What's particularly annoying about this shit is the human rabies vaccine should not be this expensive. Not by a fucking long shot. It's not much different than the one used on animals and that one is incredibly cheap.

The primary point of cost is Human Rabies Immune Globulin for prophylaxis but that isn't something that's very expensive to produce itself even though the costs are higher than a basic vaccine. It was to a degree when it was only plasma derived(because you needed a bunch of people and their blood and to concentrate it) but that's not the case anymore. Monocolonial antibody production isn't as expensive as biologic medications make it seem. Compare this price to the price of a similarly dosed and sourced(though actually with less donors, look up the old news about the man with the golden arm) medication like RhoGAM at under $200 a dose and you'll find that something smells here.

Edit: and reviewing Indian costs for the immunoglobulin, the around 200 dollar price is right on the mark. But the US market is entirely disconnected from anything like economic reality.

I can't read the article because I have an ad blocker, so I'll assume this means she's been crowned the new Ozzy, and being a rockstar will help her with the bills.

That’s American healthcare! Profit central.

Ngl those are pretty cheap medical bills by U.S. standards

[edit] Apparently, this article is a health-insurance ad. -'Whoa Woe is me because I lost my job and didn't pay for the even-bigger ripoff program that would have covered part of my bill when a bat flew in my mouth.'

I’d never go outside again

Why didn't she apply to medicaid? Would've been cheaper and wouldn't have had to wait

I'd take a bat to the mouth to get away from that guy too

He's smiling because she doesn't spit.

Kahn said looking back, she should have secured private health insurance as soon as she was laid off.

"I should have done COBRA, even though it was very expensive," Kahn said. "But yeah, hindsight is 20/20."

The near-$21,000 burden will probably lead to fewer vacations and a delay in having central air conditioning installed at her place, Kahn said.

She said she hopes others can learn from her misstep.

"It was my fault. I took the risk of not doing COBRA and that's forever on me," she said. "But if one person gets covered because they saw this story, then I would be happy about that.

Our system is fucked, that is for 100% sure. There should be no way that someone goes into medical debt because they were laid off, and we should fight to have a better system.

However, viewing the problem at the societal level and the individual level are different things. Societally we need to push for health care for all. Individually though - get COBRA, get on a spouse's plan, whatever you need to do. Don't risk it.

Bat: "Fuck you in particular, i'm gonna send you to the hostpital"

Crazy situation. I'd like to let her father know that those sunglasses don't fit his face very well.

Was it piloted by Ozzy's ghost?

Ain't nothing mild about how infuriating 21,000 of medical bills for this is.

What a deal on the treatment! /s

The ol' bat in the mouth trick gets me every time.

Cave, I go.

How is this mildly infuriating

How is this c/mildlyinfuriating? Ain't this supposed to be c/nottheonion or something?

Well that sucks.

Sue the bat!

Ozzy would approve

This makes me mildly infuriating:

The unemployed Massachusetts woman figured she could roll the dice as a healthy woman in her early 30s or at worst, could hastily buy private health insurance in a pinch, Kahn said.

The near-$21,000 burden will probably lead to fewer vacations

A huge percentage of the population doesn't have enough dispodable income to take a single vacation, yet this FAFO situation "will probably" lead to fewer vacations for this woman?

My empathy meter is at near zero, TBH.

That said, fuck any country for not having a healthcare system available to all without having to cost a few vacations.

Was it wooden or metal?

She's an American? Even I know better than to seek lifesaving luxury care at a hospital. Booze and D.O.T. automatic transmission fluid. Fix you right up. Yup. 'Merica.

This isn't the comic book story I was hoping it'd turn into.

Sometimes I forget others really want to keep living. Excited to get the opportunity to pay more rent or wage slave harder for less? I guess some people are like really into that shit. Not me.

If this doesn’t teach her to shut her mouth, nothing will…

Is this where they hibernate to in the winter?

Erica Kahn, now 33, had recently lost her job as a biomedical engineer when she traveled to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in last August, she told NBC News.

After Kahn lost her job, she declined to pay for her former employer’s insurance for $650 a month through COBRA, the federal continuation of health coverage law.

The unemployed Massachusetts woman figured she could roll the dice as a healthy woman in her early 30s or at worst, could hastily buy private health insurance in a pinch, Kahn said.

I mean...you've the right to do that, but the flip side is that if you decide you don't want to do insurance, you need to pay for any medical care you get.

Insurers mitigate risk. You can't just get a condition and then go out and buy insurance to pay for it

they'll be structured to make that difficult, or they'd just be constantly losing money.

Kahn went online, bought a policy and then went to get rabies vaccinations and treatment in Arizona, Colorado and Massachusetts, believing she was in the clear.

Then the bills started pouring in, asking for a total of $20,749, because her policy had a 30-day waiting period before she could receive treatments covered by the plan, she said.

And, yeah, there's that structure.

Personally, I think that unless you're truly in a position where you really don't need risk mitigation, you probably want health insurance, since you could wind up with some kind of utterly catastrophic situation. Like, if you can reasonably cover any medical bill that comes up yourself, then yeah, it's just taking on some unnecessary overhead. If I were Bill Gates, I wouldn't get health insurance. But for most people, I'd at least get coverage for catastrophic events. Going with a high deductible is a more-reasonable way to reduce the amount of risk mitigation you're buying.

Next time, use some mouthwash.