I fell off my ebike and broke my collarbone. In the immense pain and fear I was in I went to emergency clinic that forwarded me to an ER. I received no care at this ER and only sat in a bed for 4 hours before they discharged me. I’ve been refreshing my claims page for my government subsidized insurance for abt a month waiting for the other foot to drop. I have to pay $620 dollars in copays I don’t have. How is the American healthcare system so broken? Also why would any doctor recommend going to an ER? I will also loose my benefits if my premium rates rise since Trump and Congress want to give tax breaks to the ultra wealthy. I knew the system would come for me eventually, there is no escape.
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The US spends most of their budget on healthcare, significantly more than defense. We spend this much to get the worse healthcare out of all the developed countries.
I’m reluctant to share this as it’s going to be of no practical use to OP but I also fell off my bike and broke my collarbone, this was back in April.
My front tyre was under inflated and I took a downhill left hand corner on a bike path too quickly. The front wheel slid out and I hit the concrete hard on my left elbow. I rode home in a lot of pain, took a shower, decided it was serious and got a friend to drive me to the ER at the local hospital. I live in Melbourne, Australia.
It was around midday on a Wednesday and the ER was quiet, I saw the admissions nurse, and had to wait about an hour to get an X-ray and was given painkillers. I’d broken my clavicle in 2 places. I spoke to an orthopedic surgeon who said while the bone would eventually heal on its own he strongly recommend surgery as the outcome probabilities were greater and the recovery times were less that way. There was a chance I could be fit in the next day and I was admitted to a ward overnight.
They gave me some dinner but after that I wasn’t allowed any food in case the surgery was going ahead. The next day I had a couple visitors and at 3pm I was confirmed for surgery just before 5pm. I was given a general anesthetic and woke up in a recovery ward. I stayed overnight and ate some sandwiches.
The next day I was told I could go home in the afternoon and my brother came and picked me up.
I wasn’t allowed to lift anything heavier than a cup of tea for 4 weeks then had appointments with a physiotherapist every few weeks for 3 months or so. I’ve gone got a brand new scar and a piece of aluminum screwed into my left collarbone. It looks a bit funny.
The whole experience was pretty shit. I was in-between jobs at the time and it was about 4 months before I was able to get working again. I’m a chef. I lived off savings.
The medical care side of things tho just wasn’t an issue. When I left the hospital I paid about $30 for some paracetamol and a small amount of oxycodone for the pain.
Like I said I know this story won’t help, and I’m sorry you’re going through a tough time, but as a fellow bike crash collarbone breaker I thought I’d share.
On that note, I’ve always been confused why it’s accepted and recommended to ride motorcycles with what are essentially full suits of armour, complete with CE pads and anti-abrasive materials, but for e-bikes? Nah, a thin foam helmet and some spandex will do, despite a lot of them being capable of similar speeds in similar conditions.
I don’t know about other countries, but here in Germany E-Bikes are limited to 25 km/h. That’s pretty close to the slowest speed a motorbike can drive at.
I believe you’re talking about racing bikes. Those fully manual and can reach high speeds depending on the driver. But when riding a racing bike, a reinforced leather jacket and trousers are pretty much a surefire way to overheat. I guess a point could be made for knee and ell ow protectors, but everything else is just incompatible with the body’s need to cool down.
Your story resonated with me and shared many pieces of my experience. I broke my left collarbone, its a good thing I’m a righty. I fell off my bike close to home so I chained it to a tree and walked up a massive hill cradling my arm, I screamed as I pulled off my shirt and hopped in a bath and decided it would be a tmr issue. I woke up without much pain, my body was probably processing the trauma still. I called my sister and she could hear me grating my teeth through the phone and she drove me to the medical center (which in America is the cheap alternative to ER). They sent me to the ER after - trigger warning -
spoiler
Violently throwing up :::. There weren’t any orthopedic surgeons working on the weekend (what the hell). So on Monday morning I made 10-15 calls trying to find a doctor that was less expensive and “in network”. He took me two days later and did xrays and said the bone was displaced enough they could do surgery but he was being lazy and said I could let it heal by itself. I good to hear you recovered well! I’ve been applying to places for a cook position for abt two months before the incident. I like cooking and can’t cook for myself fully right now so my job hunt is on pause. I ran out of savings so I had to ask my estranged parents for some money while I’m recovering.
When I was 23, Obamacare had recently passed and it allowed me to remain on my father’s insurance as a recent college grad.
I broke my talus (ankle sit-bone) into 3 pieces. Xray showed nothing. Cat scan showed nothing.
Dads insurance covered the MRI. Broke in 3 pieces. I otherwise would’ve been told it was a sprain. I’d have suffered life long consequences (worse than what I’ve got).
It didn’t cost me a dime. It cost my dad like $300. It would have literally cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars without Obamacare.
