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My step-kid has been on Medicaid for most of his life and he has some kind of non-metastatic cancer that grows and regrows in his throat. It's fatal for some kids and I think it's Make A Wish eligible (not really sure what that is but it sounds grim). In his case he merely had to have throat surgery under general anaesthesia on a near-monthly basis when he was a toddler to keep cutting them out.
Fortunately as he aged they stopped regrowing so aggressively and now he only needs surgery about every 12-18 months.
The surgeon who sees him is some kind of leading expert in this surgery and he's seen at this hospital that I didn't even know could be so shiny and nice.
Anyway, we never once had to pay out of pocket to treat it while he was on Medicaid. Now that we're on a private insurer it's about 10-20% co-insurance, so it's a few grand out of pocket every time we take him in; seems like a great fucking deal all things considered.
The surgeon did make a... funny?... remark once when he was finally switched to a private insurer from Medicaid that now the reimbursement will be enough that he can celebrate after each surgery with a mid-range IPA instead of PBR. Not sure how much to read into that; given how health care reimbursements work I could imagine the dude has a garage full of exotic cars or he really could mean he all-in nets beer money on each surgery. They both seem equally possible. I do hope he has a lot of exotic cars though.
Wow, that sucks. I can't even imagine how stressful that would be. Having a good doctor makes a world of difference.
The system seems to rely upon the good nature of some doctors. There are lots of doctors working for not much (compared to the stress of the job and compared to something like a Google engineer). On the other hand, there are profit-maximizing doctors pulling down 7 figures who are probably responsible for a large percentage of the cost inflation.
It's tough to get rich seeing patients. But if you own an MRI machine or other diagnostic equipment you can really make bank. I'm pretty sure it's been shown that doctors prescribe more unnecessary tests when they are financially rewarded for doing so.
Owning a medical practice where you have your own MRI machine and write prescriptions to use it does sound like it would be pretty lucrative.
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