[yodsanklai]

I'm wondering, is the American health care bad for (upper) middle-class too? let say you have a good job in a big corporation, do you have to worry about healthcare? can you go to a decent hospital for any problem you may have and get appropriate care without spending any dime?

[mnm1]

Yes, it's horrifically terrible. The hospitals/doctors you can go to are dictated by your insurance. Having a good job does not equal having good insurance. It's hit or miss. Having a good job does not guarantee you have someone to help you out with the paperwork and the stress from that can and will kill you even if you survive the actual hell that is the healthcare itself (topic of the article).

If you get injured on the job, you have to go through the worker's compensation system which can take months to years just to be seen for certain conditions like RSI. And if you change states, you're fucked because there's literally no one who knows how the systems should work together. The more history you have, the worse. Sometimes you have to lie and omit medical history just to get your foot in the door.

I worry about healthcare and whether I will be able to do my job (writing software) next year, let alone ten or thirty years from now because I simply cannot get the care I need for a problem that's 100% caused by work. This is supposed to be covered 100%. Now imagine how bad people without insurance or people who have otherwise not-covered conditions have it. It's a fucking nightmare for everyone who is not part of the upper class and can afford good insurance and the ability to hire assistants to actually make the insurance work for them, so much so that certain companies have contracted out for such services for their employees. It's a perk of employment that very few employers offer. I'm sorry, but horrific doesn't even begin to describe the situation ... I'm actually at a loss for words in describing how bad healthcare is in the US.

[bradknowles]

But if you have a bad job, or maybe just one that is less than perfect, it can be almost impossible to get good insurance.

[pjdemers]

If you work for a company that is big enough for a large group plan, and you pay extra for PPO insurance, you can choose any provider you want. But there are significant out of pocket costs and all the paperwork and disfunction mentioned in this article.