Thanks for these replies! Very helpful to someone who has no experience of that kind of medical system, to understand it
I shall puzzle no longer how fat-asses like Assanti and Albert carry on their medical shenanigans, makes more sense now!
Eventually, this is going to catch up with her, as she will begin to have unignorable chronic issues that aren't considered emergencies to be treated at the ER, and won't be treated at urgent care. Things requiring specialists, testing, continued care.
She's in a real bind because insurance is expensive to begin with, and she's going to be charged premiums for weight, being a woman of childbearing age, and preexisting conditions. While our system isn't centralized, insurance companies have their ways of finding things out. So if she really has high blood pressure, diabetes, whatever, even if she's not treating it, they're going to find out. Post-Obamacare, people can't be turned away for preexistng conditions, nor can they have riders placed on those conditions (it used to be that non-group insurance could say "ok, you have asthma (just a random example), so we're not going to cover anything related to lungs even pneumonia). So she'll have insurance premiums as if she was going to actively treat those conditions.
Amber has one more year to be eligible for catastrophic insurance (well she missed the deadline, but lets say in theory she got it this year - she can only get it till 30), there would be low premiums, but such a high deductible, she'd need a catastrophe, heart surgery, cancer, multiple broken bones, before it would kick in. However, that should provide a waiver of continuity of care, which means that when she went to get regular insurance the next year, she shouldn't have a higher premium for her preexisting conditions other than fat and the whole childbearing age thing. (this is just speculation. I don't see why someone would bother otherwise)
Regular insurance (non-catastrophic) would be a minimum of 500 (and that's being conservative) a month for the lowest tier, which would mean a 1-3k deductible, and high co-pays and high co-insurance. In amber's mind, insurance is useless, because she has to pay every month for a service she doesn't use every month, and then pay more money when she does use it. To get a gold plan with ALL the coverage, low-to-no deductible, and low co-pays, low out of pocket maxes, low-to-no co-insurance, it would probably cost her 1k, maybe more each month? Maybe someone who is more familiar with the kentucky exchange (from a cursory glance it looks like there's very little competition there, probably driving prices high) can weigh in, or someone with general experience getting non-group insurance as an overweight person or someone with preexisting conditions. (most people avoid these issues because they get insurance through work which is usually around 150 to 300 per check, with varying co-payments and coverage, but a group plan doesn't increase premiums for specific individuals, regardless of their health conditions).
Hopefully this will help non-americans understand why people like amber are foolishly against getting insurance. She can't rub her grubby fingers all over it like her tatty earrings, she can't use it for a haul, it's not stuff accumulating to make her happy. In her mind, it's like wasted money. At least when she goes to the doctor and pays out the ass for treatment (or skips out on payment) there are goods/services exchanged for money. If pressed, and creative, amber might say that she needs to be an out-of-pocket patient for the deduction to offset her earnings, but that's bullshit too.
personally I don't recall ever having legitimate side effects from antibiotics but maybe that's just me.
I cant answer for her, but Iād venture to say she probably had to take some strong antibiotics, Iād guess her immune system is wrecked.
