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.

  • guyman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sounds like discrimination based on sex. A clear violation of the Civil Rights act of 1964.

    • Landrin201@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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?

      • UniquesNotUseful@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • STUPIDVIPGUY@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          newsflash: US never cared about civil rights and despite it being “law” it gets regularly ignored on an institutional scale

    • average650@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • justhach@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    Its crazy that 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.

    • Sunrosa@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because the healthcare industry makes money. A shitload of money. Why would they “fix” that? The problem is the fact that it is an industry.

    • throwaway38575061@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      A handful of bastards at the top are making unfathomable amounts of wealth at the cost of the lives and future of the country. A majority of the country is in support of nationalizing health care. I’ve even met conservatives who agree. It’s these sick fucking parasites who won’t allow us to have it.

      All the fuckers writing the laws have socialized healthcare. It’s the untouchables who don’t.

    • golamas1999@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The covid national emergency is declared over. Potentially up to 15 million people will lose Medicaid expansion. Florida already kicked off 600,000 people. An 87 year old who had a daily care taker lost access even though they were qualified after the cut. A 7 year old boy will now die because they took access to his leukemia treatment. About half the people still qualify but they are making everyone reapply.

      My dad some how affords stupidly expensive healthcare. Premiums are $4,000 a month. ER copay is $1000. ER deductible is $18,400 per family. My mom is now on a medication that costs $1400 a day. With other meds her medication is $15,800 a month for the rest of her life (she is 59). With insurance it goes down to $28 She has had $100,000 in medical bills. She has some super rare condition. Our insurance said one of the out of network doctors was covered. My mom verified multiple times. Now they don’t want to cover that doctor so we are stuck with a $25,000 medical bill. My mom says she will put it on the lowest amount a month for the rest of her life.

      In other words if my dad couldn’t afford this insurance she probably would be dead now or in a few months.

      Crazy is that we are all Canadian and if we lived there we could go on OHIP plus extra insurance for a few hundred bucks a month. For those who say Canadian’s have wait times, so do we. The difference is you will be seen and will not go medically bankrupt or denied care because you are too poor.

      The excuse is that Canadians come to America for better doctors with lower wait times. They do. But when you realize they come to the States they don’t have long term insurance. Meaning they pay out of pocket. So it’s wealthy Canadians that can afford insanely high prices.

      All my family in Canada says my father is pissing away money. He is.

      God Bless American Healthcare! /s

      TLDR Doug Ford can sod off and go to hell.

  • lhx@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yea it will. Just not at a minute clinic. You need to go to an actual urgent care or primary care doctor.

    • seedbrage@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just want to throw my 2c in. I’m a physician and from our perspective male UTIs are rare and warrant a much more thorough medical evaluation by a professional, compared to female UTIs which are extremely common and don’t require a thorough (or even in-person) evaluation in most cases. If I had a male patient with a UTI and no other know medical history I would insist they are seen by a physician for a complete evaluation. From other comments here it seems that CVS does not employ physicians in their clinic.

  • salt@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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?

    • DRx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is correct… there is 2 things to remember here

      1. CVS only has nurse practitioners, nurses, or pharmacists that are doing the screening, and must refer for certain cases
      2. 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

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    1 year ago

    You are presuming that it is a UTI and and coding it wrong for insurance purposes. Do a visit for something more generalized that is covered like abdominal pain and doctor will know how to code it properly for insurance.

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    1 year ago

    The most developed country in the world ladies and gentlemen.

    I hope they don’t catch you op.

  • Gerowen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I had one a while back and it was literally just a round of antibiotics. It’s not some invasive, complicated procedure that only affects women. That insurance is stupid.

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    1 year ago

    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?

    • borkcorkedforks@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • deejay4am@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There is no fucking shot she is correct. If your insurance won’t cover it then man just cancel it, they’d probably not even cover an ER visit, it should be cheaper to not have it.

    Also, report them to your state’s DOI.

    Is it because CVS is out of network? Have them bill, get denied, and then appeal it. Put that it would be cheaper than an ER visit for them.

  • iceycake@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Have you try other online services (no insurance need) like GoodRX care? I don’t see you need 16 or older for UTI in their options.

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    1 year ago

    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.

  • elenmirie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Gawd, I know it happens more often in women but my husband had a nasty recurring UTI for a few months - they absolutely took it seriously and treated him! WTF, I hope you manage to get treated. ETA: UK