in my life I was genuinely scared I would lose a limb or potentially even my life, shit was awful.
On the second ER trip, I was tested for RMSF among others and given Doxycycline as a preventative measure. Well, all the tests came back negative, but I'll be damned if the Doxycycline didn't save. Two days after taking it I was just about fully recovered.
What's strange is I never saw a tick or evidence of a tick bite on me. So I don't know know exactly what I had or how I got it, just anecdotal evidence that the "tick meds" helped.
Anyway, the point of this /blog is to say that I had insurance and even then I had to foot about $6k for my ER visits. Shit sucks. Good luck if you're uninsured, because unless you're in peak shape with an A1 immune system these tick-borne illnesses are liable to fuck you up if untreated.
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>>2869815
Alpha gal is just as if not more scary than lyme. All it takes is one unlucky bite and you can't eat meat for the rest of your life. A very rare portion of those infected can eventually eat meat again, but a single tick bite can re-activate the infection once again much easier.
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>>2869387
You can negotiate the amount down, apply for charity care, and/or set up payment plans with the hospital, these things are actually easier if you're unemployed and without insurance
Problem is those people tend to also be very low IQ individuals who cannot even fathom to do a simple google search and would rather use the internet to complain endlessly instead
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>>2870038
>if you're unemployed
If you're unemployed you should basically have "universal healthcare."
Poors in the U.S. actually have pretty good healthcare, I was on medicaid for a long time and they would pay for pretty much everything without literally any trouble whatsoever.
Covered my Dupixent injections (generally around 50K a year worth of shots), deviated septum surgery, lower jaw surgery, a root canal, all my medication, ER visits, basically anything you can think of.
Never paid a single dime, and I live in a red state.
The ones who get fucked over insurance wise are the middle ground of those who make too much for Medicaid, but not enough for good insurance or to pay for expenses not covered by their insurance.