EDIT: @Shalafi or whoever tf, I have blocked you ages ago and you’re tagged “needlessly argumentative over everything”
I’m not going to unblock you to read what I already know is you being needlessly argumentative over everything.
Also if I’m correct, do yourself a favor and maybe block them as well.
get out of here with your soros-funded shill story you damn communist hippie
/s
^if I could make this bigger I would
“Thanks, Obama!”
Don’t understand. If the X-ray didn’t show it, I’d figure I had a minute fracture, do what the doc said, go about my day. I’ve had many breaks, no compound fractures, but a few greenstick and the like, plenty that were so minor, wasn’t any care that would make a difference (per the doctors). Not much can be done with ribs and fingers and toes. :)
Can you explain why it took an MRI to see the break? Not in the medical field, not being mean or sarcastic, just can’t get my head around it. As I understand it, that is not what an MRI scan is for.
Yes, without the ACA it would have been far more than you could afford, but not hundreds of thousands. I’ve had a few surgeries, and not even the shattered femur was over $100,000, even with the overinflated prices.
BTW, fixing to lose my Obamacare! Nice, ain’t it?
Private healthcare is how. It’s a system the prioritizes profits for investors over care for patients. It influences every recomendation. It’s why doctors prescribe what’s advertised in their offices. Never forget that a doctor is a business and what’s best for you isn’t what’s best for their bottom line. You go to them in vulnerable state and they seize that opportunity.
People dont realise that businesses exist to make a small amount of [usually rich] people richer. There are Brits that say “well at least Americans get seen quickly and have a decent standard of care”. LOL.
Also, “quickly” in US can be 8+ months before you even get a basic assessment by a specialist. Things get worse? Might as well go straight to the ER. Urgent “Cares” were a band-aid for general/family practice groups not having space for sick visits. Word is a regional network now won’t even be doing stitches at urgent care. ER required.
Brits don’t go into debt or have their finances ruined after receiving care though.
Not yet we haven’t. But we are slowly privatising the NHS, and theres a political party getting too close to power that would like to speed that up a lot.
A friend of ours had breast cancer, got treatment, it went into remission. Fast forward a few years, she thinks it might be recurring. She calls her doctor. Four month wait for the test. She decides to go South to the US. Pays a chunk, gets the test right away, yep, cancer confirmed
What would have happened if she had had to wait four months for a diagnosis? Would it have been too late?
The way health systems work now only makes sense in the context of profit and expense. People are used to going without so that either taxpayer funded systems can squeeze their budgets as tightly as possible, or for-profit systems can milk the last nickel from anyone in need.
It’s a disgrace. Whether the government budget is squeezed to control debt and deficit levels or people are abused and mistreated for profit, it comes down to this filthy, unfair, colonial system based on monetary and banking systems introduced in the later years of the British Empire.
People should be rioting at the treatment that the billionaire class deems acceptable for them. There is no practical reason other than greed for any of this.
The really weird part is, a friend of mine on Medicare with supplemental private insurance was recently diagnosed with a mass in an area known for developing rapidly metastasizing cancer and had to wait several months to be seen by an oncologist, who confirmed they do indeed have that form of cancer. They were then scheduled to begin radiation a month out but for some reason had to wait an additional month. I’m betting your friend got immediate treatment because they paid much better than Medicare does.
Only stupid and ill-informed Brits.
Unfortunately, that may be the majority of us.
Yup. Scary times init?
I want to take a slightly different track than talking about how awful the US healthcare system system is (and I can and do rant at length about it since I’m a former healthcare worker). One rare but significant outcome of fractures is that because bone shards are really sharp, they can sometimes nick or sever your veins or arteries. Part of keeping you “under observation” was to make sure you were in a place to get care at the speed you would need in the case this happened to you. Doctors (especially EM doctors) are trained to consider the worst case possible outcome and mitigate that.
Hey thank you for your comment! I was treated really well by staff and doctors during my visit, no hate on the medical profession. The nurse who was assigned to my room even encouraged me to look into a healthcare professional after I told her I was unemployed. Thank you for your service! Healthcare is not an easy profession especially since covid hit the US. But fuck private insurance that shit can implode for all I care
Most docs these days aren’t fixing broken bones, straight to the ER. When I broke my first bone, 9th bd, 1980, doc had the services available to get me in a cast on the spot.
Don’t know if it’s a liability thing, or hyper-specialization, but I wouldn’t expect a general practitioner to do more than read the X-ray and say, “Off you go.”
Some good news though! Been sent to the ER 3 times worried about my heart. No, I have zero heart issues despite smoking for 20 years and drinking for 30, but I’m kinda noid about it. Last time I was at my GP, they gave me an EKG and a reading right in the office!
American medicine: 5 steps forward, 4 steps back, don’t be unlucky.
It’s all about luck and if you were born into wealth imo
Stop that. Yes, luck and heredity are the #1 factors in wealth and success. Stop using those factors as excuses.
Push through it, you are a capable human being. You got this.
Thanks, I’m trying :')
