> In contrast, to America working for a good employer:
> 1. Schedule with GP. Say I am in pain. Get in within 2 days.
> 2. Get a referral to Physical Therapy. Asked if I have any preference where to go. My doctor knows my network and gave me a number
> of choices that were within network (a number of which were within walking range of where I lived).
> 3. Call PT office. Schedule an appointment. They apologize that their next opening is a week away. Gladly accept.
> Physical Therapy is interesting in that it is semi-free market and rather competitive, so it tends to work a bit better than some
> other scenarios.
Speaking from recent experience, on Obamacare:
1. Live with pain for 6 months because you know you're not getting out of a specialist's office for less than $750.
2. Cave in when the pain becomes unbearable and see a specialist.
3. Make an appointment for PT with a provider who doesn't take insurance at all, because the transparent pricing means no surprises.
4. Pay out of pocket for PT appointments.
5. Spend the next 4 months getting bills for your one specialist visit. Half of these are coded wrong so insurance won't pay. Spend 2h every week on the phone trying to get it sorted out.
If you talk to whoever does the specialist's billing at any point, you'll find that they're totally unable to estimate the cost of services. You might as well not even try to figure out how much it costs in advance.