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Me thinks this is funnier where universal healthcare doesn't exist
Only morbidly, my friend.
A flight is literally cheaper than an x-ray in America, assuming you have insurance.
Did you mean "assuming you have no insurance" or are you trying to reinforce that things are worse than we can even imagine?
Certainly the latter.
I have pretty decent insurance through work, but if I’m picking up a prescription, it’s cheaper for me to say I don’t have insurance and use a free discount card (like GoodRx) than to use my insurance. We’re talking $150-$200 for one prescription (a one month supply) with insurance vs $30 without.
To be fair, I have an HDHP with an HSA so my insurance is only supposed to negotiate a discount until I hit the deductible, rather than paying for it. Full price is $200-$250, I think? (I get generics and each generic variant has a slightly different price.) So technically they’re providing a discount, just not a very good one.
Insurance also likes to require a “prior authorization,” which was always a fun surprise after making it through the pharmacy line. That normally takes a couple days to resolve, at minimum, and sometimes longer. If you’re not familiar with prior auths, it’s basically when the insurance company says “Hey doc, can you justify why you’re prescribing this and answer these eight questions?” and then they have someone without a medical degree review the answer and see if it’s good enough.
The only downside to paying out of pocket with a discount card is that the $30 doesn’t go toward my deductible. But since my deductible is multiple thousands of dollars, unless something else happens during the year, I won’t hit my deductible off the $150-$200 prescriptions + regular doctor visits alone. But that’s at most $360 out of pocket that wouldn’t have gone toward the deductible, assuming I had a health crisis in December, vs $1440-$2040 saved if I don’t.
X-rays are even worse, because you’re not told the price ahead of time.
No, I mean assuming you HAVE insurance. A flight can cost in the ballpark of $200, I've gotten pretty close to that in copays where I didn't even walk out with any meds, and doctors routinely note that I have "very good" insurance.
Some insurances are so bad you might as well not have it. Like if the deductible--which has to be paid in full before the insurance will touch most anything--is really high. A lot of the times they're in the thousands, so yeah it's cheaper to fly.
An anecdote. My kid was injured, and we had neither health insurance or money. Got x-rays done at a chiropractor who did them for us for $25, to take to the emergency room, so that they didn't do them there, because that would have cost 10x as much.
And yes comic is only funny here, I'm sure. But is pretty funny.
I have some of the only socialized healthcare in th US and it is unbelievable. If I was badly injured, I could take an ambulance to the ER and get an x-ray, EKG, and medicine all for around $200 out of pocket. That's orders of magnitude less than average for an American. We need to make these programs available for everyone regardless of income, status, or employer.
What was the 200 for?
Total cost of ambulance plus ER visit
Meth
I like this idea but I got the joke on the third panel
Edit: 😓 I get jokes but not socially awkward comments 🤷♂️
And that's why you're the ace bonobo.
Heck yea
I only got it by the explanation in the fourth panel, but I also live in a country with general healthcare, so maybe that other commentator is right.
I'll vote for you in the "most likely to get the joke one panel before the end" category at the award ceremony.
I agree this person really gets jokes before the fourth panel
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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