BEST IN THE WORLD….Andrew Tobias relates his partner’s latest run-in with the American healthcare industry:
Charles went to his back surgeon in debilitating pain last month and his back surgeon told him to go for an MRI so they could see what was happening and Charles’s assistant called his health insurer to get prior approval for the MRI but the health insurer said it would take three days to get approval so (did I mention Charles was in debilitating pain?) Charles got it anyway, at a cost of $2,480, which the health insurer will not pay because it was unapproved.
It’s a good system.
Oh sure, carp all you want. But did you know that in France they’re so impoverished that they only have one MRI machine for the whole country? And the waiting list is 15 years? And nobody knows how to operate it anyway because the instructions are in English and no one in France speaks English? So buck up, Charles.
