She literally called me at the time of the appointment to tell me she can’t see me. She was so apologetic, but was like “I absolutely can treat you, but I’m not allowed by your insurance”. Fuck this country.
Update: I went to urgent care. Before leaving home, I called to be sure they would accept my insurance (Aetna). They said yes… After arriving for my appointment, they told me they do not accept my insurance. I will simply leave without paying.
Final Update: I can understand that that differences in physical biology demand different attention. That’s not what I’m complaining about. It’s the way it’s set up. I was told that at my appointment. Why not just refer me to a specialist? The website could’ve even just referred me to urgent care (yes, my insurance requires a primary care physician’s referral for urgent care, according to the urgent care facility). But, no, their goal is to obfuscate and irritate until the patient gives you and pays out-of-pocket.
I was able to receive care at a cost I could not afford. I won’t discuss what I had to do to “find” the money to pay for care and prescriptions. That being said, the condition I was diagnosed with was more serious than a simple infection, and I’m glad that I saw a doctor. I need further treatment and just hope I can get insurance to cover any of it.
If you’re an American reading this, please consider ways to get involved in organizing in support of Medicare For All in your community. Here is one resource I have found. We don’t need to live like this. We deserve better. Stay safe and healthy, friends.
That’s more than mildly infuriating…
Sounds like discrimination based on sex. A clear violation of the Civil Rights act of 1964.
It might be, but some health related coverage is legitimately divided along sex lines. I don’t know what the answer is, but it might not be so simple.
Stupid either way though.
Different genitals. But all genders have bladders so why the hell wouldn’t the insurance just cover it for everyone
Car insurance companies are literally allowed to discriminate by sex and will openly tell you that they do so, why would health insurance be different?
Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits different treatment of insured persons on the basis of their sex in connection with pension funds. This was a supreme court ruling, so kind of linked but not quite.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/253100
Interestingly, in UK and EU it became illegal to discriminate by sex for car insurance from about 2012, without very careful use of data - which doesn’t happen. It is allowed to be linked on things like jobs though.
newsflash: US never cared about civil rights and despite it being “law” it gets regularly ignored on an institutional scale
I think you’re just supposed to die now…
I don’t believe I can afford to, though. 😓
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Are you sure this isn’t just a CVS thing? It says the same thing for me and I know my insurance covers UTIs for everyone. Maybe try an urgent care?
This is correct… there is 2 things to remember here
- CVS only has nurse practitioners, nurses, or pharmacists that are doing the screening, and must refer for certain cases
- There are 2 types of UTIs….
- complicated and uncomplicated
- Men ALWAYS have a complicated uti due to the anatomy of where the uti is located
- women can have either, these NPs are only allowed to treat UNCOMPLICATED UTIS and must refer all complicated cases to a physician.
FYI it has nothing to do with insurance
Are the people in the comments bots or real people? It’s too good to be true that so many people have switched to Lemmy!!
I checked and am definitely a robot.
The entirely of modern America could be summarized with “Mildly Infiruating”, tbh.
It is utterly baffling to me how the US has not figured out nationalized healthcare. Literally every other developped nation in the western hemisphere has at this point.
A politician could come out and say “my number one priority is to ensure that every American has access to healthcare, paid for by the state”, and would instantly be villified by like half the country, and that’s insane.
It’s painful to read stories like this. I really feel for all the people who can’t afford to see a doctor whenever they need it.
I live in Spain and here we have a social security network paid by the people through taxes. It has its flaws, as probably everything has, but we have people here saying that it doesn’t work and we’d be better paying for private insurances to get better attention and pay less taxes.
The thing is that today a private insurance can cost 50-100€ per person, something completly affordable, but what the people saying this doesn’t take into account is that the private companies have a backup with the national health service. The private insurance is great for small things, seeing your physician, a small surgery… but if you have a serious problem they’ll send you to the national health service to be treated.
I hope you can have a proper treatment for your illness and that it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg. I also hope that your country can find a way to help everyone equally and not just those who can afford it.
I think most everyone knows this would have to be in the USA.
Sorry OP, I really hope those greedy assholes just made some shitty mistake.
I can’t help but wonder what happens to girls 15 and under when they get UTIs. Insurance company says sucks to be a girl?
Probably.
We knowingly vote for this shitty health care system every two years, so why would they ever change?
So a few things. This is a CVS minute-clinic visit, not a visit to a general provider. The minute clinics have contracts with insurance companies that look a bit different in terms of what and who they are permitted by the insurance companies to treat. There are some really odd variations in these contracts by insurance companies for reasons that are not always grounded in science.
