> Can you be denied treatments if the insurer won't pay and you can't afford it?
Yes, or you get treated but go broke. Medical bankruptcy is very common in the United States but unheard of almost anywhere else, despite those countries having better health outcomes. At some point paying three times as much on average is going to swamp everything else.
There’s been tons written about this over the years but some recent articles I read:
That's the problem in the US, people are fighting so much for remote problems that were fed to them by politicians trying to be elected that they don't see the real problems they face. If all that energy was directed at changing what can make or break an individual or even in that case a family, people would have much better lifes. And the same goes with food quality and availability, it is absolutely disastrous on health and yet most of the areas in the US don't have easy access to non shitty food but have all the junk food they want.
I don’t know why it is a thing. But it is. Can give you a great example.
I was diagnosed in 2020. Went to a local oncologist who said (initially) I was stage 1. We caught it early. Then they do the colon resection and I wake up to the news that I’m stage 3c. I went through a 6 month treatment which knocked it back using the standard treatment (FOLFOX) and it was undetectable. Cut to 6 months later and it was back with a vengeance.
My oncologist ordered genetic testing right at the same time I decided to go to MD Anderson. The first thing that they wanted to do was the same genetic test. Great we say. My old oncologist ordered it.
My insurance BCBS declined to pay because my old oncologist ordered it and not the current one at MDACC. We / the hospital wrote 3 protest letters and they denied the claim meaning we had to pay 5k for the test. After dealing with insurance and the testing company we negotiated a lower price but be prepared to do so.
If you can’t afford it you are sometimes able to get payment plans. And there are endowments for situations where money is tight or no insurance. None of it is fun that’s for sure. Insurance companies are not your friend.
Why the fuck is this a thing? You pay for insurance. They should be on the hook. That's the arrangement.
Can you be denied treatments if the insurer won't pay and you can't afford it?