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Comment by peterwoerner | Hacker News Reader

why would s/he pay $3000 to get tested for something s/he already recovered from?

https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1234140218023989253

This is plain ridiculous. It's like the US is 50 years late on social/health/worker conditions. Mandatory paid sick leave sounds like a win/win thing no matter how you look at it.

> The U.S. is the ONLY wealthy nation that doesn't guarantee all workers paid sick leave, paid family leave & health coverage. This means many workers go to work sick

Don't blame the US. Here in Germany, its 300 EUR out of pocket to get tested (source: tagesspiegel from a few days ago, a story about a guy in Berlin, returning from a trip to Italy and wanting to get tested before getting together with his wife and kids. Doctors didn't want to see him, and the only clinic that was willing to do the test would charge 300 EUR. Public health insurance doesn't pay. Private health insurance probably would though, but it sounded the like he had just public).

Online people report the CDC test is free.

https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fc265u/covid19_t...

The $3000 figure seems only sourced from Business Insider, not exactly the paragon of ethical journalism.

Not really, according to this article:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article24047680...

Fun fact: a used PCR machine is only $2500. And if the prices on tests kits out of asia are accurate... You could literally test yourself in your own home for that price. And then you could test a thousand of your friends. If you wanted to

Exactly. Why are you even paying taxes?

If this spreads in the US, dark days are ahead. Many people refuse to go to the doctor because they cannot afford it. A valuable lesson may soon be learned that when everyone has healthcare we are better as a whole. But, COMMUNISM IS BAD, YOu SoCIalIst. /s :|

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