This, as you’ve noted, is an unfortunate reality of a for-profit health care system that is dictated by private companies, insurance companies, and mind-bogglingly complex contracts that sit between providers and patients. The most annoying part IMO is that insurance companies provide zero transparency into these contracts and the justification behind decisions. It’s all “business decisions” at the end of the day, not decisions that are medically sound and in the best interest of the patient.
And for those wondering why OP maybe just didn’t go to a “regular doctor” - the U.S. has a horrible shortage of general practitioners (primary care) physicians. This shortage is worse in some areas than others. And even if you’re lucky to live in an area that has general practitioners, the waiting list to get into their practices might be long. This leaves many people relying on a “doc in the box” aka CVS Minute Clinic or some similar outfit. These doc in the box clinics often only have a nurse or nurse practitioner on site, with a supervising physician off side. They are for-profit entities and they work with the insurance companies to design their contracts to maximize profit.
If you ever find yourself in OP’s physician, one easy way to get around this is to indicate that the visit is for something more general, like abdominal pain or unexplained fever. While the staff still might refer you off to another provider, it might be a good way to at least “get in” with someone.
Another option is to visit a local urgent care clinic if one is available and covered by insurance. These are often staffed by actual physicians so they can treat a wider range of conditions. Many often even have testing facilities right on site for a number of issues.
Finally, another option is to call your insurance company and see if they have an over-the-phone nurse consultant available. They can usually help direct you to the right location for treatment based on your symptoms and insurance coverage.
But yes, OP, I agree with you that we need something better. Medicaid and Medicare have slowly been expanding and my hope is that they will eventually expand enough to cover all Americans. it has been proven that they can still operate without completely decimating the insurance industry (see Medicare and Medicaid managed care). While I don’t agree with for-profit health insurance, the reality is that they are a lobbying force that has to be worked with if we are going to get everyone universal coverage.
Source: Health policy professional by trade, extensive experience within the health care industry
How is the us a real place wtf?
And it’s not like we learn this stuff in school. It’s not written out anywhere. We have to rely on word of mouth, people with experience, or people like the commenter above you who are familiar with the ins and outs.
The bottom line is that it is complicated on purpose and designed to wear you out so you don’t get coverage for your most basic human needs - like peeing without your urethra being on fire.
The bottom line is that it is complicated on purpose and designed to wear you out
The real kicker is you’re wrong. It’s not designed that way. That’s just a happy accident of capitalism run amok. Almost no one involved in the system is an intentionally bad actor. Almost everyone wants to do the right, good thing.
The doctors want to provide care, but they can’t because their boss says, “No.”
Their bosses don’t want to say no, but they have to refuse some people so they can help the rest or the insurance companies won’t pay at all.
Insurance companies wan–actually, no, they’re fucking evil soul-sucking sacks of shit that can die screaming in a fire. Fuck 'em.
No sorry that is wrong. The need for profit and growth in profit absolutely pushes health insurance organizations to limit their costs, and denying service is routine, planned and not some mysterious accident.
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undefined> The real kicker is you’re wrong. It’s not designed that way. That’s just a happy accident of capitalism run amok. Almost no one involved in the system is an intentionally bad actor. Almost everyone wants to do the right, good thing.
That statement.,
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First world country which treats its citizens as third world, that’s what we live in. Follow the money, because if something isn’t making money for someone, then we don’t get it.
A lot, and I do mean it, of third-world countries have better access to medical care and universal healthcare than the US.
I am sorry this is happening to you. I cannot even phantom why this is the case, anyone could please explain to me why UTIs are not covered for men?
There is a documented thing insurance companies have started doing where they deny claims until you appeal them. AI was being used somehow to determine which cases.
do get it treated OP, however one does that in that joke of a country you’re unfortunate enough to live in. Do know that unlike female UTIs which are relatively common and often uncomplicated if treated, male UTIs are not common and CAN herald some other underlying pathologies (such as urinary stones, blockages, anatomical problems etc) which should be properly investigated. So do go see a doctor if you’re able to.
I’m actually surprised that the CVS provider still offered to treat him, for this exact reason. I’m a trans guy who went through a bout of recurring UTIs during the height of the pandemic. For all medical purposes I could have been treated the same as any cis woman, but actually accessing the virtual-only care that’s readily available to cis women was a trial for me because the systems are set up to filter out men.
What the hell? Was someone drunk when they drew up that policy?
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![[Final Update] My insurance won't cover UTIs for males. Yes, I'm in the US.](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3f7f2fe9-6596-4427-a750-ca0a16636fcc.png){kind=link}